How to find the different length of Hours, and to find the Horoscope

[p. 107] Nay farther, tho' you many ways pursueTo find their length you'l never meet the true,But thus: Take all that space of time the SunMeets out, when every daily Round is Run,Let equal Portions next that time divide;And then those Portions orderly apply'dTo Days, will shew their length, from thence appearsTheir varying Measures through the rouling Years.The Standard this, by which our Art EssaysWinter's slow Nights, and tries the Summer's Days.

This must be fixt, when from th' Autumnal Scales,The Day declines, and Winter's Night prevails:Or in the Ram whence Winter's Nights retireThe Hours restoring to the Summer's Fire:In those two Points, the Day and Night containTwelve equal Hours. For with an even reinThe Sun then guides, and whilst his Care doth roulThro' Heaven's midd Line, he leans to neither Pole:But when remov'd, he to the South declines,And in the ¹⁵Eighth Degree of Caper shines,The Winter's hasty Day moves nimbly on,Nine ¹⁶Hours and half; so soon the Light is gone.But Night drives slowly in her gloomy Carr,Takes fourteen Hours and half for her unequal share;Thus twice twelve Hours in Day and Night are found,To fill the natural Measure of the daily Round.

[p. 108] Thence Light encreases still, as Nights decay,'Till Cancer meets her in the Fiery way,And sets sure bounds to her encroaching sway.Then turns the Scene, and Summers day descendsThro' Winter's Hours, still losing as it bends:And then the Days of equal length appear,With Nights, i'th' adverse Season of the Year,And Nights with Days: For by the same DegreesThat once they lengthened, now the Times decrease,These Times our Art can shew, but these belongTo future Rhimes, and claim another Song.

Thus measure those, who live where fruitful Nile,With Summer Torrents swoln o'reflows the Soil;Whose seven large Mouths, the Skies can boast no moreOf Planets, vomit with impetuous Roar,And beat the Ocean from the foaming Shore.

The rising and Setting of the Signs first, By Stadia; and Hours

Now learn what ¹⁷Stadia, learn what times in SkiesSigns ask to Sett, and what they claim to Rise:Observe, short rules my Muse, but full she brings;And Words roul from Her, crowded up with Things.

For Aries, Prince of all the Signs compriseFull forty Stadia, for his time to rise,But Eighty give him when He leaves the Skies:One Hour, and one third part his rise compleats,This space of time, He doubles when He sets.The following Signs to Libra rising, claimEight Stadia more, and Setting lose the same,And thus in order following Signs requireStill sixteen Minutes more to raise their Fire,And lose as much, when setting they retire:Thus signs to Libra, ¹⁸as they rise increase;And thus they lose when they descend to Seas:For all the Signs that do from Libra range,Take equal measures, but the Order change;For Signs adverse to equal times engross,But setting Gain, and still arise with loss.Thus Hours and Stadia which bright Aries getsWhen rising, Libra loseth when she sets;And all the time, which when He leaves the SkiesThe Ram possesses, Libra takes to rise:By this Example, all the rest define,The following imitate the leading Sign.

[p. 130] A figure or table stood here (Setting table, Aries to Virgo (page 130): only the word Setting survives in the scans). It did not survive the scan, so it is not reprinted.

[p. 109] This rightly fixt, if you these Rules pursue,The Horoscope lies open to thy view;Securely work, since you can fix in SkiesThe times, and Stadia, for the Signs to rise:From that Degree and Sign, in which the SunBegins to start, his daily Course to run,Count fairly on, and all the work is done.

Another Method

Another method, if you this refuse,Shall lead thee right, and be as plain to use:For if the Horoscope you seek by Day,Observe these Rules, which shew the surest Way;First find what ¹⁹Hour, the Birth is born, and thenAdd five to that, and multiply by Ten:Add five, for every Hour the Signs ascendThrice five Degrees, in the Celestial Bend:This done, take that Degree in which the SignThen rouls the Sun, and to this Number join;From this whole Sum, one Thirty parts apply'dTo the Sun's Sign, nor to the rest deny'd,As following they in order lie, will showThe thing you sought for, and design to know:For where the Number ends, that Sign and PartIs Horoscope: Thus speak the Rules of Art.

[p. 110] By Night your search demands a different Way;To the Nights Hour, ²⁰add all the twelve of Day,From this whole Sum the Thirty parts applyTo following Signs as they in order lie;And where the Number ends, that Sign and PartIs Horoscope: Thus speak the Rules of Art.Thus you may find the Horoscope in Skies,And tho' Oblique the Circling Zodiack lies,This Point determin'd, you may fix them all,What Crowns the Top, and what supports the Ball:The Signs true Setting, and true Rising trace,Assign to each their proper Powers and Place,And thus what stubborn Nature's Laws deny,Our Art shall force, and fix the rowling Skie.