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This was in imitation of Jupiter, who had produced Minerva from his brain. The Peacock, often called Junonia avis, was sacred to her. The Dittany, the Poppy, and the Lily, were her favourite flowers. The latter flower was originally of the colour of the Crocus; but, when Jupiter placed Hercules to the breasts of Juno while asleep, some of her milk fell down upon earth, and changed the colour of the Lilies from purple to a beautiful white. Some of the milk also dropped in that part of the heavens, which, from its whiteness, still retains the name of the milky way, lactea via. As Juno's power was extended over all the gods, she often made use of the goddess Minerva as her messenger, and even had the privilege of hurling the thunder of Jupiter when she pleased. Her temples were numerous, the most famous of which were at Argos, Olympia, &c. At Rome no woman of debauched character was permitted to enter her temple, or even to touch it. The surnames of Juno are various, which are derived either from the function or things over which she presided, or from the places where her worship was established. She was the queen of the heavens; she protected cleanliness, and presided over marriage and childbirth, and particularly patronized the most faithful and virtuous of the sex, and severely punished incontinence in matrons. She was the goddess of all power and empire, and she was also the patroness of riches. She is represented sitting on a throne with a diadem on her head and a golden sceptre in her right hand. Some Peacocks generally sat by her, and a Cuckoo often perched on her sceptre, while Iris behind her displayed the thousand colours of her beautiful rainbow. She is sometimes carried through the air in a rich chariot drawn by Peacocks. The Roman consuls, when they entered upon office, were always obliged to offer her a solemn sacrifice. The Juno of the Romans was called Matrona or Romana. She was generally represented as veiled from head to foot, and the Roman matrons always imitated this manner of dressing themselves, and deemed it indecent in any married woman to leave any part of her body but her face uncovered. She has received the surnames of Olympia, Samia, Lacedaemonia, Argiva, Telchinia, Candrena, Rescinthes, Prosymna, Imbrasia, Acrea, Cithaeroneia, Bunea, Ammonia, Fluonia, Anthea, Migale, Gemelia, Tropeia, Boopis, Parthenos, Teleia, Xera, Egophage, Hyperchinia, Juga, Ilithya, Lucina, Pronuba, Caprotina, Mena, Populonia, Lacinia, Sospita, Moneta, Curis, Domiduca, Februa, Opigenia, &c. Cic. de Nat. D. 2. Paus. 2. &c. Apollod. 1, 2, 3. Apollon. 1. Argon. Hom. Il. i. &c. Virg. Aen. i. &c. Herodot. 1, 2, 4, &c. Sil. 1.

Dionys. Hal. 1. Liv. 23, 24, 27, &c. Ovid. Met. i. &c. Fast. v. Plut. Quaest. Rom. Tibull. iv. cl. 13. Athen. 15. Plin. 34.

It is a remarkable coincidence, if indeed it happened by accident, that the modern Romans should have fixed the festival of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the same day on which their Roman ancestors celebrated their feast of Juno Jugalis. The coincidence of certain other feasts of the Virgin with those of Juno are equally remarkable. See February 1 and 2 of our Calendar.

CHRONOLOGY.-John Milton the poet born in 1608.

URANIA.-Southern Motion of the Stars.-Some astronomers of late have entertained a notion that there was a southern motion in the stars; and in the Transactions of the Royal Society, and also in the Philosophical Magazine for December 1823, will be found some account of it. It is not intended here to discuss the subject, but to suggest that this opinion, evidently groundless, may have originated in a variability in the atmospheric refraction. For if at different times, and also in different places, the refraction should be found to vary, then might a considerable apparent difference of places in the stars be accounted for.

MUSAE. The following lines were written on seeing some miserable rules, in bad verse, for the conduct of married life :

Leave, Chloe, leave to hoary age,

Untutored in Love's school,

This grave advice, these maxims sage;
Scorn thou the formal rule.

But let Affection's warmest fire
Glow constant in thy breast;
That the best precepts will inspire,
Be that thy guide confessed.

Its emanations ever bland

Shall bless the favoured boy
Whom holy Hymen's happiest band
Shall join to thee and joy.

Then spurn, with indignation spurn,
These lessons from the head;
From thy own heart its dictates learn,
Trust me, they won't mislead.-E. F.

An Epigram.

Sarcastic Sawney, full of spite and hate,
On silent Franklin poured his learned prate :
The calm philosopher, without reply,

Retired, and gave his country liberty.

December 9. St. Leocadia Virgin and Martyr. The Seven Martyrs at Samosata. St. Wulfhilde Virgin and Abbess.

HYBERNAL FLORA.-Many persons have represented the Winter as a very dreary season, almost totally devoid of interest. In London this may be true; but in the country it is far otherwise, when the weather is mild; and even in frost and snow there is a diversity of grotesque appearances which amuse us for awhile, merely as a change. Mild and calm winters are, however, the most pleasant; and the Hybernal Flora, the Berries on the Evergreens, and a winter garden, in general, are circumstances calculated to delight and to amuse. And when we combine these circumstances with the approaching Annual Customs and Festivities of Midwinter, we are far from regarding it as an uninteresting period. The SPECTATOR very wisely recommends a Winter Garden, composed of Evergreens, Hedges of Holy Yew and Box, and Groves of Laurel, Laurestine, and Bays, with Holly, the Pyracantha, and other evergreens, whose Berries ornament our Hybernal Gardens; and the Trees might be Pines, Firs, Cedars, and Cypress. For, possessing these winter plants, a warm bright day affords us a walk in a garden of green leaves, and we may almost fancy it Summer. The following plants of the Hybernal Flora will blow in open ground in our parterres.

