The Years, Months, Days, and Hours of Signs
Each sign has its own years, months, days and hours.
[p. 117] Thus far advanc't in Art my Verse definesThe proper Years, Months, Hours and Days of Signs:These must be shewn; for Signs have Days & Hours,And Months, and Years when they exert their Powers.First then, that Sign in which the Sun appears;(Because the Sun measures out the time in Years)Claims the first Year: On following Signs bestowThe following Years as they in Order go.And so the Moon, for as she rounds the Skies,She measures Months, to Signs the Months applies.Of Days and Hours the Horoscope possestOf the first parts, to following Signs commits the rest.This Nature orders, all her Months and Years,And Days, and Hours, she parcels out to Stars;That as they run their Course they all may findThe different Signs, and vary in their kind.
This Nature orders too; and hence there springsThat various Discord that is seen in Things;In one continued Stream no Fortune flows,Joy mixes Grief, and Pleasures urg'd by Woes:Inconstancy in every part appears,Which Wisdom never trusts, but Folly fears.Thus Years from Years, and as they roul the roundThe Months from Months, and Days from Days are foundTo differ: no returning Hours restoreThat sort of Fortune which they brought before:Because the Times, as round their Course they run,Meet different Signs, and are not bound to One;The Days and Hours their ruling Signs obey,The Month's the influence which they give conveyAnd temper all things by their fatal Ray.
[p. 118] Some Astrologers Opinion concerning the Years, Months and Days of Signs
Some Author's Write, (for who can hope to seeOpinions join, or find the World agree?)That from the Horoscope our Art definesThe Days, the Hours, the Years, and Months of Signs;From that alone let the Account begin,And all the rest will orderly fall in:And whilst the others, as before 'twas shown,Three Heads of reckoning ask, the Moon, the Sun,And Horoscope, these still demand but One:Yet still as great, their difference must appear,Month disagrees with Month, and Year with Year,And Hours and Days: For with uneven pace,Tho' starting all together, they run the Race,And never make Returns in equal space:Twice to the Signs each ²⁴Hour the Days restoreTwice every Month, brings round the Days, and more:Once every Year the Months to Signs are born,And when Twelve Years are run, the Years return.
Refuted
'Tis hard to think, and Nature's Laws rejectOne single Time, so differing in effect:That when one Sign for Years and Months appears,Bad Fate should clog the Months, Good Crown the Years:Or that the Sign which thro' the Months conveysBright Fortune, should with Black infest the Days:Or that the Star, which with afflicting Power,The Day oppresseth, should exalt the Hour.Vain therefore their attempt, who fondly hope,The Times to reckon from the Horoscope,And think because with an unequal Date,They come to Signs, that these Returns createTheir different, odd varieties of Fate.Absurd Opinion! which with fruitless pain,They strive to prop with mighty Names in vain,It sinks, and falls with its own stupid weight again.
The notes
²⁴ There being 24 Hours belonging to each Day, and but 12 Signs, more than 24 Days in each Month, and 12 Months in every Year. (Creech’s note, 1697)
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The text is Thomas Creech's 1697 verse translation, checked word by word between three scans of the same type (the 1697 printing, the 1700 printing and a third copy). The long s is printed as s; every other spelling is Creech's. Pages are cited as the 1697 printing numbers them. The portrait is William Marshall’s engraving of Lilly from the front of the 1659 printing (Wellcome Library, public domain).