希瑟·洛克伍德，通讯助理

随着新的一年的开始, 我的许多想法转向黄道十二宫, since many friends’ and family’s birthdays are around the holidays and early in the new year. And the turn of the Chinese zodiac is on 1 February 2022, beginning the Year of the Tiger. It made me wonder how much people in the Adams’s world thought about the zodiac in the way we, 或者至少是我们中的一些人, 根据星星告诉我们的来做人生的决定.

我的发现令人惊讶! We already know that 约翰·昆西·亚当斯 (JQA) was an avid reader and could read in both Latin and Greek. 但是在1811年, while serving as the United States minister to Russia, he embarked on a reading journey that few today would likely take: reading the books of Roman poet Marcus Manilius, 从公元一世纪开始. 以下是《利记APP官网手机版》对他的描述: 他是《利记手机官网》的作者, an unfinished poem on astronomy and astrology probably written between the years AD 14 and 27. 遵循卢克莱修的风格和哲学, 维吉尔, 和奥维德, Manilius stresses the providential government of the world and the operation of divine reason. He exercises his amazing ability for versifying astronomical calculations to the extreme, often forcing unnecessarily complex constructions upon his lines. The poem’s chief interest lies in the attractive prefaces to each book and in the mythological and moralizing digressions. The five extant books, consisting of 4,000 hexameters, are rarely read completely.”

But it seems that JQA was ready to take on the challenge of reading all Manilius’s writings. However, he did not like, or agree with, what he found within them. 他把这写在他的日记里 一八一一年十一月二十八日:

“After Breakfast I read the second Book of Manilius, which is altogether Astrological— He is continually extolling reason, and her discoveries— Such for instance as the conjunction and opposition of the Constellations— Their trine, 四角形, 六分相方面, 他们dodecatemories, 和octotopes, and especially their undoubted influence on the destinies and Passions of Men— In this Book he unfolds the system of friendships and enmities of all the signs of the Zodiac; How they are alternately of different sexes (which I do not understand considering the two first are Ram and Bull) how they stand affected towards one another— their loves— their hatreds, and their mutual designs of fraud— The system is extremely complicated, 正如翻译所说, abounds with inconsistencies— But the poetry is beautiful—the astronomy is often incorrect, even for the age and place of the writer; and Pingre says it is entirely borrowed from Eudoxus of Cnidos, who wrote more than three Centuries before—”

他继续他的阅读之旅，继续写作 1811年12月4日:

“Manilius continues a profound and incomprehensible Astrologer— This book laboriously prepares the student of the Stars, 绘画的艺术 星座. -这取决于黄道十二宫的状态, he gives rules for ascertaining the time and period of the rising and setting of every sign, 一整年——”

I think my favorite part of this reading journey is JQA’s droll lamentation that the Americas did not factor into Manilius’s world and as such had no patron constellation. 这篇日记来自 一八一一年十二月六日:

“I also finished reading the fourth Book of Manilius which contains an account of the influence of each sign of the Zodiac, 取决于出生在它之下的人的性格, and also upon the different parts of the Earth— T在这里 is a tolerably minute geographical description of the world then known— But as none of the Signs are reserved for the superintendence of the Terrae incognitae, the American Hemisp在这里 has no patrons or foes among the Constellations—”

The last two entries that I found were a few years later and were much more about observing the zodiac and less about reading a series of frustrating poems. 他写了下面的内容 一八一三年十二月十八日:

“I went out on the Square to observe the positions of some of the Stars— The great Bear was as nearly as possible in the Zenith, and I remarked very distinctly all the Stars of the little Bear. I found that the Constellation under which I have for several days observed Jupiter, 我以为是天秤座, 是狮子. 日历标记木星, 就像在圣母身上一样, and I had not recollected the difference between the Signs and the Constellations of the Zodiac— I ascertained by La Lande’s lines Arcturus and Lyra but missed several others— I went out again before Breakfast and saw the Sun rise quite clear, and he has now reached the extreme of his Southern Declination. 我还注意到月亮在向他靠近, it being now the fourth day before the Conjunction— I was in hopes of seeing her to the last day of her being visible; but the sky clouded up again in the course of the day, and I shall not see her again untill after the change.— It was however still clear enough this Evening to shew me Mars in the Meridian, 以及白羊座, with the first star of the antient Equinox— My Observations abridged much of my reading.”

我找到的最后一个字是on 1816年4月26日 while he was acting as minister to Great Britain, 展现了JQA柔和的一面, 随随便便地和儿子玩占星术

“到了晚上，天气晴朗了, I shewed George the six signs or Constellations of the Zodiac Taurus, 双子座, 癌症, 利奥, Virgo and Libra; with several other Constellations. We sat up to see Antares rise, at about eleven O’Clock— The Planet Jupiter is in Libra. We compared the visible Stars, with the Charts of 波德的Uranographia.”

Although JQA didn’t plan his life decisions around the zodiac, 他确实喜欢看星星, which will probably be an eternal occupation for humanity.

来源:
的版本 Astronomica 是用拉丁文写的，但是 在这里 是五本书内容的摘要吗.