JESUITS.-The Society of Jesus, commonly called Jesuits, was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, in the middle of the 16th century. The Jesuitesses were abolished by order of Urban VIII. See Butler's Lives, vol. vii.

p. 401.

COELUM. During the clear frosty nights, which we may now begin to expect, the phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights is frequently seen in high latitudes, and occasionally in other climates. This splendid effect of light seems to be electrical; and it is a very curious circumstance that it has polarity, and that there seems to be some correspondence between the Pole of the Aurora and the Magnetic Pole. We mention this at present merely as a hint for Philosophers to work upon; very little being yet known about the cause of either phenomenon. The most elaborate and accurate Journals of the magnetic variation that we can safely recommend to the reader, are those kept by Colonel Beaufoy, and recorded in Thompson's Annals of Philosophy.

Epistle from Tray to a Town Dog.
While you, degenerate son of B—,
Too like the lazy and too rich,
Leave the plain comforts of the stable,
To lounge beneath the Parlour table,

I, happy as a Dog can be,
Scorn to ape Man's luxury;
Roam as I please in open air,
Contented wi' my homely fare,

Nor wish to quit my friends the horses,
To snap the orts from second courses.
You, I suppose, like tutored Dogs,
Are taught to worry harmless Hogs;
Or with fierce barking bold and eager,
To fright away the ragged beggar.
My Master, strangest human creature,
Would never discompose a feature,
And I might bark, nor fear reproaches,
At purseproud City Knaves in Coaches;
Nay, he would think it sign of grace,
If he perceived me snarl at Lace.

St. Melania the

December 31. St. Sylvester Pope and Confessor.
St. Columba Virgin and Martyr.
Younger.

St. Silvester was Bishop of Rome, and succeeded Miltiades in the papacy, in 314. author of several rites and church, as asylums, unctions, He died in 334.

Silvester is accounted the ceremonies of the Romish palls, corporals, mitres, &c.

CHRONOLOGY.-Dr. Spurzheim the celebrated Phrenologist who first taught the minute anatomy and organology of the Brain in Britain, was born this day in 1776 at Longuich near Trêves on the Moselle. There is a sketch of his life, as colleague of Dr. Gall, the original founder of the System, in the Transactions of the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh, p. 11. In the same place will be found a few particulars of the life and early history of Dr. Gall, who was born on the 9th of March, 1757, at Tiefenbrun near Pfortzheim in Suabia.

Dr. Gall first gave lectures on the System by himself at Vienna as early as 1796, and was joined in 1800 by Dr. Spurzheim. Afterwards they travelled to investigate the truth of the System, and successively gave public Lectures on it at Berlin, Potsdam, Leipzic, Dresden, Halle, Jena, Weimar, Göttingen, Copenhagen, Hamburgh, Frankfort, Carlsruhe, Manheim, Munich, Berne, and Basle; besides at many places of inferior note. Afterwards Dr. Gall settled at Paris, and opened public Courses there. In March 1814 Dr. Spurzheim came to England, and in 1815 commenced Lectures in London, in Rathbone Place, where he had a house, and where many persons, who had for some years been attached to Phrenology, became students, and who afterwards gave up a considerable portion of their time to the investigation of the truth of the System. Among the numerous scientific attendants on Dr. Spurzheim's Courses in London, were Mr. Abernethy, Mr. Laurence, and Dr. Powell.

In the winter of the same year, Dr. Forster gave some lectures gratis at Cambridge on Phrenology, and nearly at the same time Dr. Gall opened a Course of Lectures gratis at Paris. Dr. Spurzheim then proceeded,

in company of a friend, to North Wales, and afterwards lectured at Dublin. He also gave lectures at Bath, Bristol, and other English Towns. In 1816 Dr. Forster read a Paper on the subject of the Anatomy and Physiology of the Brain in Edinburgh, and soon afterwards Dr. Spurzheim opened a Course of Lectures in that renowned City. The new Doctrine met with considerable opposition at first, and divided the Scientific into two parties. Subsequent to this period the advocates of the doctrine continued to multiply and extend their observations, and to examine it in the course of tours in various parts of France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany, in the years 1815, 1819, 1822, and 1823; and Dr. Spurzheim has visited Ireland, Scotland, England, and France, and is now established and teaches it at Paris. Dr. Leach of the British Museum, whose knowledge of Zoology is well known in Europe, made many important observations on Phrenology, and its application to general Zoology, between the years 1815 and 1821; and several other scientific men have followed and pursued phrenological studies with the same result, and have arrived at conviction of its truth: among whom we may name Mr. Abernethy, who eulogized it in the Hunterian Oration, and who has since panegyrized the System in a small Pamphlet on the Researches of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim. The point we are now coming to is important; and to exhibit it in a prominent point of view, we have introduced the above Sketch of the history of the Science, namely Among all the persons consisting of Anatomists, Metaphysicians, Divines, Lawyers accustomed to the examination of evidence, and general Students of Natural History or of Letters-among all, not one who had once embraced and thoroughly studied Phrenology, has receded, saying "the Doctrine is false." Among all the above teachers of the System, there exist slight differences of opinion as to the number and functions of particular and distinct organs; but in the main doctrine all agree, that the Brain is an assemblage of Organs, each having its proper functions, and being the material instruments of separate faculties.

