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May 25. ST. URBAN. St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, V. St. Gregory VII. &c.

rises at Iv. 1'. and sets at VII. 59'.

Fortunae Templum. Aquila oritur.-Rom. Cal.

Nec te praetereo populi Fortuna potentis

Publica, cui templum luce sequente datum est.
Hanc ubi dives aquis acceperit Amphitrite;

Grata Jovi fulvae rostra videbis avis.

It is customary in many parts of Germany to drag the image of St. Urban to the river, if on the day of his feast it happens to be foul weather.

J. B. Aubanus tells us, that "upon St. Urban's Day all the vintners and masters of vineyards set a table either in the marketsteed, or in some other open and public place, and covering it with fine napery, and strawing upon it greene leaves and sweete flowers, do place upon the table the image of that holy bishop, and then, if the day be cleare and faire, they crown the image with great store of wine; but if the weather prove rugged and rainie, they cast filth, mire, and puddle water upon it; persuading themselves that, if that day be faire and calme, their grapes, which then begin to flourish, will prove good that year; but if it be stormie and tempestuous, they shall have a bad vintage." p. 282.

The same anecdote is related in the Regnum Papisticum of Naogeorgus, which we have so often quoted.

If St. Urban's Day be fair, the Germans count on a good vintage; but if stormy, the reverse is said to be indicated. The image of this saint used to be set up in the market places, and crowned with flowers ad levandum omen.

FAUNA. The birds are still occupied with their nests, and the idle part of mankind in disturbing them, for mischievous human kind can never let Nature alone; and birds' nesting, as it is called, makes one of the chief amusements of idle and bad boys.

In many places great havoc is made in Spring among Sparrows and other small birds by the farmer; and rewards are sometimes offered for their destruction. How ignorant are the generality of mankind of their own good! This order of birds, the Sparrows, includes no fewer than forty different kinds of birds which do not eat a single grain of corn, but which, in the course of the Spring and Summer, devour millions of insects that would otherwise prove infinitely more injurious to the farmer than all the Sparrows that haunt his fields, were they ten times more numerous than they are; and even with respect to House Sparrows, which

are certainly, in some measure, injurious to the crops, were the farmer seriously to reflect that the Almighty has not formed any race of beings whatever without giving to them an important destination, he would not probably be so anxious for their destruction. It has been satisfactorily ascertained that a single pair of common Sparrows, while their young ones are in the nest, destroy on an average above three thousand Caterpillars every week! At this rate, if all the species of small birds were to be extirpated, what would then become of the crops?

May 26. ST. AUGUSTINE, B.C. Apostle of England. St. Philip Neri. St. Quadratus. St. Eleutherius. St. Oduvald.

Of St. Augustine, the Apostle of England, an elaborate account will be found in Butler under the 26th of May.

Arctophylax occidit.-Rom. Cal.

Auferet ex oculis veniens aurora Boöten :
Continuaque die sidus Hyantis erit.

See an account of the Hyades tomorrow.

FLORA.-The Purple Rhododendron Rhododendron Ponticum is now in full flower; and the Yellow Azalea Azalea Pontica, as well as the Scarlet Azalea Azalea nudiflora, are also in full blow.

The above three flowering shrubs make a beautiful figure in gardens at, this time of year, and continue in blow for a month or more. They succeed to another flowering shrub, the Mezereon, which blossoms during the primaveral period, and is now out of blow, the small leaves and reddish seeds alone being seen on its branches.

The White Thorn, or May, as it is called, is still in blossom, the grass is green, and the vernal bloom of Nature still in perfection -every where, as Goethe expresses it,

"Jede Heke ist ein Straus von Blühten."

POMONA. A few unripe Gooseberries begin now to be gathered for tarts, which, however, still taste a good deal of the wood, though they are by some persons regarded as a great luxury.

Proverbs relating to May.

A cold May and a windy
Makes a fat barn and a findy.

A hot May makes a fat churchyard.

Although the Hyades and the Pleiades are sometimes represented as distinct constellations, and, indeed, very properly so, being distinct clusters of stars, they are only, nevertheless, component parts of that of Taurus. The Hyades are the feigned daughters of Atlas and Pleione. They are composed of numerous small stars surrounding Aldebaran, which forms the right eye of the Bull, and is a star of the first magnitude, whose latitude is 5° 29′ 40′′ south, and longitude 6° 32′ 9′′ of Gemini. The Arabians call it Ainaltor, the Bull's Eye; but Aldebiron, signifying went before, or led the way," points to a period in the history of astronomy when this star was the foremost, or most illustrious, among the celestial host, Taurus being then the first of the signs. The Hyades, it is also said, were anciently called Debaroth, of which the most brilliant was named Aldebaran; but al or el was the name of Sol, and Deborah or Debaran has been translated order, march, series; the march of the celestial hosts would then be typified by the asterism Aldebaran. The declination of Aldebaran, in 1820, was 16° 8′ 24′′ N. and its right ascension 66° 23′ 52′′. It rises at London nearly on the NE. by E. E. point of the compass. Its meridian altitude is 54° 37′ 24′′, and the time of its rising and culminating, or passing the meridian of that city, is given in the following table :

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Aldebaran is one of those stars which are frequently employed by sailors for determining the course and position of their vessel, either by means of its altitude or its distance from the Moon; whence the longitude of the place of observation may be found from the chronometer.

