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FOR

1832;

OR, A

COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE ALMANACK:

CONTAINING AN EXPLANATION OF

Saints' Days and Holidays;

WITH

EXISTING AND OBSOLETE RITES AND CUSTOMS,
SKETCHES OF CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY,
&c. &c.

ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES

IN EVERY MONTH;

COMPRISING REMARKS ON THE PHENOMENA OF THE
CELESTIAL BODIES.

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PREFACE.

AFTER enjoying an undiminished popularity during eighteen years, we enter into our nineteenth with some confidence, that our endeavours to keep pace with the rising spirit of the age, will be found deserving a continuance of public favour.

The first portion of the present volume contains the REMARKABLE DAYS, in which is given brief notices of all the Saints' Days in the Calendar; Sketches of the most prominent Characters who have died during the last twelve months; and a variety of other amusing and instructive information.

The second division, containing the ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES, occupy a larger space than usual, in consequence of the length of the treatise on Cometary Astronomy, which at this period must possess great interest from the expected appearance of two remarkable Comets in the course of the year.

The illustrations also, it is

iv

anticipated, will afford considerable gratification: -if those of the Comets, Double Stars, and Nebula in the Sword-handle of Orion, be held two or three feet from the eye, or be examined at a distance with a telescope of low power, a correct idea will be conveyed of the appearances of these objects, as seen in the heavens with powerful instruments. The whole of this division is from the able pen of Mr. J. T. BARKER, whose papers in this work for the two last years have been so highly commended by the scientific world.

NOTES OF A NATURALIST; forming the concluding portion of the volume, are from the pen of J. Rennie, M.A., the distinguished Professor of Zoology, in King's College, London, and author of numerous works of acknowledged merit. Natural History, at all times, possesses a neverending interest, and, in the present instance, we doubt not that the reader will find much novelty and attraction.

The embellishments, it will be seen, are far more numerous and splendid than have hitherto been bestowed on any previous volume; and, altogether, we flatter ourselves that our zeal and diligence have not been bestowed in vain.

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