Mother of ages, fruit-producing moon;

Fair lamp of night, its ornament and friend.-Orpheus.

Acts.

THE MONTHS. The moon being ordained as a perpetual and universal chronometer, we may, with reason, conclude, that in the infancy of the world her rotations kept an exact pace with the sun's progress through each of the twelve zodiacal signs; but from what natural causes, whether by decay in the gravitating forces, or otherwise, the present annual difference of eleven days is occasioned, must ever remain (perhaps) matter for finite contention. If, however, we admit an hypothesis, of a reception in the cavities of the earth of a flood of waters from the moon, at the period of the deluge, then the latter might finish her lunations six days sooner, by levity, and the former be retarded five days, by gravity, which at once will account for the variance, and regulate the antediluvian, or Noëtic month (which we know consisted of thirty days) with the twelve lunar appearances, without resorting to a rude embolism of five days, invented from necessity by Noah, who, in Greek fable, is called Saturnus, and Janus at Rome. The Julian month, January, which takes its name from this prince of astronomers, agrees nearly with the eleventh moon Tybi, of the ancient Egyptian calendar, and the fifth of the Alexandrian, or the modern year-with the fifth secular and the eleventh sacred moon, Shebat, of the Jews-with the fifth moon, Merded, of the Persian Yesdegerdic year-with the fifth moons Thir, Khaguets, and Tona, of the Ethiopian, Armenian, and Coptic calendars—with the fifth moons, Peritius, Kisarius, and Heraclius, of the Syro-Macedonians, Cyprians, and Bythinians-with the fourth solar month, Canun II. of the Syrians with the eighth month, Anthesterion, of the Athenians, the fifth Dystrus of the Macedonians, and the first, Audynæus, of their solar year—and with the seventh moons, Regiab and Regeb, of the Arabs and the Turks. It was called Wolf-month by the Saxons, and is the Laaw-maund of the Hollanders.

The city of Bagdad is taken by the Tartars, 1258.

The greatest pleasure of life is love; the greatest treasure is contentment; the greatest possession is health; the greatest ease is sleep; and the greatest medicine is a true friend.-Sir W. Temple.

There is such a mixture of folly and infirmity in the best and wisest of the human race, that we should be much more thankful for the good we meet with, than disappointed at the bad. We are in the hands of Providence; and though we are bad enough ourselves, our cause is good and noble. Miss Talbot.

Deaths.

John VI. (Pope), 705.
Henry Courtenay, Marquis of
Exeter, beheaded, 1539.
Gen. du Bellay, 1543. Mans.
Corn. Musso, 1574. d. Rome.
Bern. de Fontenelle, 1757.
Cath.Talbot,1770. d. Richmond.
J. F. Blondel, 1774. d. Louvre.
Dr. J. Forster, 1799. d. Halle.
Elizabeth O. Benger, 1827.

The easiest and the shortest way for a man to arrive at true glory is really to be what he desires to appear to be, saith Socrates; for that which is but external show, adds his com

mentator, Cicero, as a flower, quickly fades and withers.

Sts. Julian and Basilissa, M. Amoret! as sweet and good

Egypt, c. 313.

St. Peter of Sebaste, c. 387.
St. Felan, Abbot in Scotland, d.

7th Century.

As the most delicious food,
Which, but tasted, does impart
Life and gladness to the heart.
Sacharissa's beauty's wine,
Which to madness doth incline:
Such a liquor, as no brain

St. Vaneng, d. Normandy, 688.
St. Adrian, Abbot at Cant.d.710.
St. Brithwald, Abp. of Canter-That is mortal can sustain.
bury. d. 731.

Waller.

We tell the ladies that good wives make good husbands; I believe it is a more indisputable position that good brothers make good sisters.-Johnson, in diê.

Peace is that harmony in the state, that health is in the body.-Clarendon.

Acts.

