The belief in a Divine government of the world was in many minds destroyed by the spectacle of so much injustice and misery.Others, like Dante, surrendered at all events this life to the caprices of chance, and if they nevertheless retained a sturdy faith, it was because they held that the higher destiny of man would be accomplished in the life to come.But when the belief in immortality began to waver, then Fatalism got the upper hand, or sometimes the latter came first and had the former as its consequence.
The gap thus opened was in the first place filled by the astrology of antiquity, or even of the Arabs.From the relation of the planets among themselves and to the signs of the zodiac.future events and the course of whole lives were inferred, and the most weighty decisions were taken in consequence.In many cases the line of action thus adopted at the suggestion of the stars may not have been more immoral than that which would otherwise have been followed.But too often the decision must have been made at the cost of honour and conscience.It is profoundly instructive to observe how powerless culture and enlightenment were against this delusion; since the latter had its support in the ardent imagination of the people, in the passionate wish to penetrate and determine the future.Antiquity, too, was on the side of astrology.