And now advanc'd the queen of melting joy,
Smiling supreme in unresisted charms:

Ah then, what transports fir'd the trembling boy!

How throbb'd his sickening frame with fierce alarms!

His eyes in liquid light luxurious swim,

And languish with unutterable love.

Heaven's warm bloom glows along each bright'ning limb,

Where fluttering bland the veil's thin mantlings rove.---Venus.

Acts.

HERCULES and Venus. In describing this mystery of the Romans we may create an English word, and call it the mulsion of those dark and turbulent elements in nature (Erebus and Nox) which by a divine Energy produced 'Heaven' and 'Earth,' Protogonus and Eon, the twofold universe, with their separate attendants.-See 20th September.

The old theogonist introduces "CHAOS" as the primal self-existing cause; and the first of the elements. Indeed the force of that word is MATTER SUPPORTED, expressed by the octave letter A in every tongue. The Druids seem to have computed their days from night to night; and like all the ancient world (before the Exodus), by twenty-four divisions. The WINTER SOLSTICE is that period of the year when the sun enters the first degree of the Tropic of Capricorn, which is about the shortest day. The longest' day at Greenwich (allowing for refraction) is sixteen hours, thirty-four minutes, and five seconds; the 'shortest' day, seven hours, forty-four minutes, and seventeen seconds.-See 21st June.

ST. THOMAS. This great apostle, called Dydimus (Twin), whose counsels penetrated into India, was killed by the Brachmins, and buried at Meliapour, about ten miles from Madras, A. D. 73. The 'festival' was instituted, shortly after the invention of musical notes, A. D. 1130.

CEREALIA. These were Athenian festivals upon the longest night, when their ancient year (prior to B. C. 432) began. It is the first day of the Metonic month Gamelion, whose initial paints The Oath.

The Latin 'Divalia' to the Goddess of Silence and of Cheerfulness. The Excise-tax is perpetuated by an act of King Charles II. 1660. Sentence is executed upon many of those Scottish covenanters who had rebelled it is supposed under persecution, 1667. This, which was a singular natural year in temperature, gave the Whigs' a name.

The maiming of Sir John Coventry, a commoner, for reflecting upon the moral character of Charles II. which caused the "Coventry Act,” 1670.

The attributes of God are Truth, Spirit, Immensity, and Infinity, Eternity, Immutability, Incorruptibility, Omnipresence, Omnipotence. Milton.

Day.

Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth,

Wisely hast shunn'd the broadway and the green,
And with those few art eminently seen,
That labour up the hill of heavenly truth,

Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends

To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light,

And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure
Thou, when the bridegroom with his feastful friends,
Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night,

Hast gain'd thy entrance, virgin wise and pure.

XI.

Cal. 22.

Thomas Banks, 1738, Lambeth. Archbp. Kinsius, 1060. York.

Let not other regard themselves so holy, as I have no corner left for me.

The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame,
Nor wish'd for Jonson's art or Shakspeare's flame.
Themselves they studied, as they felt they writ;
Intrigue was plot, obscenity was wit.

Vice always found a sympathetic friend;
They pleas'd their age and did not aim to mend.
Yet bards like these aspir'd to lasting praise,
And proudly hoped to pimp in future days.

Acts.

ROMAN festivals devoted to the Lares Compitales, guardians of the cross roads. The word 'Lars' in Etruscan signifies a leader.—See 1st May.

The capture of Alexandria from the Greeks under Amri the Saracen, a fourteen month's siege, Friday, in the month Moharram, A. D. 640. "I have taken," he addressed the Caliph Omar, "the great city of the West. It is impossible for me to enumerate the variety of its riches and beauty; and I shall content myself with observing, that it contains 4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 400 theatres or places of amusement, 12,000 shops for the sale of vegetable food, and 40,000 tributary Jews." It is well known that the second Alexandrian Library (established by Cleopatra) was then destroyed to feed the baths. That collection consisted of the treasures in the Serapion of 300,000 volumes and those 200,000 rolls brought by Marc Antony from Pergamus, with the accumulation of seven centuries. The first was principally formed by the two Ptolemies, and contained at the period of the fire in Cæsar's time 700,000 volumes. The temple of Serapis escaped the rest, imprisoned in the Bruchion Musæum, were consumed, pulcherrimum regiæ opulentiæ monumentum. The knowledge was in a wrong place, or the simple gift of printing had forbad its annihilation. The rays of science lead to one focus.

The coronation of Stephen (of the house of Blois) at Westminster, 1135. The famous Protestant League of defence against a decree (19 Nov.) of the Imperial diet is concluded this day at Smalkald, 1530.

The Great Seal of England is delivered to Sir Nicholas Bacon, with the style of "Lord Keeper," then first adopted, 1558.

