that he has achieved all that is requisite in moral polity who can blend the means of obtaining and organizing a virtuous population with the most alluring and innocent pleasure of which the human mind is susceptible.

We mean not to pass any encomiums, nor to cast any reflections, on the essential points of difference of any religious community whatever, but merely to expose what we conceive to be the bad policy of making any institution gloomy, whatever may be the particular faith which it is intended to consolidate and give effect to.

On a ruined Abbey covered with Ivy and Cobwebs.

At non immerito velavit aranea fanum,
Cum paries sparso sanguine tincta fuit.

Whylome each trustie priest at early call
Of matin's belle at prayer was alway founde,
And eke his flocke, greymantled pilgrimmes all,
Sought morninglie the churches hallowed grounde;
And when the vespers' larum gan to sounde
Agen poured forth to praise by tapir light;
And sacred memorie keepes the holie round
Of yearlie vigils for each saint beside.
Faith, Hope, and Charitie did ever there abide.

But Discord came and blew her trumpe of woe,
And trod our holie altars to the dust,
Destroyed the fane, and bred the fiercest foe
Of deadlie hatred, and of wordlie lust;
Hypocrasie then spread her masking crust
O'er Faith, and priestlie Pride, with craftie eye,
Stalk'd in at vestry door by gold ycurst.
She slew the heavenborn virtue Charity,

And Hope rested alone her claims on tythe and fee.

Then down the temple felle, in ruined plight,
Each mangled window now, each turret high,
Gives lodgement for the illfaced owl of night,
Or crowking crowes, or bats that flitten bye;
The sacred stone out of the walle doth crie
Against the heretics dismayed all,

While the old spire, upraised to the skie,
Still bears the Cocke of watchfulness to call

The faithful few who dread the like calamitie.--Mag. Miscel.

L'Avantage de la Chrétianisme.-Parmi les grands avantages de la religion Catholique, c'est ne pas le son moindre, qu'elle fournit une réponse positive et satisfactoire à des questions les plus difficiles et metaphysiques que mille fois l'imagination de l'homme se propose à resoudre. Ce n'est pas possible d'éviter la question naturelle-D'où suis-je ? Qui a fait le monde? Quelle est la destination de l'âme ? Quelle espece de changement arrive à l'instant de la mort ?

La religion donne les réponses propres à toutes ces questions. La nature est la voix de Dieu, et la Révélation ses lois. S'il faut penser, il faut avoir aussi des règles pour la direction de nos idées, la régulation de nos imaginations.

November 30. ST. ANDREW Apostle.

SS. Narses and others Martyrs. SS. Sapor and Isaac Bishops, Mahanes, Abraham, and Simeon Martyrs.

St. Andrew was the son of James a fisherman at Bethsaida, and was younger brother of Peter. He was condemned to be crucified on a cross, of the form of an X; and, that his death might be more lingering, he was fastened with cords.

The Order of the Thistle was instituted by Achaius, King of Scotland, in 787, restored by James V. 1540, revived by King James II. in 1687, and reestablished by Queen Anne in 1703. It consists of the sovereign and twelve brethren or knights, making in the whole thirteen, and four officers. The star is worn on the left side of the coat or cloak, and consists of a St. Andrew's cross, of silver embroidery, with rays going out between the points of the cross; on the middle a thistle of gold and green upon a field of green, and round the thistle and field a circle of gold, having on it the following motto, in green letters: Nemo me impune lacessit, No man provokes me with impunity.' The badge or jewel is worn pendent to a green riband over the left shoulder, and tied under the arm. It consists of the image. of St. Andrew, with the cross before, enamelled and chased on rays of gold, the cross and feet resting upon a ground of enamelled green; and on the back enamelled on a green ground, a thistle gold and green, the flower reddish, with the above motto round it. The collar consists of thistles and sprigs of rue interspersed, and from the centre is suspended the image of St. Andrew; the whole of gold enamelled.

Luther, in his Colloquia, part i. p. 233, says, that on the Feast of St. Andrew, the young maidens in his country strip themselves naked; and, in order to learn what sort of husbands they shall have, they recite the following prayer: Deus, Deus meus, O Sancte Andrea effice ut bonum pium acquiram virum; hodie mihi ostende qualis sit cui me in uxorem ducere debet.

Barnaby Googe, in the translation of Naogeorgus's

Regnum Papisticum, fol. 55, probably alludes to some such observances :

To Andrew all the lovers and the lustie wooers come,
Beleeving, through his ayde, and certaine ceremonies done,
While as to him they presentes bring, and conjure all the night,
To have good lucke, and to obtaine their chiefe and sweete delight.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xviii. p. 359, Dudingston parish, county of Edinburgh, distant from Edinburgh a little more than a mile, we read, that many of the opulent citizens resort thither in the Summer months to solace themselves over one of the ancient homely dishes of Scotland, for which the place has been long celebrated. The use of singed sheeps' heads boiled or baked, so frequent in this village, is supposed to have arisen from the practice of slaughtering the sheep fed on the neighbouring hill for the market, removing the carcases to town, and leaving the head, &c. to be consumed in the place.

Singed sheeps' heads are borne in the procession before the Scots in London on St. Andrew's Day.

