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By the disposition of a stupendous WISDOM, the whole human race, at one time, is never old, or middle-aged, or young; but in a condition of unchangeable constancy, moves on through the varied tenour of perpetual decay, fall, renovation, and progression. Burke.

and adjusted by Flavius, under Cæsar's third Dictatorship; although it was not until A. D. 4 that his intention respecting the leap-years was correctly observed, and then Augustus fixed the decree in brass.

When Julius Cæsar entered upon his first Consulate, B. C. 59, he introduced a new regulation, of committing to writing and publishing daily, all the Acts or state occurrences both of the senate and the people; which undoubtedly confers, by reflection from its author, a singular lustre on the first day of the year, if it be not the fountain of England's greatest blessing—a parliamentary press. The Calends of each month being consecrated to Juno, in allusion to the Moon's birth, this day was particularly devoted to that Goddess; and to Janus, inventor of the Italian Almanack, and a type of the Universe. The insular Esculapius shared the same honour on account of his renovating attributes; and last, but greatest, Jupiter, as the parent of the Seasons.-See 1st March. It was, moreover, considered an auspicious day by the artists to begin their works; and who shall say that many an admired fragment, from the Italian chisel, has not an Anniversary eternal with the year? In the fourth century the same people, at this season, performed a kind of masquerade of beasts, called the Play of the Stag, which St. Jerome tolerated as an innocent diversion. THE FESTIVAL OF FOOLS was instituted at Paris on le jour de l'an 1198, and continued prosperously for 240 years. The merits of this rich solemnity originally belonged to St. Nicholas; and the "Lords of Misrule,” in our Inns of Court, with the " Abbots of Unreason," seem to have acquired their dignity from the same motive, that of exploding, by a just ridicule, the Saturnalian mummery and the priest-craft of the Druids.

Edward III. in 1349, rewards the gallantry of his antagonist, Eustace de Ribeaumont, with a chaplet of pearls, desiring him to wear it for his

Inquietudes of mind cannot be prevented without first eradicating all our inclinations and passions, the winds and tides that preserve the great ocean of human life from perpetual stagnation. Jenyns.

'Tis one of God's blessings that we cannot foreknow the hour of our death; for a time fixed, even beyond the possibility of living, would trouble us more than doth this uncertainty. King James.

sake, and to tell the ladies, wherever he came, that it was given by the King of England to the bravest of knights.

In 1582 a tournament is held at Westminster, in which the Duke of Anjou signalizes his dexterity, to the delight of the Royal Mistress and President-the knight's device "serviet æternum, dulcis quem torquet Eliza."

The NEW style of commencing the year on the 1st of January was adopted in France, 1564; in Scotland, 1600, and not long after in Denmark; in Holland, Protestant Germany, and in Russia, 1700; in England, 1752; and last, in Sweden, 1753. Peter the Great celebrated the event in his dominions by a Jubilee of seven days. The Christian Era he first introduced there, 1725; but, in deference to the English mathematicians, he declined to omit the surplus days, so that, by the addition of another day since the close of the 18th Century, the Gregorian is at present in advance of the Russian Calendar twelve days, a variance which 1 January, 1830 is expressed thusand recognized throughout Europe.

20 December, 1829

Charles II. in 1651, is crowned, at Scone, King of the Scots; swearing, upon his knees, to establish the Presbytery, and abolish and withstand all false religions.

The first Leipsic fair, of twelve days, was instituted and commenced upon this day.

In 1801 M. Piazzi, of Palermo, discovered the planet Ceres. On the same day the Union of the twin-islands, Albion and Ierne (jointly honoured by the notice of Aristotle 1150 years before this event), was devoutly consummated: the Imperial parliament assembles; a new great seal is used; and now the French arms are first expunged after their assumption by the third Edward.

Conversation augments pleasure, and diminishes pain, by our having sharers in either; for silent woes are greatest, as silent satisfactions least; since sometimes our pleasure would be none but for telling of it, and our grief insupportable but for participation. Wycherley.

A regard for our Country and Parents is the first and principal of civil obligations.

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Titles of quality, when the owners have no other merit to recommend them, are of no more estimation than those which the courtesy of the vulgar have bestowed on the deformed; and when I look over a long tree of descent, I sometimes fancy I can discover the real characters of

Earl of Cork.

Publius Ovidius (Naso) A. D.

18. Tomis.

Titus Livius, A. D. 18. Padua.
Pierre du Bosc, 1692. Rotterdam.
Henry E. of Warrington, 1694.
Dr. P. Bacon, 1783. d. Baldon.
Alexander E. of Rosslyn, 1805.
d. Baylis.

Balthazar Lombardi, 1802.
E. Baldinger, 1804. d. Marpurg.
William Thomas Lewis, 1811.
John Mason Good, 1827.

