Desiring God that all their illes may there consumed bee;
Whereby they thinke through all that yeare from agues to be free.
Some others get a rotten wheele, all worne and cast aside,
Which, covered round about with strawe and tow, they closely hide:
And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,
They hurle it downe with violence, when darke appears the night:
Resembling much the Sunne, that from the heavens down should fal,
A straunge and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearfull to them all:
But they suppose their mischiefes all are likewise throwne to hell,
And that from harmes and daungers now, in safetie here they dwell.
The Popish Kingdome, fol. 54 b.

June 25. St. Prosper of Aquitain. of Monte Vergine. St. Moloc. SS. Agoard and Aglibert, Martyrs.

St. Gulielmus
St. Aldebert.

rises at III. 43'. and sets at VIII. 17'.

Naves coronatae convivia per Tiberim ducebunt—Rom. Cal.

This was a water frolic on the Tiber, instituted by Servius Tullius, who founded the Temple of Fortis Fortuna. The yacht and pleasure boats were adorned with flowers, and the amusement may have resembled that on the Thames on the 9th of the gloomy November.

CHRONOLOGY.-The Battle of Bannockburn fought between the Scots commanded by Robert Bruce, and the English commanded by Edward II. anno 1314.

Francis Pizarro assassinated at Lima in 1541.

DIANA. Under this term we comprehend, not only hunting, but all that relates to sporting of any sort. Fishing being now in season, we quote, from Gay, the following admonitions to select the proper flies for Trout in this and each succeeding month:

Mark well the various seasons of the year,
How the succeeding insect race appear.
In this revolving Moon one colour reigns,
Which in the next the fickle Trout disdains.

Oft have I seen the skilful angler try

The various colours of the treacherous fly.

When he with fruitless pain hath skimmed the brook,
And the coy fish rejects the skipping hook,

He shakes the boughs that on the margin grow,
Which o'er the stream a waving forest throw;
When, if an insect fall, (his certain guide,)
He gently takes him from the whirling tide;
Examines well his form with curious eyes,
His gaudy vest, his wings, his horns, and size,
Then round his hook the chosen fur he winds,
And on the back a speckled feather binds.

So just the colours shine through every part,
That Nature seems again to live in Art.
Let not thy wary step advance too near,
While all thy hopes hang on a single hair;
The newformed insect on the water moves,
The speckled Trout the curious snare approves;
Upon the curling surface let it glide,

With natural motion from thy hand supplied;
Against the stream now gently let it play,
Now in the rapid eddy roll away.

The scaly shoals float by, and, seized with fear,
Behold their fellows tost in thinner air;

But soon they leap, and catch the swimming bait,
Plunge on the hook, and share an equal fate.
When a brisk gale against the current blows,
And all the watery plain in wrinkles flows,
Then let the fisherman his art repeat,
Where bubbling eddies favour the deceit.

June 26. SS. John and Paul Martyrs.
tius Abbé. St. Vigilius Bp. M.
St. Anthelm. B. Raingarda Widow.

Solstitium.-Rom. Cal.

St. MaxenSt. Babolen.

FLORA.--BLUE SOWTHISTLE Sonchus caeruleus is by this time in flower. This is not the British Blue Sowthistle of English botany, but is an exotic species introduced in 1807 by T. F. Forster, Esq. the author of Flora Tonbrigiensis. Now and then, in early years, a flower or two comes out on the Nasturtium or Great Indian Cress Tropoeolum majus. This is properly an aestival plant, and flowers through the declining Summer in full luxuriance, dropping its abundant seeds in Autumn. The Monkey Flower Mimulus luteus is now pretty plentifully in blow.

FAUNA. Young birds are now seen about, and the old ones preparing for a second nidification. Milton has thus admirably described the various sorts, nests, and powers of birds, in his own powerful language and majestic cadences:

The Eagle and the Stork

On cliffs and Cedar tops their eyries build:
Part loosely wing the region, part more wise
In common, ranged in figure wedge their way,
Intelligent of seasons, and set forth

Their aery caravan high over seas

Flying, and over lands with mutual wing

Easing their flight; so steers the prudent Crane

Her annual voyage, borne on winds; the air

Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes :
From branch to branch the smaller birds with song
Solace the woods, and spread their painted wings
Till even, nor then the solemn Nightingale
Ceased warbling, but all night tuned her soft lays:
Others on silver lakes and rivers bathed

Their downy breast: the Swan with arched neck

Between her white wings mantling proudly, rows
Her state with oary feet; yet oft they quit

The dank, and, rising on stiff pennons, tower

The mid aerial sky: others on ground

Walked firm; the crested Cock whose clarion sounds
The silent hours, and the other whose gay train
Adorns him, coloured with the florid hue

Of rainbows and starry eyes.

June 27. St. Ladislas K. and C. St. John Priest and Confessor.

Jovis Statoris et Laris.-Rom. Cal.

Ovid says:

The following day, the gods we Lares name,
Their day of dedication justly claim;

Where garlands now are made by curious hands,
By all revered, their ancient temple stands;

And Stator Jove has then his rites divine,

Whose fane is visible near Mount Palatine.

