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The fundamental law of history is, that it should neither dare to say any thing that was false, nor fear to say any thing that is true, nor give any just suspicion either of favour or disaffection.-Cicero.

Acts.

MYRONIDES, the Athenian general, overthrew the Boeotians, at Enophyta on this day, B. C. 456.

Thomas Cavendish, the second Englishman that sailed round the world, comes within sight of Guana, one of the Ladrone islands, 1588, on his passage home by way of the Cape, which he made the 16th of May; having in nine weeks run about one thousand eight hundred and fifty leagues. Those eleven islets were named the Ladrones, by Magellan, from the pilfering disposition of the occupants. There an impartial Providence has planted the bread-fruit tree in abundance.

Secretary Pepys visits, 1661, the new theatre near Lincoln's Inn Fields (formerly Gibbons' Tennis Court), where Fletcher's comedy of the Beggar's Bush" was repeated; "and here the first time that ever I saw women come upon the stage."

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The six members, including Hampden, are impeached of high treason, 1642; on the same day that a committee of the house was appointed to take into their consideration the militia of the kingdom. It was on the 3d of January 1639, that the king's light horse were trained at Bramham House to be employed against the Scottish covenanters. "The best means" (said Hampden in his defence the next day) "to discern between the true and false religion is, by searching the Old and New Testament, which is of itself pure, indited by the spirit of God, and written by holy men, unspotted in their lives and conversations."

Lord Chesterfield thus epistolizes on this day, with an oblique severity: "at your age people have strong and active spirits, alacrity, and vivacity in all they do; are indefatigable and quick. The difference is, that a young fellow of talents exerts all those happy dispositions in the pursuit of proper objects, endeavours to excel in the solid, and in the showish parts of life; whereas a silly puppy, or a dull rogue, throws away all his youth and spirits upon trifles, when he is serious; or upon disgraceful vices, while he aims at pleasure."

Lucien Buonaparte settles, 1811, in his retirement, a few miles from Ludlow, in Shropshire, formerly the capital seat of the titular princes and presidents of Wales. There he composed his epic poem, "Charlemagne, or the Church delivered," published in 1814.

It is some skill in play to know when a game is lost.-King Charles.

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Foppery is never cured; it is the bad stamina of the mind, which, like those of the body, are never rectified; once a coxcomb, and always a coxcomb.-Johnson.

The Wife is as a diamond richly set;

The Maid unset doth yet more rich appear;

The Widow a jewel in the cabinet,

Which though not worn, is still esteem'd as dear.-Sir J. Davis.

Acts.

THE fourth of the Moon Sebat was appropriated as a fast day by the Jews in memory of the death of the Elders, who succeeded Joshua.

Edward 1st writes to the abbot of Cluni from Ashridge on this day, 1291, acquainting him with the demise of his Queen, Eleanor, and requesting that mass, and other usual offices, might be performed for the rest of her soul. Tapers were burnt both day and night upon her tomb at Westminster for more than two centuries; and every lisper in English story will remember that the three crosses standing at Geddington, Waltham, and Northampton, are so many monuments, which time has spared, of Edward's gratitude.

"I am now sitting this present fourth of January" (Pera of Constantinople, 1716) writes Lady Montagu to a female correspondent," with the windows open, enjoying the warm shine of the sun, while you are freezing over a sad sea-coal fire; and my chamber is set out with carnations, roses, and jonquils, fresh from my garden. I am charmed with many points of the Turkish law, to our shame be it spoken, better designed and better executed than ours; particularly the punishment of convicted liars (triumphant criminals in our country, God knows): they are burnt in the forehead with a hot iron, when they are proved the authors of any notorious falsehoods. How many white foreheads should we see disfigured, how many fine gentlemen would be forced to wear their wigs as low as their eyebrows, were this law in practice with us! I should go on to tell you many other parts of justice, but I must send for my midwife."

War is declared against Spain, 1762. This spark was fanned by a remnant of that old enthusiasm which properly should have (quite) expired with the date of Queen Elizabeth.

In 1793 the Alien Bill passes. It was during the debate on this measure that the great Burke threw upon the floor of the house, a Sheffield dagger, to enforce his powers of oratory.

Covent Garden Theatre is founded, 1809.

It is a desperate, but thin cunning of some impertinents, to raise and rail most against those very weaknesses and vices which they are but too conscious belong wholly to themselves. Donne's Letters.

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Man, like the generous vine, supported lives;
The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives.
Thus God and Nature link'd the general frame,
And bade self-love and social be the same.

Pope.

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I consider woman as a beau

tiful romantic animal, that may be adorned with furs and feathers, pearls and diamonds, ores, and silks. The lynx shall cast its skin at her feet to make her a tippet: the peacock, parrot, and swan shall pay contributions to her muff; the sea shall be searched for shells, and the rocks for gems; and every part of nature furnish out its share towards the embellishment of a creature that is the most consummate work of it.-Addison, in dié.

Obits of the Latin Church. St. Telesphorus (Pope) m. 2nd

Century.

St. Syncletica, Virgin, d. Alex

andria, c. 4th Century. St. Simeon Stylites, of Cilicia,

459.

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Isaac Reed, 1807. Amwell.
E. Griffith, 1793. d. Millicent.
Frederick, Duke of York, 1827.

The same hath happened to the truly wise, which befalls ears of corn; they shoot and raise their heads high and pert, whilst empty; but when mature and swelled with grain, begin to flag and droop. So those men who have tried and sounded all things, and discovered nothing solid and firm, have quitted their presumption and acknowledged their natural condition. Montaigne.

When the grape (uva) of the palate becomes inflamed by moisture, it is the cause of suffocation.

Aristoteles.

If you would be venerable, instruct your children, and so partake of their good actions. Persian Sentence.

Acts.

ARATUS, of Sicyon, on the fifth day of the Month Anthesterion, B. C. 251, rescues his native town from the Macedonian tyranny. An annual festival of thanksgiving and sacrifice to Jupiter Soter, the preserver, was afterwards instituted, around his tomb, to celebrate this patriotic achievement; and another, called the Arateia was solemnized on his birthday, at which his son officiated, wearing a girdle of white, with purple spots, in the presence of the assembled citizens-the sage and schoolboy.

The healing benediction, first assumed by Edward the Confessor in 1058, and bequeathed by him to his successors, the sovereigns of England, was, it may be supposed, frequently exercised on the day when so devout a King disappeared from the world. In 1272 we find that Edward I. after touching for the malady called, by distinction, the Evil, gave gold medals, which were suspended, with a formula of prayer, round the necks of the patients. This coin, in value ten shillings, was impressed with the figure of an Angel, and so named. The custom may probably be derived from the baptismal ceremony; for we learn from Zeno, Bishop of Verona, that in his time (4th century) it was usual to give a medal to every one who received the sacramentary ablutions, but whether stamped with a sacred image, or with the monogram and cross, then recently adopted by Constantine, is not recorded. Queen Elizabeth first relinquished the sign of the cross in the ceremony, and Queen Anne deprived the nation, with her life, of the royal virtue itself. She had touched the infant Hercules, Samuel Johnson, in the Lent of 1712, then but thirty months old, an incident which he very well remembered.

The "Journal des Sçavans" appears 1665, on this day, under the direction of its projectors, Messrs. Gallois and de Sallo.

In 1757 Robert Damiens attempts the assassination of Louis XIV. for which he suffered a punishment too terrific to find a place in human annals.

Who, but unhappy descendants, will praise their progenitors?

Grecian Proverb.

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