THE EIGHT nundinal letters, A to H, corresponding in the Roman Calendar with the first eight days of January, and so repeated, like our dominical character, throughout the year, were used for the convenience of those who resided in the country, in order that they might assemble within the city, and transact their affairs. These markets were held every ninth day, on the return of the letter, and hence is derived their name, "Nundina."

The Agonalia, a feast in honour of the god of business, Agonius (or of Janus, as some suppose, but incorrectly, as the old Calendar marks his sacrifices on the eighth, unless he be confounded with Mercury, the for the master), was kept on the present day.-See 21st May. The town of Altona, on the Elbe, is burnt by the Swedes, 1712, under the command of General Steinbock, so illustrious for his wisdom and heroic virtues.

man,

The treaty of Constantinople is signed, by which the sovereignty of the Crimea was ceded to Russia, 1784. Upon the same day, 1792, a final treaty of peace was concluded by Catharine with the Ottoman Porte, fixing the river Dniester as the common boundary between the two empires.

Beattie explains to Dr. Blacklock his motives for pruning the sickly and exotic plant of infidelity, 1769: "A very little truth will sometimes enlighten a vast extent of science. I found that the sceptical philosophy was not what the world imagined it to be, nor what I, following the opinion of the world, had hitherto imagined it to be; but a frivolous, though dangerous, system of verbal subtilty, which it required neither genius, nor learning, nor taste, nor knowledge of mankind to be able to put together; but only a captious temper, an irreligious spirit, a moderate command of words, and an extraordinary degree of vanity and presumption.”

Two ships sail from Gravesend, with black people on board, to effect a new settlement at Sierra Leone, 1787. This is the prosperous colony founded by Granville Sharp.

Sir David Baird takes possession of the Cape of Good Hope, by capitulation, upon the defeat of General Janssens, 1806.-The funeral of Nelson was solemnized at St. Paul's, on the same day, amidst a nation's

tears.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.—Gray.

H

Day.

IV. Id.

10.

Fame, if not double-faced, is double mouth'd,
And with contrary blast proclaims most deeds;
On both his wings, one black, the other white,
Bears greatest names in his wild aery flight.-Milton.

Prosperity is so favourable to the coward, that it may even conceal his baseness; but those misfortunes which make him known, and despised, enable the brave to show themselves in their genuine colours.-Archidamus.

Write nothing but what you have seen, nor let it be published until you are dead.-Boccalini.

Acts.

THEODOSIUS establishes the Catholic creed upon the ruins of Arianism in all the provinces of the East, by means of a military commission, dated on the present day, A. D. 381.

The ancient Swedish year began with the midwinter of the Romans; i. e. the twentieth (this) day after our winter solstice, when the festival of the new year was celebrated in the city of Stockholm.

No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring,
No birds within the desert region sing.
The ships, unmoved, the boisterous winds defy,
While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.
The vast leviathan wants room to play,
And spout his waters in the face of day;

And starving wolves along the main sea prowl,

And to the moon in icy valleys howl.—A. Philips.

Oliver Cromwell takes his seat in the House of Commons, 1628. It was King Charles's third parliament.

Dom. John Bourget, so respectable for his learning and piety, is elected an honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries, London, 1765.

Bruce, the traveller, returns to Cairo from the Abyssinian court, after an absence of more than four years, 1773.

Beattie, writing to the Duchess of Gordon, 1779, "I used to devour the Night Thoughts' with a satisfaction not unlike that which, in my younger years, I have found in walking alone in a churchyard, or on a wild mountain, by the light of the moon, at midnight. Such things may help to soften a rugged mind. When I first read Young, my heart was broken to think of the poor man's afflictions. Afterwards, I took it in my head, that where there was so much lamentation, there could not be excessive suffering; and I could not help applying to him sometimes those lines of a song,

'Believe me, the shepherd but feigns;
He's wretched, to show he has wit.'

I have since found, from his friends, that my conjecture was right."

It is difficult to find a young fellow that is neither a wit in his own eye, nor a fool in the eye of the world. Congreve.