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*23. 1564.-SHAKSPEARE BORN.

What needs my SHAKSPEARE for his honoured bones,
The labour of an age in piled stones;

Or that his hallowed relics should be hid
Under a star-y-pointing pyramid?

Dear son of memory, great heir of fame,

What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name?
Thou, in our wonder and astonishment,
Has built thyself a live-long monument;

For whilst, to the shame of slow-endeavouring art,
Thy easy numbers flow; and that each heart
Hath, from the leaves of thy unvalued book,
Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,
Then thou, our fancy of itself bereaving,
Dost make us marble with too much conceiving;
And, so sepulchered, in such pomp dost lie,
That kings, for such a tomb, would wish to die.

*23. 1616.-CERVANTES DIED.
Great sage, whose wand at one commanding stroke
Each antique pile of elfin fabric broke ;

From midnight spectres purged the sorcerer's cell,
And burst stern chivalry's fantastic spell.

MILTON,

More than twelve thousand copies of the first part of Don Quixote were circulated before the second could be got ready for the press; an amazing rapidity of sale, at a time when the readers and purchasers of books were but an inconsiderable number, compared with what they are now. The very children, says Cervantes, handle it, boys read it, men understand, and old people applaud the performance. It is no sooner laid down by one, than another takes it up; some struggling, and some entreating for a sight of it. In fine, continues he, this history is the most delightful, and the least prejudicial entertainment, that ever was seen; for, in the whole book, there is not the least shadow of a dishonourable word, nor one thought unworthy of a good catholic.

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*23. 1616.-SHAKSPEARE DIED. From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,

Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing;
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odour and in hue,
Could make me any summer's story tell,

Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:
Nor did I wonder at the lilies white,

Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
Yet seemed it winter still, and, you away,
As with your shadow I with these did play:
The forward violet thus did I chide ;-

Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
If not from my love's breath? The purple pride
Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells,
In my love's veins thou hast too grossly dyed.
The lily I condemned for thy hand,

And buds of marjoram had stolen thy hair;
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand,
One blushing shame, another white despair;
A third, nor red nor white, had stolen of both,
And to his robbery had annexed thy breath;
But for his theft, in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.

More flowers I noted, yet I none could see,
But sweet or colour it had stolen from thee.

25.-SAINT MARK.

St. Mark's Gospel was written in the year 63. The Order of Knights of St. Mark at Venice, under the protection of this evangelist, was instituted in the year 737, the reigning doge being always grand - their motto was, 'Pax tibi, Marce, Evangelista Meus.'

master:

*25. 1595.-TASSO DIED.

*27. 1794.-SIR WILLIAM JONES DIED.

Astronomical Occurrences

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THE Sun enters Taurus on the 20th of this month, at 28 m. past 11 in the morning; and the following

Table shows the time of his rising and setting for every fifth day of the same period, viz.

TABLE.

Tuesday, April 1, Sun rises 33 m. after 5. Sets 27 m. after 6

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Sunday,

Friday,

6, 11,

Wednesday,

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Monday,

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Saturday,

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23

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14

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The quantity to be added to or subtracted from the time, as shown by a correct sun-dial, to obtain the time which should be indicated by a well regulated clock, for every fifth day of the month, is given in the following

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16th, from the time by the dial subtract 0 11

21st,
26th,

1 20
2 17

The Moon will be full at 9 m. past 11 on the evening of the 1st of this month; she will enter her last quarter at 28 m. after 3 in the afternoon of the 8th; there will be a new Moon at 28 m. past 2 in the afternoon of the 16th; and the first quarter will commence at 23 m. past 3 in the afternoon of the 24th.

The Moon will pass the meridian on the following days of this month, at a convenient time to be seen,

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On the evening of the 3d of the present month, the Moon will eclipse the star marked a in the sign Libra. The immersion will take place 28 m. after 11,

and the emersion 53 m. after the same hour.

former case, the star will be 16' centre; and in the latter, 13'

In the

south of the Moon's south of the same.

On the 18th of this month, Mars and Saturn will be nearly in contact; and on the 19th, at 2 in the afternoon, Mercury will be in his superior conjunction.

The eclipses of Jupiter's first and second satellites, which will be visible in the vicinity of the Royal Observatory this month, are the following, viz.

IMMERSIONS.

1st Satellite, 9th day, 28 m. past 2 in the morning.

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IN what has been advanced in the preceding parts of these volumes, the phenomena of the heavens have been considered as though they were observed from the centre of the earth, or as if the earth were only a physical point with respect to the distances of the heavenly bodies. This method of considering the axis of revolution as passing through the eye of the observer, and that eye as situated at the centre of the concave sphere, in which the heavenly bodies appear to perform their diurnal revolutions, however, is only correct for the stars, whose distances from the earth are so infinitely great with respect to its radius, that all the visual rays from different parts of the earth's surface to the same star may be regarded as parallel to each other, without any sensible error. But this principle cannot be applied to the bodies which constitute the solar system, without introducing considerable error into the results of our inquiries relative to their real positions in the heavens, and other phenomena. The following explanations on this subject are therefore intended to point out these errors, and enable the young astronomer to correct them; and, by these means, to obtain a clearer comprehension of our fu

ture observations, and a more accurate knowledge of the subjects that may become the matter of our subsequent dissertations.

When a heavenly body is observed from different points of the earth's surface at the same time, it does not appear to be situated in the same point of the heavens. For, let S be the body (fig. 3), C the centre of the earth, O and O' the positions of two observers situated on the same meridian HR; and OS and O'S the visual rays from their eyes to the body S, at the moment it comes into the plane in which they are situated. Then as objects are always seen in the direction of the visual rays that proceeded from them to the eye of the observer, to a person placed at O on the

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surface of the earth, the body S would appear to be situated in the celestial sphere at s, and to the observer at O' its apparent place in the heavens would be at s'. The difference of these two results depends upon the angle OSO', under which an observer, placed at the centre of the body S, would see the chord OO' of the terrestrial arc which separates the two observers; and it is this angle which is called the parallax, and sometimes the parallactic angle. The influence of parallax will be readily understood,

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