How calm, how beautiful, comes on Fresh as if day again were born, Again upon the lap of morn!---Lalla Rookh. Acts. THE HALCYON DAYS. They were fourteen in number, until the vigil of Christmas. The first appearance and incubation of "the modest Halcyon"—the social bird that wooes the shore, called by Ovid the Wintry Queen, was supposed by the Greeks to be the harbinger of some calm and happy state; the departure rather of Pan, and the birth of Thalia, which is the Pastoral Muse. It is properly a record of the dispersion of all the ruder elements of nature at the solstice when the sun returns. Now of the "Seasons," whose emblems may be seen among the Towneley terracottas. Winter is in complete vest, bearing dead game. Spring, with her head uncovered, simply adorned with a flower, clasps the bearded grain. The matron Summer, her hair dressed, carries in either hand provisions. Young Autumn brings the fruits. The Roman Agonalia' were repeated upon the present day. Julian the new Emperor's triumphal entry into the eastern capital, A. D. 361. The young general had traversed with victory the whole continent of Europe, from the shores of the Atlantic.-See 3rd Nov. LLEWELLYN. Edward received the head of the last sovereign of Wales at Rhuddlan it was removed to London, and fixed upon the Tower, encircled with a wreath of willows, in solemn mockery, 1282. The plague began at Whitechapel, 1625.-Trial of Louis, 1792. Charles Radcliffe, brother to the Earl of Derwentwater, escapes from his prison at Newgate, and retires into France, 1716. CHARLES XII. The Mars of the North fell by a cannon-shot on the temple, St. Andrew's eve, O. S. 1718. "Perhaps he was the only man, most certainly he was the only king, that ever lived without failings. Severe to himself as well as to others, he little regarded either his own life and labours, or those of his subjects; an extraordinary rather than a great man, and more worthy to be admired than imitated." The period in which the people of Christendom were the lowest sunk in ignorance, and consequently in disorders of every kind, may justly be fixed about the age of the Conqueror; when the sun of science began to reascend.---Hume. Day. A tone of thrilling softness, now, as caught From light winds sweeping o'er a late-reap'd field ;- A murmur musical, of winds conceal'd And ever and anon, still deeper tone Of Winter's gathering dirge, at distance peal'd, By harps and hands unseen; and only known Prid. Alexander Severus (Emperor), Darius Nothus (of Persia), Samuel (Admiral) Hood, 1724, Sir William Morice, 1676. Dr. Erasmus Darwin, 1731, Elston, near Newark. William Cochran, 1738, Strath aven, in Clydesdale. Dr. John Pell, 1685. St. Giles's in the Fields. John Horsley, 1731. d. Morpeth. Colley Cibber, 1757. d. Canonbury, Islington. Maria Louisa (Archduchess of John Otho Tabor. 1674. d. Austria), 1791.] Obits of the Latin Church. St. Corentin (or Cury), of Me nehont, in Devonshire, 401. Clonard, in. Ireland, 552. Franckfort on the Oder. Dr. Albert Haller, 1777. Rome. It seems generally agreed, that the description of the grand and beautiful objects of nature, with well-selected scenes of rural life, real, but not coarse, constitute the only proper materials of pastoral poetry.-Aikin. The temperate man, like fish in chrystal streams, untainted with disease, smoothly glides through the soft current of life. Feltham's Resolves. But now the Salmon-Fishers moist Have shod their heads in their canoes: How tortoise like, but not so slow, These rational Amphibii go? Let's in for the dark hemisphere Does now like one of them appear.-Appleton House. Acts. An POET LAUREATE. The style Poeta laureatus originally was an actual academical degree in rhetoric, which embraces laudatory verses. instance occurs at Oxford in 1470; and again, for the last time, in the person of Robert Whittington, 1512. It is clear the King's Laureate was no more than "a graduated rhetorician employed in the service of the king." The first royal "Versificator" graced with the appellation of "Laureate" was John Caius, of Cambridge, who published in 1506 a prose traduction of the " Siege of Rhodes," addressed to King Edward IV., in which he subscribes himself hys humble poete laureate. Whether he received the versifier's pension of 100s. does not appear. Bernard Andrews, an Augustine monk, served as laureate and historiographer under the two Tudor kings, and received a salary of ten marks. John King, his successor, was followed by