The Pleiades are situated on the neck of the Bull, northwest of the Hyades; they consist of many small bright stars, the largest of which is of the third magnitude, and is called Lucida Pleiadum. This group passes vertically over the deserts of Arabia, Bengal, the southern parts of China, California, and the Straits of Florida. It was obviously one of those which attracted early notice, as the various allusions to it in the writings of antiquity sufficiently prove. Job mentions the Pleiades Pleione in conjunction with Arcturus and

Orion. He speaks of the power" which maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and the Pleiades, and the Chambers of the South," ix. 9. We shall close our account of this constellation with its fabulous origin.

Pleiades, or Vergiliae, was a name given to seven of the daughters of Atlas by Pleione or Aethra, one of the Oceanides. They were placed in the heavens after death, where they formed a constellation called Pleiades, near the back of the Bull in the Zodiac. Their names were Alcyone, Merope, Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Sterope, and Celeno. They all, except Merope, who married Sisyphus, king of Corinth, had some of the immortal gods for their suitors. On that account, therefore, Merope's star is dim and obscure among the rest of her sisters, because she married a mortal. The name of the Pleiades is derived from the Greek word ɛɛw, to sail, because that constellation shows the time most favourable to navigators, which is in the Spring. The name of Vergiliae they derive from Ver, the Spring. They are sometimes called Atlantides from their father, or Hesperides from the gardens of that name, which belonged to Atlas. Hygin. fab. 192. P. A. ii. c. 21. Ovid. Met. xiii. v. 293. Fast. v. 106 and 170. Hesiod. Oper. et Dies. Homer, Od. 5. Horat. iv. od. 11. Virg. G. i. v. 138, 1. 4, 253.

The Hyades were five daughters of Atlas, king of Mauritania, who were so disconsolate at the death of their brother Hyas, who had been killed by a wild boar, that they pined away and died. They became stars after death, and were placed near Taurus, one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. They received the name of Hyades from their brother Hyas. Their names are Phaola, Ambrosia, Eudora, Coronis, and Polyxo. To these some have added, Thione and Prodice, and they maintained that they were daughters of Hyas and Aethra, one of the Oceanides. Euripides calls them daughters of Erectheus. The ancients supposed that the rising and setting of the Hyades were always attended with much rain, whence the name iw, pluo. Ovid. Fast. v. 165. Hygin. fab. 182. Eurip. in Iron.

May 28. St. Germanus. St. Caro, Martyr.

St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, Confessor, the glory of the church of France, was born near Autun in 469, and died in 576. His life is written by St. Gregory of Tours, by Mabillon, and others. St. Germain was forewarned of his episcopal dignities at Paris in a dream, wherein he had

a vision of the keys of that city being presented to him.See a full account in Butler's Lives, v. 393.

We shall close today with a selection of lines appropriate to the time of year.

Lucretius on Spring and the Seasons, translated by Goode.

Spring comes, and Venus with fell foot advanced;
Then lightwinged Zephyr harbinger beloved;
Maternal Flora, strewing ere she treads,
For every footstep flowers of choicest hue,
And the glad aether loading with perfumes:
Then Heat succeeds, the parched Etesian breeze,
And dustdiscoloured Ceres; Autumn then
Follows, and tipsy Bacchus, arın in arm,
And Storms and Tempests; Eurus roars amain,
And the red South brews thunders; till, at length,
Cold shuts the scene, and Winter's train prevails,
Snows, hoary Sleet, and Frost, with chattering teeth.

Milton makes the most heavenly clime to consist of an eternal Spring

The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
Knit with the graces and the hours in dance,
Led on the eternal Spring.

From Atherstone's Last Days of Herculaneum.
Soft tints of sweet May morn, when day's bright god
Looks smiling from behind delicious mists;
Throwing his slant rays on the glistening grass,
Where 'gainst the rich deep green the Cowslip hangs
His elegant bells of purest gold :-the pale

Sweet perfumed Primrose lifts its face to heaven,
Like the full, artless gaze of infancy

:

The little raycrowned Daisy peeps beneath,

When the tall neighbour grass, heavy with dew,
Bows down its head beneath the freshening breeze;
Where oft in long dark lines the waving trees
Throw their soft shadows on the sunny fields;
Where, in the musicbreathing hedge, the thorn
And pearly white May Blossom, full of sweets,
Hang out the virgin flag of Spring, entwined
With dripping Honeysuckles, whose sweet breath
Sinks to the heart-recalling, with a sigh,
Dim recollected feelings of the days
Of youth and early love.

From Spring, by Kleist.

Who thus, O Tulip! thy gaypainted breast
In all the colours of the Sun has drest?
Well could I call thee, in thy gaudy pride,

The Queen of Flowers; but blooming by thy side

Her thousand leaves that beams of love adorn,
Her throne surrounded by protecting thorn,

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