Missiles, in manly warfare, were the invention of a feeble and predatory race. German Sentence.

Acts.

IN the Latin Church calendar this day is marked as the Octave of the Epiphany, and commemorates the baptism of Christ; a solemnity which appears to be kept by the Greek church on Twelfth Day; for, in 1676, the Bishop of Zante did then “as they call it, baptize the sea, with a great deal of ceremony; sprinkling their gallies and fishing tackle with holy water." It is also New Year's Day, by the Greek and Russian supputation of time.

The thirteenth day (the Ides) of this month the Roman people set apart for the trumpeters, dressed in the habits of women, to make publications through the city.-See 15th March. The present day was likewise anciently devoted to the honour of those brave soldiers who rallied, under Romulus, in an action against the Sabines.

Octavius Cæsar is dignified, B. C. 27, with the surname of Augustus. The Tartars, under Tamerlane, pillage the imperial city of Delhi, and on the 15th wantonly massacre the entire Indian population, 1399.

In 1404 (on the morrow of St. Hilary) it was enacted, by the shortest act of parliament on the statute-rolls, that "none (referring to the chymists) from henceforth shall use to multiply gold and silver, or use the craft of multiplication; and if any the same do, he shall incur the pain of felony." It was repealed 1 William and Mary.

Sir Philip Sidney is knighted (Sunday), 1583; the same day that an earthquake was felt in Dorsetshire, which removed a large piece of ground.

Hesiod teaches to plant, and not to sow, upon this day;

"Not ev'ry plant on ev'ry soil will grow;

The sallow loves the wat'ry ground, and low;
The fens, the alders: Nature seems t' ordain

The rocky cliff for the wild ashes reign;

The baleful yew to northern blasts assigns,

To shores the myrtles, and to mounts the vines.”—Georgicks.

The Hilary Terms are appointed to commence, at Cambridge on this, and on the day following at Oxford; and to conclude with the Friday and Saturday next before Palm Sunday.

What is done well enough, is done quick enough.—Augustus.

Some Days, like surly step-dames, adverse prove,

Thwart our intentions, cross whate'er we love;

Others more fortunate and lucky shine,

And, as a tender Mother, bless what we design.-Hesiod.

XIX. Shakerley Marmion, 1602, Ayn- Bp. (Tho.) Beckington, 1465.

Make a point never so clear, it is great odds, that a man whose habits, and the bent of whose mind lie a contrary way, shall be unable to comprehend it. So weak a thing is reason in competition with inclination.

Beautiful, yes! none denies it; beauty were a lovely thing,
Were it not so false and fleeting, had it not a fluttering wing.
'Tis a passing shadow only, 'tis a flow'ret born to die.

Acts.

Spanish Poet.

THIS day of the month was considered by the Greeks as the star-day, and the most propitious for the birth of WOMEN. It naturally presides over three virtues; beauty, patience, and kindness, a little knot that binds the world.-See 14th day of each month.

St. Hilary's day (a festival which belongs to the 13th January in our English calendars) is, upon an average, the coldest day in the year. In 1205 a frost began on this day, which endured for more than two months; and it was then, 1820, that the Society for relieving the Houseless was founded in London.

Henry III. the weakest of our kings, espouses Eleanor of Provence ; who, six days after, was crowned with great splendour, 1236.

Francis I. of France is conveyed from the place of his captivity in Italy to Madrid, where, on this day, 1525, he signs a disadvantageous treaty, which he afterwards infringed, under the Pope's absolution.

In 1734-5 (O. S.) Dr. Gmelin observes that the thermometer at Yeneseisk, in Siberia, fell to-120° of Fahrenheit's scale. The foggy air was in a state of fixation, so that smoke had no passage, and the birds dropped frozen to the ground.

The Pope issues his edict against the assemblies of Freemasons, under penalty of the rack and condemnation to the gallies, 1739.

In All Souls' College, Oxford, a custom is occasionally observed on this day; that of keeping the Mallard Night, in remembrance of the discovery of a very large mallard, in a drain, when digging for the foundation of the college. At the celebration, an old song, called "The swapping, swapping mallard," is always introduced.

I highly approve of the intent of Pythagoras's injunction (writes Lord Chatham on this day); which is, to dedicate the first parts of life to hear and to learn; and not to be presuming, and flippant, and thus expose the nakedness and emptiness of the mind, like a house opened to company before it is furnished either with necessaries, or with ornaments, for their reception and entertainment.

I am ignorant of any one quality that is amiable in a man, which is not equally so in a woman: I do not except even modesty and gentleness of nature. Nor do I know one vice, or folly, which is not equally detestable in both.

Letter to a Young Lady on her Marriage.

Be in peace with many; nevertheless, have but one counsellor of a thousand.

Day.

XVIII Christian Kortholt, 1633, Burg. Sergius Galba,assassinated, A.D. Cal. Lewis Dutens, 1730, Tours.

15.

Depth in philosophy, which can behold the chain of second causes confederate and linked together, must needs fly to Providence and Deity.

Labour was the son of Necessity, the nursling of Hope, and the pupil of Art; he had the strength of his mother, the spirit of his nurse, and the dexterity of his governess, and came down upon earth to oppose the devastations of Famine.

Johnson.

Acts.

THE fifteenth day of the month Shebat began the years of trees, when the Jews were first permitted to eat the fruit of them, after being planted three years.-Lev. xix. 23.

An ancient Roman festival was kept on this day in honour of Postverta and Porrima, sisters of the prophetess Carmenta, supposed to preside over teeming women. She was the Themis of the Greeks, and the mother of Evander, and received sacrifices the same day, with her companions.

The violent storm, with a south-west wind, recorded by Walsingham, and other historians, and mentioned also in the Visions of Pierce Ploughman, happened on the evening, of this day (Saturday), 1362.

Elizabeth, of lion-port, and awe-commanding face, is crowned, 1559. Col. Coote takes and demolishes the settlement of Pondicherry, 1761. The libertine Masquerade is introduced into Scotland, 1773. Burns writes from Lochlee to Mr. Murdoch, at Staple's Inn, his indulgent father, and teacher, 1783: "I seem to be sent into the world to see and observe; and I very easily compound with the knave who tricks me of my money, if there be any thing original about him which shows me human nature in a different light from any thing I have seen before. 'Tis incongruous, 'tis absurd, to suppose that the man whose mind glows with sentiments, lighted up at their sacred flame [Thomson, Mackenzie, Sterne, Ossian, and Shenstone]; whose heart distends with benevolence to all the human race; he who can soar above this little scene of things', can descend to mind the paltry concerns about which the terræ-filial race fret, and fume, and vex themselves.-I forget that I am a poor insignificant devil, unnoticed and unknown, stalking up and down fairs and markets, reading a page or two of mankind."

Sir William Jones founds the Asiatic Society, at Calcutta, 1784, an act ever to be remembered in the diaries of science; but this day is rendered doubly illustrious by the donation, from THE SOVEREIGN, in 1823, of the Royal Library, containing 120,000 volumes, for the benefit of the British Nation, and the advancement of our Literature.

Pride and roughness may turn one's humour, but flattery turns one's stomach. Sir William Temple.