Skelton, upon whose testimony we learn that Gower, Chaucer, and Lydgate enjoyed no such distinction" they wanted nothing but the Laurel." Then came a splendid train of names: Spenser, Daniel, Jonson, Davenant, and Dryden. Shadwell was succeeded by Tate; and Rowe by Eusden and Cibber. Wm. Whitehead was the forerunner of Tom Warton; and Henry Pye, the harbinger of Mr. Southey, known no less for his vast literary attainments and poetical genius than for his exemplary virtues. The form of creation of three laureat poets at Strasburgh, in 1621, is very remarkable: "I create you, being placed in a chair of state, crowned with laurel and ivy, and wearing a ring of gold, and the same do pronounce and constitute Poets Laureate, in the name of the holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.”—Addison reaches Genoa, 1699. The commemoration-day at the Chartreuse in honour of its founder. Cromwell dissolves the convention called Barebone's Parliament by the corporal of the guard supported by a file of musqueteers, 1653. The extraordinary comet of 1680 is first observed all over Britain. Tubal himself, the first musician, With key of harmony could not unlock So sweet a tune, as that the throstle can.---Court of Love. Day. We two, each other's only pride, Its coarse delights and tainted joys, There shall no vain pretender be, To court thy smile and torture me, No proud superior there be seen, But Nature's voice shall hail thee queen.---The Foresters. Idus. Martin de Aspicueta, 1491, Frederick II. (Emperor), 1250. 13. d. Fiorenzuola, in Apulia. Varasayn. Sixtus V. Felix Peretti (Pope), Emanuel the Great (of Portu 1521, Montalto. 1553, Pau in Bearne. Dr. Edw. Chamberlayne, 1616, Obits of the Latin Church. gal), 1521. buried, Lisbon. James V. (of Scotland), 1542. d. Falkland. Conrad Gesner, 1565. Zurich. Peter Wargentin, 1783. d. St. Aubert, Bishop of Cambray Dr. David Macbride, 1778. and Arras, 669. Charles III. (of Spain), 1788. St. Othilia of Alsace, Virgin Louis le Gendre, 1797. d. Paris. Abbess, 772. St. Kenelm, King, Martyr at Clent, in Staffordshire, 820. John Marinoni, of Venice, 1562. Edward Law, Lord Ellenbo rough, 1818. When fair St. Lucy, with the borrow'd light, Of moon and stars, had lengthen'd night. ---Dryden. She all the gentle race of womankind In height surpass'd and beauty: nor with her Rever'd she; so had never woman lov'd.---Alcmena. Acts. ÆGOSPOTAMI. This celebrated Spartan victory of Lysander over a vast Athenian fleet (during the tyranny), happily closed the 27 years war in the Peloponnesus, B. C. 405. Conon fled to Cyprus, and the admiral took possession of Athens in the following spring. The year preceding that victory is memorable for the taking of Syracuse by the elder Dionysius, when he assumed the tyranny, 30th November, B. C. 406. The Equiria' commemorative of Mars appear in the Roman calendar. A league of friendship is referred to the Roman senate assembled this day in the Temple of Concord, on behalf of the Jews, who had sent three ambassadors, with " a shield of gold as a mark of confederacy." This league was solemnly established in the ninth year of that excellent pontiff, John Hyrcanus, in the month Panemus, B. C. 126. The General Council of Trent is opened this day, 1545.-See 4th Dec. Drake embarks in the "Golden Hind" for the South Sea, 1577. The grant to Davenant of an annuity of £100. as poet laureate, 1638. Abel Jansen Tasman discovers the islands" New Zealand," 1642. Captain Bethan is appointed Provost Martial, "with power to seize upon all ballad singers, and to suppress stage-plays." This was to enforce Cromwell's ordinance enacted the 13th of February, 1648. The motto Semper Eadem,' is first adopted in the English arms, 1702. Madame Catalani, the Empress of nocturnal Song, appears, 1806. In reviewing the Peninsular glories of the Duke of Wellington at that period when he placed his invited flag upon French territory, it will be proper that there should exist in the mind of the mere spectator of the marches of Patriotism through some wide but divided campaign a scope and capacity for meditation, so that the great chain of Revolution whose extremes point to shadows on the one hand and dawning on the other is read, not link by link, but each in connexion with its place through the great scheme of liberation. Our consolidated Independence will then be universally felt, and very far beyond the flash of faction, 1813. The catholic religion is, to love God and to love man.---Collins. |