Notwithstanding all the above facts, the System appeared on the decline, and jokes and ridicule were employed by its enemies against it; and Dr. Spurzheim declared it would probably not be rendered permanent, unless a School of Phrenology was founded.

On the 22d of February, 1820, this was achieved at Edinburgh, when a large and respectable Society was established, called the Phrenological Society, of which Sir George S. Mackensie was President: and the Transactions of this Society have redounded the greatest credit to the intelligence and prompt exertions of its members, and have shed a lustre on the long renowned and literary capital of Scotland. Of the numerous treatises on this Science we shall briefly refer to a few Philosophisch Medicinische Untersuchungen über Natur und Kunst im gesunden und kranken Zustande des Menschen, by J. F. Gall, Wien, 1791; Anatomie et Physiologie du Cerveau, Paris, 4to. with splendid folio plates, a work still going on, by Dr. Gall; Physiognomical System, by G. F. Spurzheim, London, 1816; Sur l'Origine du Fonctions Morales, &c. par J. F. Gall, Paris, 1822; and the Transactions, above alluded to, of the Phrenological Society whose respectability is declared by the published names of its members.-H. O. The above account, though not communicated by any of the Authors of the System, agrees with published records in the public journals; and, as the parties mentioned are living, they can correct the statements if unfounded.-Edit.

A NEW YEAR'S ODE.

A Dialogue between the Years 1824 and 1825, varied from an old Newspaper of 1784-5.

TWENTY FOUR retiring, enter TWENTYFIVE.

Good Twentyfour, one moment prithee stay,
I'm Twentyfive your brother-New Year's Day.

1824.

What's that to me, I cannot stay; remember,
I am the thirtyfirst of old December;
Besides, it's owing all to you, that I
Am thus obliged to go,-retire and die.
It is, upon my soul, beyond all reason,
To slide one's life off in this jolly season.

Am I, who've sweated all the Dog Days through,
To lose my Christmas Ale, and Pudding too;
I, who have toiled through all the year, to die
Just as we get to Brandy and Mince pie.
Could I have thought that this would be my fate,
Hang me if ever I'd have lived so late;

I would have put some lightning to my head,
And fashionably thundred myself dead,
When Sirius 'gan his fiery bolts to pelt,
Hung in the Zodiac, or Orion's Belt;
Of Acheron's black waters drank a cup,
Or in an Earthquake swallowed myself up.

Instead of which, through Twelve long months I've run,
And circled vulgarly around the Sun,
Sucked shivering milk in January's lap,
And fed on February's muddy pap;

The storms of March, insipid April showers,
And pestering Maia with her pretty flowers;
The dust of June, the Dog Days of July,
August, dull tale of Oats, and Wheat, and Rye;
September shooting, and October Ale,

November's gloom, thick fog, and cutting gale:
All these I've borne, yet now the villains grudge
A merry Christmas, and I'm forced to budge.
O! New Year's Day! if I advice might give,
Die now, my child, nor condescend to live.

1825.

Thank you, December, but I wish to try
A little pudding, and your Christmas pie;
If these are eatable, I feel, in truth,
Some little symptoms of a liquorish tooth;

Besides that pap you talk of, and those showers,
Dog Days, and dust, and Maia's pretty flowers;

Wheat, Oats, and Rye, Ale, Shooting, and cold sky,

I come to see them once before I die;

Just have a glimpse of that disgusting place,
And peep upon them with a double face.

1824.

Joy to your double face, then peep away,
Live till you meet another New Year's Day;

But let me tell you, ere the clock strikes one,
And my three hundred sixtyfive days done,
It will be worth your while, I think, to mind
Those little puppets that they call mankind;
And I'll just shew you, Janus, if it suits,
How you may know them well from other brutes :
Observe

[The curtain rises, and discovers the world.

1825.

Good Heavens the World! - and where's Mankind?

Is that a Man, there, with a tail behind,

That chatters, prates, bows, cringes to the ground,
Grins and takes snuff, and mimics all around.

1824.

That's not a Man, but you may well mistake it,
That is a Monkey, New Year's Day, I take it.

1825.

But what's that dull and heavy looking lout,
That lets the whole world buffet him about?
Is that a Man?

1824.

Let me observe my glass

No, not a Man, I fancy-that's an Ass.

1825.

What's that which gruttles, grunts, and groans so yonder,
Eats, sleeps, and drinks-is that a Man, I wonder?

1824.

Do you mean that that's wallowing in the bog?

What's that that roars so, and so rudely treats
The other animals and brutes he meets;

Then what's that thing that pokes its neck about,
Gabbles, and stares, and looks so like a lout,
Is that- but do not think I mean abuse-
That now, is that a Man?

1824.

No, that's a Goose.

1825.

And tell me what's that trifler, I entreat,

That hops so pretty on his hinder feet,