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ORACLE OF DESTINY:

A Repository

OF THE

WONDERFUL IN NATURE AND THE CURIOUS IN ART.

"We hold communion with the hush of night,

Yea, with the spirits of those silent hours,
When all the earth is stil'd in deep repose;
The star-lit heavens are as a wondrous book,
Wherein we seek to solve the Dream of Life,
And thread the maze of Futurity."

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE, 11, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, STRAND.

1845.

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PREFACE.

IN offering our first volume to the candid scrutiny of the we must confess we do so with less trepidation, and consequently with more satisfaction and confidence, than is generally experienced by the Editor of a new periodical. This self-assurance, without doubt, is traceable in the first instance to the gratifying reception our publication has already encountered; and, secondly, to an implicit reliance upon the approbation of every individ al who may honour our labours with a perusal. We utter these opinions advisedly; not, however, from any vanity or overweening complacency in the composition of our pages-not from any contemptible pride that might originate in the belief of certain literary abilities: nay, we feel too acutely the inadequacy of any human tongue to cope with the sublime mysteries which have constituted the theme of our lucubrations; we know how incompetent even the most stupendous intellect would be to pourtray, in language commensurate with the vastness and divine glory of the science, all the marvellous operations of Astrology, all the chameleon aspects of the spiritual kingdom: hence our confidence is centred rather upon the matter than the manner of our inquiries. Sustained by a knowledge of the integrity of our own motives, and fired by the grandeur of our studies, we have been enabled to accomplish more than we could reasonably have anticipated at the outset; and far from being discouraged by the weekly increase of our correspondence, we have derived merely a fresh stimulus to exertion from that circumstance. Our expectations have been surpassed, our toils have been more than repaid by the incessant arrival of acknowledgments from all quarters, expressing gratitude for the advice communicated to the applicants in our Weekly Oracle of Destiny; while the writers have each contributed to the formation of a most satisfactory catalogue of the results-calamities escaped, ruinous speculations avoided, fortunate marriages consummated, and all the varied evils incident to man dissipated by a timely warning through our columns. In addition to these most welcome testimonials of approval, we feel it incumbent upon us thus publicly to acknowledge the receipt of several letters, dictated in the most eulogistic terms, from men whose elevation in society, and deserved reputation for learning, give a peculiar solidity to their expressions applause, and afford a guarantee of the sincerity of their encomiums.

Apart from the advantages extended to all those who are desirous of examining the dark vistas of futurity, and of accommodating their progress to the indications visible upon their horoscope, THE ASTROLOGER embraces various regions of intellectual thought, which teem with extraordinary loveliness and grandeur, and which have been hitherto neglected by a frigid and utilitarian generation. Avoiding all contact either with the harsh and degenerating infidelity of Materialism, or the mean and grovelling ignorance of Superstition, we have endeavoured to proceed upon a medium course, spreading out before our readers the mystic probabilities of the invisible. We have balanced the arguments of the metaphysicians, we have contemned the obloquy of the matter-of-fact, we have emancipated ourself from the gross trammels of mere mundane matters, and, discarding alike the inflexible rules of the worldling and the fantastic day-dreams of a fanatical poetry, we have endeavoured to carry our readers from this simple work-a-day life into territories fraught with a loftier existence, and towards which the heart of each declares, in its inaudible but impressive voice, that we have an inscrutable affinity. It had been long evident that noxious principles of Deism, and disbelief in everything that was not reduceable to the comprehension of the senses, or that did not come within the deductions of our uncertain reason, were gaining ground among the mass of

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