FLORA. The grass is by this time ready for cutting in most parts of England and France; and if not cut already, we advise the farmer to avail himself of the least prospect of a few fair days to do it, in case of a wet July, which sometimes happens. See June 24 and July 15. This important part of the agricultural business of our district, the making of hay, is chiefly done about this time of year.

"I have no doubt," says Mr. Howard, "that this branch of rural economy has derived very considerable aid from the use of the barometer; and, in fact, that much less of valuable fodder is spoiled by wet now than in the days of our forefathers. But there is yet room for improvement in the knowledge of our farmers on the subject of the atmosphere. It must be a subject of great satisfaction and confidence to the husbandman, to know, at the beginning of a Summer, by the certain evidence of meteorological results on record, that the season, in the ordinary course of things, may be expected to be a dry and warm one; or to find, in a certain period of it, that the average quantity of rain to be expected for the month has already fallen. On the other hand, when there is reason, from the same source of information, to expect much rain, the man who has courage to begin his operations under an unfavourable sky, but with good ground to conclude, from the state of his instruments and his collateral knowledge, that a fair interval is approaching, may often be profiting by his observations; while his cautious neighbour, who waited for the weather to settle,' may find that he has let the opportunity go by. This superiority, however, is attainable by a very moderate share of applica

ion to the subject; and by the keeping of a plain diary of he barometer and raingauge with the hygrometer and the vane under his daily notice."

In this respect, the rule of the distribution of rain according to the Moon's declination, see Howard's Climate of London, p. 251, may be kept in mind with some prospect of advantage.

COELUM.-Storms of thunder and lightning may be expected about this time, especially in hot weather: their prevalence too at this time, with a calm and warm air, and unattended by much rain, is rather an indication that a tolerably fair Summer will follow. See Prognostics recorded on March 5th and 9th.

June 28.

St. Irenaeus Bp. M. St. Leo. II. Pope. SS. Potamiana and Basilides Martyrs. SS. Plutarch &c. Martyrs.

Quirini Templum.-Rom. Cal.

Quirinus is well known to have been a name given to Romulus after his deification-a process of conferring posthumous honour similar to the canonization of saints in subsequent times. Some protestant and many infidel writers have endeavoured more closely to assimilate these two ceremonies, in order to injure and depreciate any act of the Catholics.

FAUNA. Frogs now are abundant; they inhabit all our stagnant pools, ponds, marsh ditches, and swamps, more or less all the Summer. About this time of year they are very numerous among the mowed grass, and the first finding them with their bright yellow skins is accounted a sign of a good haytime and fair weather.

FLORA. About this time Marygolds are plentifully in blow, and their flowers should be gathered and put up in some dry place for broths. This seems to have been as favourite a flower with the poets as the Violet or the Rose; and they seem also to have noticed its property of closing at eventide a property possessed in common with most syngenesious plants. Chatterton says,

The Marybudde that shutteth with the light.

Browne, in his Pastorals :

But, maiden, see the day is waxen old,

And 'gins to shut in with the Marygold.

Shakespeare, in his Winter's Tale :

The Marygold that goes to bed with the Sun,

And with him rises weeping.

In early seasons the Corn Marygold Chrysanthemum segetum, and the Garden Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum coronarium, begin to blow.

June 29. ST. PETER Prince of the Apostles.
St. Hemma W.

St. Peter the Apostle, son of Jonas and brother of St. Andrew, was the first consecrated bishop of the Catholic Church in the cathedral of Rome. From him, by a succession of ordinations, all the regular clergy have proceeded.See Butler's Lives, and the Apostolical Tree, by the Rev. J. Milner, in his End of Religious Controversy.

FLORA. The Foxglove Digitalis purpurea begins to blow, and increasing in numbers through July, it then adorns the shady banks and hedges with its tall spike of pendent flowers of a lake colour.

The Papavareta or large fields of officinal Poppy, for the purposes of Opium, generally are, by this time, in flower; and large fields of this plant viewed at a distance, and intervening between other crops, have a very fanciful effect. The Smallheaded or Garden Poppy, being a very changing variety of the P. Somniferum, is now used for officinal purposes, as we noticed ear Amiens this present year. The large white variety is, however, the most common both in England and Flanders.

HYGEIA. The consideration of the Poppy leads us today to found our medical article on Opium, a drug which has been in general much misrepresented in its effects. So far from producing universal sleepiness, as it is usually thought to do, when given in proper doses, it causes a most happy feeling of easy comfort, and a mind ponderibus librata suis; but though a much more agreeable stimulant than Wine and Alcohol, and indeed a less dangerous one, yet it requires the greatest management in its employment, its abuses leading often to an excitement of the nervous system of a character truly alarming, from its power to cause and perpetuate the most frightful dreams, reveries, and visions, of which so truly philosophic and ample an account is given in "The Confessions of an English Opium Eater," that we shall refer our readers to that work. Of its power to produce the gigantic imagery of dreams the author adduces many examples, as well as of waking visions of a similar nature. It is thus that the creative power of the mind, expressed in the following lines, seemed realized :

Verses by a Modern Poet on an Appearance beheld in the Clouds.
The appearance, instantaneously disclosed,
Was of a mighty city-boldly say