This clock-face above the gatehouse of Hampton Court was commissioned in about 1540 from Bavarian clockmaker Nicolas Kratzer (a friend of court painter Hans Holbein) and Nicholas Oursian by King Henry VIII. It shows the time of day, the month, the day of the month, and the position of the sun in the zodiac, as well as the phase and age of the moon. By calculating the time at which the moon would cross the meridian, it also predicted high water at London Bridge for the benefit for the King, who travelled between the palace and the capital by Royal Barge.
Introduction
In the Hulsean Lectures for 1827, astronomer and clergyman Temple Chevallier explored the opening words of Psalm 19: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work’. He spoke of the wonder of the heavens, of the spell it has exercised upon the mind of man, and of two superstitions into which it has drawn him: blind faith in the stars, and blind faith in scientists.
WHILST men, in all ages, and under different degrees of mental cultivation, have thus turned their attention to the study of the heavens, their researches have led them into two principal errors of very different kinds.
Superstition, encouraged by the arts of designing men, invested the stars with an imaginary influence over the affairs of the world. When once the heavens were thus viewed as controlling and indicating terrestrial events, the most ordinary phenomenon became an object of disquietude, and every deviation from the customary aspects of the natural world excited the greatest alarm. The unusual appearance of a comet, or an eclipse of the sun or of the moon, struck dismay into the hearts of nations. And the most frivolous events in the lives of the most obscure individuals were considered to be governed by the secret but powerful energies of the planetary bodies.
The study of sound philosophy has banished these errors. But the consequent cultivation of abstract science has itself introduced others scarcely less dangerous. The mind long habituated to its peculiar processes of demonstration is apt to feel dissatisfied with conclusions derived from moral evidence, upon which it is still necessary to determine and to act, in matters of the greatest importance.
Précis
In the Hulsean Lectures for 1827, astronomer and clergyman Temple Chevallier spoke of the harmful consequences of astrology, which encouraged the credulous to set too much store by their own importance while filling them with anxious and useless forebodings. Scientific method had cured much of this, but also brought new dangers through its dismissive attitude to matters of morality. (59 / 60 words)
In the Hulsean Lectures for 1827, astronomer and clergyman Temple Chevallier spoke of the harmful consequences of astrology, which encouraged the credulous to set too much store by their own importance while filling them with anxious and useless forebodings. Scientific method had cured much of this, but also brought new dangers through its dismissive attitude to matters of morality.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, if, just, not, otherwise, unless, until.
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