Opening Tetrabiblos — Ptolemy in Plato Scroll…
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Ptolemy · J. M. Ashmand
Translated by J. M. Ashmand, 1822, from the paraphrase of Proclus. The Tetrabiblos (“Four Books”), or Quadripartite, is Ptolemy’s treatise on the philosophy and practice of astrology, composed at Alexandria in the second century AD. Of all sciences, whether true or false, which have at any time engaged the attention of the world, there is not one of which the real or assumed principles are less generally known, in the present age, than those of Astrology. The whole doctrine of this science is commonly understood to have been completely overturned; and, of late, people seem to have satisfied themselves with merely knowing the import of its name. Such contented ignorance, in persons, too, sufficiently informed in other respects, is the more extraordinary, since Astrology has sustained a most conspicuous part throughout the history of the world, even until days comparatively recent. In the …
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