He wrote, because nature had

sharpers, reprobates, and plun- endowed him with a highly bril-
derers of their country.
liant gift of seizing what is cha-
racteristic in humanity, and of
narration; with the talent of a
poet, only without the command
of metrical language, or the de-
light in it. He wrote, not doubt-

Obits of the Latin Church.

St. Concordius, martyr at Spo-ing, and yet without conviction;

letto, 178.

St. Macarius of Alex. d. 394.
Sts. MS. for the Scriptures, 303.
St. A[da] lard, Abbot of Corbie,

827.

wishing to forget the degeneracy of his own age, while reviving the recollection of what had been glorious or excellent in former times.-Niebuhr on Livy.

The first physicians by debauch were made;
Excess began, and Sloth sustains the trade.-Dryden.

Nature has given modesty to women, as a token of continence; and fixed it in the minds of all intelligent beings, who know their imperfections.-Montesquieu.

Acts.

THIS day was among the black, or unfortunate days, in the Roman Calendar. The Emperor Tacitus, favouring the superstition, excepted the last nones of each month from the rule that he had made of passing no day without study.

Ferdinand V. takes Granada from the Moors and extinguishes their reign in Spain, 1492, more than seven centuries after the first settlement there of those barbarians. It was four years from this national epoch when the Pope conferred upon Ferdinand the style of Catholic.

Queen Mary (the unhappy) revokes, in 1555, the privileges of the Easterlings, or Merchants of the Steelyard in London, a measure wisely supported by her protestant successor.

The paper called "The Tatler," conducted by Sir Richard Steele, and issued on alternate days, terminates on this day, 1711. "The hand that has assisted me in those noble discourses upon the immortality of the soul, the glorious prospects of another life, and the most sublime ideas of religion and virtue, is a person (alluding to Addison) who is too fondly my friend ever to own them; but I should little deserve to be his, if I usurped the glory of them."-Who does not grieve, knowing that divisions afterwards embittered so genuine a friendship!

Capt. Cook dedicates the Sandwich Isles in honour of his patron, 1778. Upon this day, in 1809, the Penguin Island at the Cape of Good Hope sank from its "propriety," and is now only known to mariners by name. Lord Byron dedicates to T. Moore, Esq. his "Corsair," 1814, in a Preface equally honourable to both these sons of song, and which will, most probably, as a little skiff, attend the poem down the stream of posterity. It may be observed that our departed Poet's wedding happened upon the same day in the ensuing year.

The Prince Regent, in the name of his late Majesty, issues an ordinance in 1815 for extending the Order of the Bath; to commemorate the auspicious termination of the war, and to mark in an especial manner his gracious sense of the valour, perseverance, and devotion, manifested by the officers of his Majesty's forces both by sea and land.

What is more excellent than inviolable piety? what is more just than submission to laws? and what is more advantageous than mutual love and concord? Josephus against Apion.

Prudes decay'd about may tack,

Strain their necks with looking back:
Give me Time, when coming on:
Who regards him when he's gone?

Day.

III.

Non. 3.

Births.

Swift.-Madam Loquitur.

Deaths.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, B. C. Philip V. (of France) 1322.

107, Arpinum.
John Boyse, 1560, Nettlestead.
Wm. Homberg, 1652, Batavia.
Frederick Hasselquist, 1722,

Tournalla.

The love which every man bears to himself does not, cer

tainly, flow from any expected recompense or reward, but solely from that pure and innate regard which each individual feels for his own person. Now if the same kind of affection be not transferred into friendship, it will be in vain to hope for a true friend, as a true friend is no other, in effect, than a second self.-Tully.

Obits of the Latin Church. St. Anterus (Pope), martyr at Rome, 235.

St. Gordius, martyr at Cæsarea,

in Cappadocia, c. 302.

|J. Sforza (of Milan) dr. 1424.
Katherine (of England) 1437.
Alderman (Hen.) Smith, 1627.
Jeremiah Horrox, 1641.d. Hoole.
Gen. (Geo.) Monk, 1670. Abbey.
Claude Bourgelet, 1779.
Josiah Wedgewood, 1795.
Lord (Chanc.) Loughbro' 1805.
Chas. Townley, 1805. Burnley.

If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks in his glass for love of any thing he sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier. What! a speaker is but a prater; a rhyme is but a ballad; a good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; a black beard will turn white; a curled pate will grow bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax hollow but a good

:

St. Peter Balsam, martyr in Pa-heart, Kate, is the sun and moon;
lestine, 311.
or rather the sun, and not the

St. Geneviève, V. Patroness of moon; for it shines bright, and

Paris. d. 512.

never changes.-King Henry V.

The way to cure our prejudices is this, that every man should let alone those that he complains of in others, and examine his own.-Locke.

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