The Protestants of Germany here introduced the Gregorian, or New Style of supputation, by the omission of ten days, concluding the year 1699. Sir William Temple's mission to the Hague regarding the French monarch's occupation of Flanders, which terminated in the triple alliance, 13th January, 1668.-Ismael is taken by Suwarrow, 1790. The fourth French month, Nivóse, began in Capricorn' yesterday. 'Tis you that say it, not I. You do the deeds,

And your ungodly deeds find me the words.-Sophocles.

O happy Britain! we have not to fear
Such hard and arbitrary measure here;
Else, could a law, like that which I relate,
Once have the sanction of our triple state,
Some few that I have known in days of old,

Would run most dreadful risk of catching cold;

While you, my friend, whatever wind should blow,

Might traverse England safely to and fro,

An honest man, close-button'd to the chin,

Broad-cloth without, and a warm heart within.---Epistle.

Day.

X.

Cal.

23.

Bishop (Matthew) Wren, 1585, Childebert I. (of France), 558.

London.
Heneage Finch, Earl of Notting-

ham, 1621, London?
Frederick Augustus (of Saxony),
1750.]

d. Paris.

Dagobert II. (of Austrasia),

assass. 679. (Stenay.)
Henry de Lorraine, Duke of
Guise, 1588. murd. Blois.
Secretary (William) Davison,

1608.

Redemptus Baranzano, 1622.
d. Montargis.
Roger Ascham, O. S. 1568.
St. Sepulchre, London.

It was recorded in the sacred books of the Persians and the Chaldeans, that the world, composed of a total revolution of twelve thousand periods, was divided into two partial revolu-Michael Drayton, 1631. Westminster Abbey. tions, of which one, the age and

1789.

reign of good, was to terminate Dr. W. Musgrave, 1721. Exeter.
at the expiration of six thousand, Chas. Michael (Abbé) L'Epée,
and the other, the age and reign
of evil, at the expiration of ano-
ther six thousand.-Volney.

Obits of the Latin Church.
St. Victoria, Virgin, Martyr at
Rome, 250.

Ten Martyrs of Crete, 3rd Cent.
St. Servulus, a Beggar of Rome,

590.

Genius having afterwards invented the more simple art of applying signs to sounds, of which the number is limited, and of painting the word instead of the thought, hieroglyphic pictures were, by means of alphabetical writing, brought into Volney.

disuse.

Honour your parents :---make oblations of your fruits to the gods:---hurt not living creatures.

Laws of Triptolemus, in Zenocrates.

A milk white Hind, immortal and unchang'd
Fed on the lawns, and in the forest rang'd;
Without unspotted, innocent within,

She fear'd no danger, for she knew no sin:

Yet had she oft been chas'd with horns and hounds,

And Scythian shafts, and many winged wounds

Aim'd at her heart; was often forc'd to fly,

And doom'd to death, though fated not to die.-Dryden.

Acts.

XERXES. The accession of this magnificent Persian to the throne of his father Darius Hystaspes, Nab. Era, 263, B. C. 486. When Darius was cut off he had reigned thirty six years, from the thoth of N. E. 227, first day of January, B. C. 521. The year 485 (in which he died) is remarkable for two facts: the conquest of Syracuse under Gelon, and a comic work by Epicharmus, who added the Greek letters Chi' and 'Theta' (now the eighth' in order) to his native alphabet.

LAURENTALIA. These were Roman ferie most piously devoted to Acca Laurentia the shepherd-nurse of Romulus. The Laurentinalia' on the vigil of May-day is connected with a wanton feat of Hercules. Jupiter received homage upon this day, when the 'Goat' had set.

The truly great Marcus Antoninus enters Rome in triumph after his German victories on the Danube, accompanied by his monstrous son Commodus, A. D. 176. It was probably the birth-day of Faustina.

The naval battle of the Hellespont, and defeat of Gainas, the Barbarian, in the month 'Apellæus,' this day, A. D. 400. He was despatched in Thrace, and his head produced in 'Audynæus' on the nones of January. Richard Royston, the royal bookseller at the Angel' in Ivy Lane, receives the MS. copy of the "Eikon Basiliké” for the press, 1648. The book was in circulation on the "Martyrdom." Dugdale notes, that same day, "The King brought to Windsor from Hurst Castle."

King James II. escapes from Rochester to Calais, 1688.

General Lavallette's romantic escape from the prison at Paris, by assuming his wife's dress, who remained in his form, 1815. The execution in effigy was to have taken place on the morning of the 10th of January, the minute of his flight from the city accompanied by the gallant Sir Robert Wilson to the frontiers. This delightful example of female devotion deserves a lasting memorial. "If you die, I die with you. Save yourself for my sake. Dress yourself, and quickly. No adieus, no tears." It was formerly the custom for every great house in England to keep a tame fool dressed in petticoats, that the heir of the family might have an opportunity Spectator. of joking upon him, and diverting himself with his absurdities.