by Walter Scott
CHAPTER IV
Come and see' trust thine own eyes A fearful sign stands in the house of life, An enemy a fiend lurks close behind The radiance of thy planet O be warned!
COLERIDGE, from SCHILLER
The belief in astrology was almost universal in the middle of theseventeenth century; it began to waver and become doubtful towards theclose of that period, and in the beginning of the eighteenth the art fellinto general disrepute, and even under general ridicule. Yet it stillretained many partizans even in the seats of learning. Grave and studiousmen were loath to relinquish the calculations which had early become theprincipal objects of their studies, and felt reluctant to descend fromthe predominating height to which a supposed insight into futurity, bythe power of consulting abstract influences and conjunctions, had exaltedthem over the rest of mankind.
Among those who cherished this imaginary privilege with undoubting faithwas an old clergyman with whom Mannering was placed during his youth. Hewasted his eyes in observing the stars, and his brains in calculationsupon their various combinations. His pupil, in early youth, naturallycaught some portion of his enthusiasm, and laboured for a time to makehimself master of the technical process of astrological research; sothat, before he became convinced of its absurdity, William Lilly himselfwould have allowed him 'a curious fancy and piercing judgment inresolving a question of nativity.'
On the present occasion he arose as early in the morning as the shortnessof the day permitted, and proceeded to calculate the nativity of theyoung heir of Ellangowan. He undertook the task secundum artem, as wellto keep up appearances as from a sort of curiosity to know whether he yetremembered, and could practise, the imaginary science. He accordinglyerected his scheme, or figure of heaven, divided into its twelve houses,placed the planets therein according to the ephemeris, and rectifiedtheir position to the hour and moment of the nativity. Without troublingour readers with the general prognostications which judicial astrologywould have inferred from these circumstances, in this diagram there wasone significator which pressed remarkably upon our astrologer'sattention. Mars, having dignity in the cusp of the twelfth house,threatened captivity or sudden and violent death to the native; andMannering, having recourse to those further rules by which divinerspretend to ascertain the vehemency of this evil direction, observed fromthe result that three periods would be particularly hazardous--his fifth,his tenth, his twenty-first year.
It was somewhat remarkable that Mannering had once before tried a similarpiece of foolery at the instance of Sophia Wellwood, the young lady towhom he was attached, and that a similar conjunction of planetaryinfluence threatened her with death or imprisonment in her thirty-ninthyear. She was at this time eighteen; so that, according to the result ofthe scheme in both cases, the same year threatened her with the samemisfortune that was presaged to the native or infant whom that night hadintroduced into the world. Struck with this coincidence, Manneringrepeated his calculations; and the result approximated the eventspredicted, until at length the same month, and day of the month, seemedassigned as the period of peril to both.
It will be readily believed that, in mentioning this circumstance, we layno weight whatever upon the pretended information thus conveyed. But itoften happens, such is our natural love for the marvellous, that wewillingly contribute our own efforts to beguile our better judgments.Whether the coincidence which I have mentioned was really one of thosesingular chances which sometimes happen against all ordinarycalculations; or whether Mannering, bewildered amid the arithmeticallabyrinth and technical jargon of astrology, had insensibly twicefollowed the same clue to guide him out of the maze; or whether hisimagination, seduced by some point of apparent resemblance, lent its aidto make the similitude between the two operations more exactly accuratethan it might otherwise have been, it is impossible to guess; but theimpression upon his mind that the results exactly corresponded wasvividly and indelibly strong.
He could not help feeling surprise at a coincidence so singular andunexpected. 'Does the devil mingle in the dance, to avenge himself forour trifling with an art said to be of magical origin? Or is it possible,as Bacon and Sir Thomas Browne admit, that there is some truth in a soberand regulated astrology, and that the influence of the stars is not to bedenied, though the due application of it by the knaves who pretend topractise the art is greatly to be suspected?' A moment's consideration ofthe subject induced him to dismiss this opinion as fantastical, and onlysanctioned by those learned men either because they durst not at onceshock the universal prejudices of their age, or because they themselveswere not altogether freed from the contagious influence of a prevailingsuperstition. Yet the result of his calculations in these two instancesleft so unpleasing an impression on his mind that, like Prospero, hementally relinquished his art, and resolved, neither in jest nor earnest,ever again to practise judicial astrology.
He hesitated a good deal what he should say to the Laird of Ellangowanconcerning the horoscope of his first-born; and at length resolvedplainly to tell him the judgment which he had formed, at the same timeacquainting him with the futility of the rules of art on which he hadproceeded. With this resolution he walked out upon the terrace.
If the view of the scene around Ellangowan had been pleasing bymoonlight, it lost none of its beauty by the light of the morning sun.The land, even in the month of November, smiled under its influence. Asteep but regular ascent led from the terrace to the neighbouringeminence, and conducted Mannering to the front of the old castle. Itconsisted of two massive round towers projecting deeply and darkly at theextreme angles of a curtain, or flat wall, which united them, and thusprotecting the main entrance, that opened through a lofty arch in thecentre of the curtain into the inner court of the castle. The arms of thefamily, carved in freestone, frowned over the gateway, and the portalshowed the spaces arranged by the architect for lowering the portcullisand raising the drawbridge. A rude farm-gate, made of young fir-treesnailed together, now formed the only safeguard of this once formidableentrance. The esplanade in front of the castle commanded a nobleprospect.
The dreary scene of desolation through which Mannering's road had lain onthe preceding evening was excluded from the view by some rising ground,and the landscape showed a pleasing alternation of hill and dale,intersected by a river, which was in some places visible, and hidden inothers, where it rolled betwixt deep and wooded banks. The spire of achurch and the appearance of some houses indicated the situation of avillage at the place where the stream had its junction with the ocean.The vales seemed well cultivated, the little inclosures into which theywere divided skirting the bottom of the hills, and sometimes carryingtheir lines of straggling hedgerows a little way up the ascent. Abovethese were green pastures, tenanted chiefly by herds of black cattle,then the staple commodity of the country, whose distant low gave nounpleasing animation to the landscape. The remoter hills were of asterner character, and, at still greater distance, swelled into mountainsof dark heath, bordering the horizon with a screen which gave a definedand limited boundary to the cultivated country, and added at the sametime the pleasing idea that it was sequestered and solitary. Thesea-coast, which Mannering now saw in its extent, corresponded in varietyand beauty with the inland view. In some places it rose into tall rocks,frequently crowned with the ruins of old buildings, towers, or beacons,which, according to tradition, were placed within sight of each other,that, in times of invasion or civil war, they might communicate by signalfor mutual defence and protection. Ellangowan Castle was by far the mostextensive and important of these ruins, and asserted from size andsituation the superiority which its founders were said once to havepossessed among the chiefs and nobles of the district. In other placesthe shore was of a more gentle description, indented with small bays,where the land sloped smoothly down, or sent into the sea promontoriescovered with wood.