Hasted, in his History of Kent, vol. ii. p. 757, speaking of the parish of Easling, says, that "On St. Andrew's Day, November 30, there is yearly a diversion called Squirril hunting in this and the neighbouring parishes, when the labourers and lower kind of people, assembling together, form a lawless rabble, and being accoutred with guns, poles, clubs, and other such weapons, spend the greatest part of the day in parading through the woods and grounds, with loud shoutings; and, under the pretence of demolishing the Squirrils, some few of which they kill, they destroy numbers of Hares, Pheasants, Partridges, and in short whatever comes in their way, breaking down the hedges, and doing much other mischief, and in the evening betaking themselves to the alehouses, finish their career there, as is usual with such sort of gentry." This practice is kept up in many parts of Sussex.

Andraeae amatores vulgò turbaeque procorum
Dona ferunt, creduntque illius numine dextro,
Praestigiisque aliis tacita sub nocte peractis
Spem rectam fore, seque frui re posse cupitâ.

Hospin. de Orig. Fest. Christianorum, fol. 152 b.

Advent.-The Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ is now celebrated, and the nearest Sunday to this time is called Advent Sunday. See Moveable Feasts in our Index. The following lines of Barnaby Googe seem to

relate to popular customs which took place about this period:

Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lorde of Grace,
And on the Thursdaye boyes and girls do runne in every place,
And bounce and beate at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps,
And crie, the Advent of the Lord not borne as yet perhaps.
And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell,
A happie yeare, and every thing to spring and prosper well:
Here have they Peares, and Plumbs, and Pence, ech man gives willinglee,
For these three weeks are always thought vnfortunate to bee:
Wherein they are afrayde of sprites and cankred witches spight,
And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might.

FURIA.-On Suicide.-Selfmurder when premeditated in cold blood is a crime, but it often arises in other instances from partial insanity. Suicide is often preceded and accompanied by a numerous train of nervous symptoms, and the preponderance of some painful idea entertained with anxiety and a morbid degree of force, often compels at length the patient to dispossess himself of it by the only means left him, that of destruction. Some have destroyed themselves from the fear of death and its imaginary consequences; which may seem at first a paradox, but is nevertheless true. The fact is, that the morbid dread of some imaginary evil often becomes so irksome and painful that the unhappy subject is propelled to rid himself of it by suicide. Nothing can show more clearly how much suicide often depends on nervous disorders than the illusive perceptions which often precede it, and which in some instances become the means of bringing it about. Persons imagine they hear the voices of their own guardian angels inciting them to the deed, and sometimes even see them in imagination as images of spectral illusion. See Sept. 30, and our Index, article Apparition.

We knew the case of a young person who daily came in from the garden, saying, that a voice called him to the water. He was afterwards found drowned in the pond. Madame de Stael has exhausted her imagination in scribbling a tissue of nonsense Sur la Suicide, which is not however devoid of entertainment, though it is without method or philosophy. And Dr. Spurzheim has incorporated a very useful chapter on Suicide in his observations on the Physiological System, London, 1815; now better known by the general name of Phrenology.

Equation of Time for November.

Nov. 1st, from the time by the dial subtract 16

6th,

M. S.

14

Of Selfadjusting Sundials.It may here be observed, that small and portable Sundials have lately been constructed by a person of the name of Porter, and are now sold in many shops in London. These instruments are adjusted by means of a magnetic needle underneath, so that, wherever they be placed, the gnomon will point due North, and thus the Dial will be properly situated for the Sun, by magnetic influence. These have, therefore, been denominated selfadjusting Sundials.

IALI

DECEMBER. CHRISTMONAT. BRUMALIS.

December 1. St. Eligius Bishop and Confessor.

Orises at VII, 57'. and sets at Iv. 3'.

CHRONOLOGY.-Henry I. died at St. Denis le Forment near Rouen

in 1135.

Leo X. died in 1521. When he ascended the throne the arts were at their meridian. He found greater talents than he employed, and greater works commenced than he completed. Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Raffaello, performed their greatest works before the accession of Leo X.; Bramante the architect of St. Peter's died in the second year of his pontificate; and Da Vinci and Michael Angelo shared none of his favours. It appears, therefore, that the glorious" age of Leo," so much spoken of, was not created by his patronage, but rather the consequence of the state of the arts when he ascended the throne. Yet this pontiff must not be deprived of the merit that justly belongs to him. He drew together the learned men of his time, and formed eminent schools; and he did much in promoting the art of printing, then of incalculable importance to literature.

CALENDAE.-Fortunae muliebris festum.-Rom. Cal.

FORTUNA. We have before had occasion to remark that Fortune, or the secret power which directed the lot and destinies of mortals, was worshipped as a goddess among the ancients, and, like other deities, occupied a considerable place in the minds of the vulgar: while the philosophers derided the notion of personification altogether, the priests fanned the flame of superstition for interested purposes; and men of common sense and of business followed their own occupations and let the world alone. This has been pretty much the case in every age and every country of the world. Every system of theology, whether polytheistical or unitarian, has found enemies. Aristophanes was the Voltaire of Greece; and Juvenal passed off as many sidewind satires on the