The SCENTED COLTSFOOT Tussilago fragrans blows now, and continues in mild Seasons all the Winter till the middle of February, diffusing a most grateful scent in the air. This Plant succeeds best by being transplanted frequently.

WHITE COLTSFOOT Tussilago alba. This Plant flowers later, being seldom in blow before the middle of January.

WINTER HELLEBORE, or Aconite; Helleborus hyemalis. The yellow flowers of this Plant appear soon after Christmas in mild years, and continue till March.

BLACK HELLEBORE, or Christmas Rose; Helleborus niger. Flowers about the same time as the last.

There are also several Greenhouse and Hothouse Exotics in flower in this season of the year. Besides the above, numerous Plants remain in flower till Christmas, as Daisies, Stocks, Wallflowers, the Dead Nettles, Lamium Purpureum and L. Garganicum, and the Polyanthuses, the Primroses, and others.

The Evergreens, whose Berries ornament our winters, are the following:— The HOLLY Ilex aquifolium, whose berries are scarlet.

Ivy Hedera Helix, the berries being green.

PYRACANTHA Mespilus Pyracantha, deep orange berries.

Besides these, the following exhibit beautiful Berries, on bare boughs :— The WHITE THORN, or May Bush; Crategus oxyacantha, red berries. The BLACK THORN Prunus Spinosa, the sloes, being a blue grey colour. DOG ROSE, and numerous other Roses.

Bittersweet Nightshade Solanum Dolcamara, red berries.

To these we may add the Parasitical Misletoe, quo turdus malum sibi

cacat.

December 10.

St. Melchiades Pope. St. Eulalia Virgin and Martyr. Another St. Eulalia Virgin and Martyr.

O rises at VIII. 4'. and sets at 111. 56'.

Agonalia.-Rom. Cal.

The Agonalia, otherwise called Agonia, were festivals kept every year in honour of Agonius the God of Business. The same feast occurs January 9th, in honour of Janus.

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On the Monastic Orders. As the ancient Religious Orders of the Catholic Church constitute one of the most interesting objects of modern Antiquarian research, so they afford also one of the most pleasing subjects of religious meditation. For they afford the most striking and unequivocal examples of the sincerity of the Catholic Christians, which History has recorded on her sacred pages. The severe Orders both of men and women, who, in the flower of their youth, and in full possession of a vigorous intellect and impassioned feelings, should abandon themselves to a life of austerity and cruel privation and hardship, should inflict on themselves to the end of their days voluntary tortures, and should spend the whole span of existence in praying, observing the fasts and festivals of a religious Calendar, and in affording temporary and spiritual comfort to their fellow creatures, for the hope of a glorious reward beyond the Grave, may perhaps all seem marvellous to the motley groups of lukewarm and heretical Sectarians of this age of hypocrisy and cant. But true it is, nevertheless; and the more we investigate this exalted fervour of devotion and Hope, and the result to which it led, the more we shall feel surprised. Phrenologists have ascribed the devotion of the Saints and Fathers to the exalted Organization of the Brain, and the consequent energy of pious Veneration, Hope, and Mystery. But why this organization should prevail more in one age than in another, is past our comprehension. At all events the Institutions we allude to, not only excite our curiosity, but demand our respects; for they exhibit in all their local and temporary varieties the marks of One consistent connected Holy Catholic and Apostolical Power, emanating from one Point of Time and place, diffused progressively over every country of the world, and having for

its professed object the conducting human beings safely through a transitory and perishable world of trouble to a promised state of never ending happiness. If the Catholic religion were merely a superstition, it would be venerable for its antiquity, marvellous for its magnitude, and awful from its consequences, and the complete subjugation in which it held the human mind; but we recognize in it peculiar and distinguishing features of a pleasing nature. The ancient religion of India and the cruel rites of Oriental casts, whose origin seem lost in the night of time, are fit subjects of research; but they have no consistency of doctrine, and point to no definable object. We can extract from the fables of Seva and Vishnû nothing but the fact, that mankind inherit from Nature an instinctive hope of some ulterior state of existence-some final home-which Christianity has confirmed; and of which Brachminism, Judaism, and the various religions of the world may have been prototypes— like Sibyls and Prophetesses, having

Facies non omnibus una,

Nec diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum;

but who foretold, in the obscure and mystic Language of Symbols, the aftercoming of one perfect and Catholic Model of Faith.

Be this as it may, and we state it merely as conjectural, there is no doubt of the utility of Monastic Institutions at the period when they flourished; and if it be questioned, why we thus seem willing to give them so much importance among the modes by which religion has been preserved through barbarous times, our reply is, that the history of Monastic Institutions affords such striking and numerous examples of voluntary mortification, and privation of all the allurements of sensual life on the part of the Religious Orders, that we are compelled to admit the sincerity of their belief; and to say, that they afford the most unequivocal proof of sincerity in religion, that any set of men have been able to adduce from the earliest dawn of history to the present hour.

From the following sketch of their history, and the documents to which we shall refer, the reader may satisfy himself how genuine must have been the faith of the Orders, and how little temporary advantage could be gained to compensate for their privations, were it not for their implicit belief and undoubting hope of the promised reward of glory.

It is a curious remark that all extensive religions are connected with an organized ritual, and with ceremonies which powerfully affect the passions; and this is a proof of the just views that their founders had of human nature, and of the best means of directing the Subject in the choice of

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