he has met partizans among later writers, maintain that he was well qualified for government, had he legally obtained it; and that he committed no crimes but such as were necessary to procure him possession of the crown; but this is a very poor apology, when it is confessed that he was ready to commit the most horrid crimes which appeared necessary for that purpose; and it is certain that all his courage and capacity, qualities in which he really seems not to have been deficient, would never have made compensation to the people for the danger of the precedent, and for the contagious example of vice and murder, exalted upon the throne. This prince was of small stature, hump-backed, and had a very harsh disagreeable visage; so that his body was in every particular no less deformed than his mind.-Hume. *23. 1770.-DR. AKENSIDE DIED.

On a SERMON against GLORY.
Come then, tell me, sage divine,
Is it an offence to own

That our bosoms e'er incline
Toward immortal glory's throne?
For with me nor pomp, nor pleasure,
Bourbon's might, Braganza's treasure,
So can fancy's dream rejoice,

So conciliate reason's choice,

As one approving word of her impartial voice.

If to spurn at noble praise
Be the passport to thy heaven,
Follow thou those gloomy ways;
No such law to me was given,
Nor, I trust, shall I deplore me,
Faring like my friends before me;
Nor an holier place desire

Than Timoleon's arms acquire,

And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre.

24. SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST, AND MID-
SUMMER DAY.

The nativity of Saint John the Baptist is celebrated by the Christian church on this day, because he was

the Forerunner of our blessed Lord, and, by preaching the doctrine of repentance, prepared the way for the Gospel. He was imprisoned by Herod for preaching against his marriage with his brother's wife, and was afterwards beheaded by the arts of that enraged woman.

It was formerly customary at Magdalen College, Oxford, on St. John the Baptist's day, to have a There is a persermon preached in the first court. manent pulpit of stone inserted in one corner, and the quadrangle used to be furnished round the sides with a large fence of green boughs, that the preaching might more nearly resemble that of John the Baptist in the wilderness. But, of late years, as we grow more tender than our forefathers, it has been thought safer to take shelter under the roof of the chapel. (See Jones's Life of Bp. Horne, p. 117.) It is to this institution that we owe the bishop's admirable Considerations on the Life and Death of John the Baptist.'

6

O'er Jordan's wave and wild Bethabara's plain,
Where rocks on rocks in clouded grandeur reign;
Dark shaded forests spread their empire wide
And whitened torrents lave the mountain's side;
The Prophet John retired from mortal sight,
To bask at large in heaven's refulgent light:
Around his loins a leathern belt he wore,
Of camel's hair a shaggy vestment bore.
Amid the foliaged gloom he passed his time,
And o'er the mountain crag essayed to climb:
No silken couch or storied roof he found,
A stone his pillow, and his bed the ground:
No note harmonious swelled the desert blast,
No costly changes lengthened his repast:
The God of Abraham tuned his mental ear;
The God of Isaac sent his locusts near;
The God of Jacob calmed the angry mind,
And the mild honey taught him where to find;
Poured on his soul the ray prophetic given,
To point to Man the dawning path to heaven.

COTTLE.

Several superstitious observances were formerly practised on Midsummer-eve, of which some account will be found in our former volumes.

The village maids mysterious tales relate
Of bright midsummer's sleepless nights; the fern
That time sheds secret seeds; and they prepare
Untold of rites, predictive of their fate:
Virgins in silent expectation watch
Exact at twelve's propitious hour, to view
The future lover o'er the threshold pass;
Th' inviting door wide spread, and every charm
Performed, while fond hope flutters in the breast,
And credulous fancy, painting his known form,
Kindles concordant to their ardent wish.

BIDLAKE.

*27. 1777.-DR. DODD EXECUTED.

Dodd's was a life of thoughtlessness and extravagance, and he paid dearly for all his faults in the conclusion of it. Courage at an earlier period, to have met the evils he brought upon himself, might have saved him from the last and most terrible one. Had he lived an economist, he might have died honourably. Yet, let him have his due; and his claim is not small-Many were reclaimed from vice, and many relieved from wretchedness, by his labours. Who derived advantage from his death? When one reads his pathetic appeals for mercy, at his trial, and in the Prison Thoughts, one is tempted to ask if the hearts to which they were made were HUMAN, or ever knew what it was to err? But it was an appeal to AVARICE under the name of JUSTICE; and at a tribunal, where property is of more value than the life of man, such an appeal is not likely to be heard. The advertisement prefixed to the MS. of the Prison Thoughts, concludes with a remarkable break, more impressive than the most finished rhetoric:- The thinking will easily pardon all inaccuracies, as I am neither able nor willing to read over these melancholy lines with a curious and critical eye. They are imperfect, but the language of the heart; and, had I

time and inclination, might and should be improved. But

29.-SAINT PETER.

This apostle's father was Jonah, probably a fisherman of Bethsaida. Peter was first scourged, and then led out to be crucified upon the hill called Janiculus, desiring to be fastened to the cross with his head downwards, alleging that he thought himself unworthy to die in the same way as his Lord and Master.

Astronomical Occurrences

In JUNE 1817.

THE Sun enters Cancer at 30 m. past 8 in the evening of the 21st; he also rises and sets at the times specified in the following table for every fifth day:

TABLE.

49

3

8

46

8

Sunday, June 1st, Sun rises 53 m. after 3. Sets 7m. after 8
Friday, 6th,
Wednesday, 11th,
Monday, 16th,
Saturday, 21st,
Thursday, 26th,

44

8

43

8

44

8

21st,

26th,

TABLE.

m.

June 1st, from the time on the dial subtract 2

37

6th,.
11th,

1 49
52

0

16th, to the time on the dial add 0 10

1

15

2

19

When it is required to find mean or true time from apparent time, as shown by a correct sun-dial, use the correction as indicated in the subsequent Table, which answers for every fifth day of the present month.

1

See Mr. Southey's Specimens of the later English Poets, vol. iii, p, 133.

The Moon will enter her last quarter at 37 m. past 5 in the evening of the 6th of this month. There will be a new Moon at 45 m. after 9 in the evening of the 14th; her first quarter will commence 4 m. after 7 on the morning of the 22d; and she will be full at 18 m. past 11 at night on the 28th. The Moon will also be on the first meridian at convenient times for observation on the following days, viz.

3 in the morning
9 in the evening

9

0

11

3 after midnight.

Venus will appear stationary on the 12th, Saturn on the 16th, and Mercury on the 23d of the present month. Mercury will also be in his inferior conjunction at 3 in the morning of the 12th, and the Georgium Sidus will be in opposition at 9 in the evening of the 4th.

The satellites of Jupiter will be visibly eclipsed on the following days, and the emersions will take place as below:

:

1st Satellite

3d, at 22 m. past 1 morning
11th, 45
18th,

9 evening

40

12th,

4

11

11

2d Satellite

These eclipses are calculated for mean time at the first meridian, and it is to the Royal Observatory and its vicinity that the word visible refers.

On the Orbits, Motions, Magnitudes, and Distances, of the Earth and Moon.

We have already given a popular view of the eclipses of the Sun and Moon (see T. T. vol. i, p. 181, and vol. ii, p. 79) and indicated our intention to explain the method by which they are calculated; but, as they depend upon the relative situations of the Earth and the Moon with respect to the Sun and to each other, their distances, magnitudes, velocities, and parallaxes, previously to our entering upon that explanation, it