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tionary,' in five volumes, quarto, lived to the age of seventy-two. Until near his death, he devoted fourteen hours every day to study and composition. He was never married and it was said of him, that his writing-desk was his wife; and his children seventy volumes, great and small; all the produce of his pen. He loved the pleasures of the table, and wines were the only articles in which he was expensive. His cellar, which he used to call his Bibliotheca Selectissima, contained forty kinds of wine; yet, amid this plenty, his strength of constitution and gaiety of spirit enabled him to sustain his literary labours without injury to his health.

*13. 1806.-CHARLES JAMES FOX died.
A patriot's even course he steered
Mid Faction's wildest storms unmoved;
By all who marked his mind—revered ;
By all who knew his heart-beloved.

14. HOLY CROSS.

FITZGERALD.

This festival was first observed in the year 615, on the following occasion: Cosroes, King of Persia, having plundered Jerusalem, carried away large pieces of the cross which had been left there by the Empress Helena. Heraclius, the emperor, soon afterwards engaged and defeated him, and recovered the cross; but, bringing it back in triumph to Jerusalem, he found the gates shut against him, and heard a voice from heaven, saying, that the King of Kings did not enter into that city in so stately a manner, but meek and lowly, and riding upon an ass. The emperor then immediately dismounted from his horse, and walked through the city barefooted, carrying the cross himself.

17.-SAINT LAMBERT.

Lambert was Bishop of Utrecht, in the time of King Pepin I; but, reproving the king's grandson for his irregularities, he was cruelly murdered at the instigation of an abandoned woman.

21. SAINT MATTHEW.

In the year 64 or 65 Matthew wrote his Gospel in

Hebrew, which was afterwards translated into Greek. After many labours and miracles, he closed his life at Nadabar in Ethiopia, probably by martyrdom.

22. 1761.-CORONATION OF KING GEORGE III. 26.-OLD HOLY ROOD. See HOLY CROss, p. 258. 26.-SAINT CYPRIAN.

He was an African by birth, of a good family, and well educated. He suffered martyrdom under Valerianus and Gallienus, in 258.

*27. 1540.-JESUITS FOunded.

29.-
.-SAINT MICHAEL.

Saint Michael was an archangel who presided over the Jewish nation, and had an army of angels under his command and conduct; he fought also with the Dragon or Satan, and his angels; and, contending with the Devil, he disputed about the body of Moses. This festival has been kept with great solemnity ever since the sixth century. About this time of the year, it has been, and still continues, the custom to elect the governors of towns and cities. On the election of a bailiff at Kidderminster, the inhabitants assemble in the principal streets to throw cabbage-stalks at each other.-See T. T. for 1815, p. 259.

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The custom of having a roast goose' for dinner (seasoned with sage and onions and port wine) on Michaelmas Day, is of very antient standing; yet the cause why remains unexplained; though as Beckwith remarks in his new edition of Blount's Jocular Tenures,' it was probably for no other reason but that Michaelmas Day was a great festival, and geese at that time most plentiful. Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1695, has the following lines:

GEESE now in their prime season are,
Which, if well roasted, are good fare;
Yet, however, friends, take heed,
How too much on them you feed,
Lest, when as your tongues run loose,
Your discourse do smell of Goose.

30.-SAINT JEROME.

Jerome translated the Old Testament into Latin :

this version, now styled the Vulgate, is the only one used or allowed by the Romish church. He died in the eightieth year of his age, A.D. 422.

Astronomical Occurrences

In SEPTEMBER 1817.

THE Sun enters Libra at 28 m. after 10 in the morning of the 23d of this month; when the length of the day and night will be equal on all parts of the globe. The length of the days during this period will appear from the following

TABLE

Of the Rising and Setting of the Sun for every fifth Day of the Month.

Monday, Sept. 1st, Sun rises 14 m. after 5. Sets 46 m. after 6

6th,

Saturday,
Thursday, 11th,
Tuesday, 16th,

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Sunday,
Friday,

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21st,

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We have already explained, that the time as indicated by a good sun-dial is sometimes too great and sometimes too little, or, in other words, that the Sun is sometimes too fast, and at others too slow, with respect to mean time; and the following table shows what is to be subtracted from the time shown by the dial to obtain that which should be indicated by a well regulated clock during the present month.

TABLE,

Shewing what is to be subtracted from the Time as given by a good Sun-Dial, on every fifth Day of the Month.

m.

September 1st, from the time by the dial subtract 0

6th, 11th,

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6 55

39

1 45

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3 26

10

The Moon enters her last quarter at 2 m. past 9 on the evening of the 3d of the present month. There will be a new Moon at 43 m. after 6 in the morning of the 11th; the first quarter will commence at 3 m. after 11 at night on the 17th; and she will be full at 47 m. past 9 in the morning of the 25th. The Moon will also be in conjunction with the star marked a in Libra, at 57 m. after 12 on the night of the 14th; snd she will be on the meridian at the following convenient times for observation;

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The Georgium Sidus will be in quadrature at 54 m. past 7 in the evening of the 4th of this month. Mercury will attain his greatest elongation on the 14th; and on the 18th he will be in conjunction with Spica in Virgo, when the star will be 61' north of the planet. Mercury will also appear stationary on the 27th.

The visible eclipses of Jupiter's satellites this month will be as follow:

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On the apparent Diameters of the Terrestrial and Lunar Shadows.

In order to calculate the magnitude and duration of eclipses of the Moon, it is necessary to ascertain the diameter of the Earth's shadow where it is crossed by the orbit of the Moon; and this may be

accomplished by the following simple method. In the preceding fig. (p. 231) let MM' be a part of the Moon's orbit considered as circular, then the apparent semidiameter of the shadow seen from the Moon at that distance is the angle MEC, which is equal to the difference of the two angles ECM and EMA. This last angle EMA is the apparent semidiameter of the Earth seen from the Moon; or, in other words, it is the horizontal parallax of the Moon at the time of the eclipse. With respect to the angle ECM, it is equal to the apparent semidiameter of the Sun diminished by his horizontal parallax; as shown in the note in p. 232. And, therefore, to find the semidiameter of the Earth's shadow at the distance of the lunar orbit, it will be sufficient to add the parallaxes of the Sun and Moon together, and subtract the sum from the apparent semidiameter of the Sun. Thus, let D denote the apparent diameter of the Sun, p and p' the solar and lunar parallaxes, and D' the diameter of the Earth's shadow at the place required; then D'D(p+p'). Calculating according to this formula, with the quantities already found for the greatest, mean, and least parallax of the Moon, we obtain the following values for the semidiameter of the Earth's shadow, where it is traversed by the Moon in her orbit MM'; viz.

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The greatest apparent diameter of the Moon being only 2011".07, it may evidently be wholly im

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