SEE how the orient Dew, Shed from the bosom of the Morn Into the blowing roses, Yet careless of its mansion new; For the clear region where 'twas born And in its little globe's extent, How it the purple flow'r does slight, But gazing back upon the skies, Like its own tear, Because so long divided from the sphere. Trembling lest it grow impure: Remembering still its former height, Shuns the sweet leaves and blossoms green; And, recollecting its own light, Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express The greater Heaven in a Heaven less. In how coy a figure wound, Every way it turns away: So the world excluding round, Yet receiving in the day. Here disdaining, there in love. Congeal'd on earth: but does, dissolving, run Into the glories of THE ALMIGHTY SUN.-Marvel. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be good. Ecclesiastes. Day. Births. Deaths. Cal. M. Valerius Martialis, A. D. Anne, of England, 1619. d. 1. 30, Bilbilis. Dr. John Pell, 1610, Southwyke. Hampton Court. Matthias (of Germany), 1619. Alex. Balfour, 1767, Monikie. J. F. Dreux du Radier, 1780. The moment which severs us from the object we love is terrible; it insulates us from all the earth; the faculties of the soul are annihilated, and its relation with the universe subsists only through the medium of a horrible dream which distorts every thing.-Napoleon. Richard Gifford, 1807. d. Duffield. Unmarried men are best friends, best masters, best servants; but not always best subjects, for they are light to run Obits of the Latin Church. away. A single life doth well St. David, Archbishop of Caer- with churchmen, for charity will leon, (removed to the Vale of hardly water the ground where Ross), Patron of Wales, d. it must fill a pool. It is indif544. (See Eng. Church Cal.) ferent for magistrates; for if they St. Albinus, of Angers, d. 549. be corrupt, you shall have a St. Swidbert (or Swibert), of servant five times worse than a Northumberland, Bp. d. 713. wife.—Bacon. St. Monan, of Scotland, M. 874. As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: it is vanity. Solomon. And mighty Mars, for war renown'd, By him the childless goddess rose, Minerva, studious to compose Her twisted threads; the web she strung, And o'er a loom of marble hung.---Addison. acts. MARTIUS. In the state calendar of Romulus there were ten nominal months, of which March was the first, and December the last, in order, containing together three hundred and four days. By some it has been conjectured that two embolismic solar months were inserted at the conclusion of the year; but, as we have no relic of their names or duration, the better opinion seems to be that the deficiency was otherwise supplied; for six of these defective years were equal to five of the Gregorian, with the loss only of two days and a quarter. Now, an addition of five days at the end of every ten complete years would leave a surplus half day, which at the celebration of the Alban secle of one hundred solar, or one hundred and twenty Romulian years, amounted exactly to the same number of days, when the ordinary intercalation would be omitted-a regulation more remote but more simple, and even more correct, than that afterwards established by Numa. This refined prince, by dedicating the month Martius to Minerva, had not the same reverence for the attributes of Mars as the descendants of Eneas; but if he degraded the latter deity from his place, as patron of the year, he did not venture to change the name of the month, in deference perhaps to the prejudices of his new subjects, but more on account of its connexion, in mystic philosophy, with the season of the year. In Greek fable we understand by Vulcan an emblem of winter, and Venus of the earth; and when it is said in this month that Mars and Venus were found together, and exposed to the laughter of the gods, there needs no interpretation. In the Oriental demonology two principles governed the world : one of them, as Plato observes, of a benevolent disposition, and the author of every thing that is good, while the other was of an opposite character, the author of every thing that is evil; but that the blending of these principles would produce order and excellence, both morally and physically, whether in respect of the seasons or the Love is a remedy provided by God for the safety and preservation of youth. Plato. Behold the spacious neighbourhood of Rome, To Anio's roar, and Tibur's olive shade; To where Præneste lifts her airy brow; Or downward spreading to the sunny shore, Where Alba breathes the freshness of the main. ---Liberty. Acts. passions. Numa derived his religion from Egyptian superstition; and the Mars of Troy, as he well knew, was the god Belus Arius of the Assyrians, an antitype of harmony, and of all those useful virtues for which Minerva is preeminently distinguished. His emblems were the ram and the lion, denoting vigour and fecundity; perhaps the former also was a figure of the front and restauration of the year, and allusive, it would seem, to the fleecy oblation offered by Noah, after the great fast. The following passage from Plutarch de Iside, will illustrate the motives for dedicating the present month to Minerva : "Hercules is supposed by the Pythagoreans to be placed in the Sun (i. e. Belus), and to accompany him in his progress round the world, as Mercury does the Moon (i. e. Isis); intending hereby, that as the influence of the latter body seems to resemble the works of reason, and to proceed from wisdom, so the operations of the former are like those strokes which, by mere dint of strength and force, bear down all before them. It is also the opinion of the stoicks (say these astronomers) that the sun was at first kindled, and is still maintained by exhalations drawn from the sea, whilst the moon is fed by those more sweet and benign vapours which arise from fountains and lakes." This is intelligible, and shows the reason why the Egyptian Isis was adorned with a vest of many colours, expressive of her varied power and docility; and why both these deities have ever been considered the patronesses of states, because, being representatives of the moon, she strikes, by her changes, those lesser periods of time which should be devoted to the gods, as without service there could be no protection. The moon, therefore, is the kindest of mistresses, for she perpetually reminds us of all the duties of preservation one of those blessings that can never be appreciated until we lose it. What the Greeks did partially the Latins did entirely Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.---Proverbs. 138 O thou virgin that shinest like the snow on the brows of Aran! as the pearly dew on Eryri. Welsh Bard. Acts. respecting their calendar: they counted the days backward, so that in the progress to any interesting point of time, as the nones, the ides, and the calends of the month, they more respectfully went, as to a temple, with their faces in front, by regular gradations, and not like crabs, by retrocession, which would have been both clumsy and profane. It was thus the months presented the appearance of those double steps, by which, if standing on the centre (the ides), either slope will conduct you to a basis: we ascend on one side, from new to full moon, and descend on the other, with the wane, until her renovation. In the rude period of the Roman state, before the publication of the Fasti by writing, it was customary for one of the priests of the augural college to pronounce aloud to the people, on the change of every moon, the number of nones in each month, repeating the Greek word “kaleo” (in Latin voco, I proclaim," resembling the Anglo-Saxon phrase oyez) so many times as they consisted of days; which, in effect, was an announcement of the almanac, as all the days of every month were governed by the position of the nones.-Upon this day the Vestal virgins, four in number, at their establishment by Numa, increased to six by Tarquin the Proud, annually renewed the sacred fire from the solar rays. They watched it in the night-time alternately, and whoever suffered it to be extinguished was scourged by the Pontifex Maximus, an incident which was only expiated by extraordinary sacrifices. The punishment of any vestal who violated her vow of chastity was of the highest severity; no less than being buried alive, with funeral solemnities, in a place called the Campus Sceleratus ; and the paramour was scourged to death in the forum. But their privileges were likewise great, for they were exempted from oaths, and could absolve a criminal from punishment if they met him accidentally. The mother of Romulus was a vestal. The institution of the perpetual fire was derived from the East, but is peculiar also to the Mexicans, and was probably symbolized in the Phanix. This augural solemnity was abolished by Theodosius. The harmony of the world, like that of a harp, is made up of discords, and consists in a mixture of good and evil.---Heraclitus. |
