Oft in her glass the musing shepherd spies
The headlong mountains and the downward skies,
The watery landscape of the pendent woods,
And absent trees that tremble in the floods;

In the clear azure gleam the flocks are seen,

And floating forests paint the waves with green;
Through the fair scene roll slow the lingering streams,
Then foaming pour along, and rush into the Thames.

acts.

THALIA. Before the Saturnalia we may speak of the nature and kinds of Poetry," a word which in its elements refers to something that is made. All the known degrees of metrical composition are confined, we think, under three heads :-the pastoral, the heroical, and the satirical, comprehending moral pictures of the three estates. It is clear that the original and the most dignified is the Pastoral. It opened by voice and hand with a prologue of thanksgiving to the Deity, and told the happiness of a shepherd's life, as in the "Song of Solomon," which is 'one' idyll of a thousand. Hesiod's iron' fragment from a golden heart is well appreciated; and Theocritus (the artificial) we shall mention anon. Next in nobility is the heroic poem, which embodies with amplifications the two-fold draught of the Bacchanalian Tragedy,' exemplified in the Epopees of Homer. Last is Comedy,' displaying like his "Margites," in farce, or a satirical shape, the rudest scenes of human nature. This even in the time of Horace had raised her voice; but tragedy has not unkindly been thrown back with the advance of civilization; and pastoral is now better felt than written. Theocritus o'ersteps the modesty of nature,' teaching us to lament that amidst delightful images and bolder strains of character the " Idyllia" are improper for publication in any licentious English dress. We may collect from his famous panegyric, that it was written about fifteen years after the death of Ptolemy Soter, B. C. 270.-The waters of the great Deluge ceased this holiday.

The anthem in the Latin service ‘O Sapientia' in memory of Christ's Advent was formerly chanted from this day until the eve of Christmas. Special excommunication of the English Barons is fulminated from the Lateran, and tower'd' London laid under an interdict, 1215.

Raleigh's reprieve. "Yours, that was, but now not mine own,' is the conclusion of a manly and pathetic letter the preceding day to his lady, 1603. Cromwell assumes the Protectorate in the Hall at Westminster, 1653. Grouse shooting, beginning upon the 12th of August, now closes. Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallow'd lays

Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days.-Windsor Forest.

Day.

How happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not another's will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his highest skill:
Who hath his life from rumours freed;
Whose conscience is his strong retreat:

Whose state can neither flatterers feed,

Nor ruin make oppressors great.-Sir Henry Wotton.

Births.

Obits of the Latin Church. St. Olympias, Widow of Constantinople, about 410.

Deaths.

Judicael, King of Britany, 658.
Egferth, King of Mercia, 794.

St. Albans.

Sir William Gascoigne, 1413.
Harewood, near Leeds.
Robert Bolton, 1631.
Francis Manners, Earl of Rut-
land (Lord Ross of Hamlake),
1632. Botsford.
Bishop (Nicholas) Monk, 1661.
Westminster Abbey.
Zingha Bandi, Queen of Angola,
1664.

Thomas Guy, 1724. Hospital in

Southwark.

Francis, Marquis de Saint-Au

laire, 1742. d. Paris. Bolivar, 1830. d. Carthagena.

Some have in readiness so many tales and stories, as there is nothing they would insinuate, but they can wrap it into a tale; which serveth both to keep themselves more on guard, and

St. Begga, Widow, Abbess in to make others carry it with
Ardennes, 698.
more pleasure.-Bacon.

The sweet refreshings not of slumbers taste,

Till you have thrice severe reflections past

On the actions of the day from first to last.-Golden Verses.

The gifts are small that childish hands impart,
But gain their value from the giver's heart;
A crown of flowers, the earliest of the year,
And the green corn's yet moist and tender ear.
Round me the purple violets are pour'd;
The poppy's crimson flower, the pallid gourd,

The fragrant apple, are as offerings paid,

And grapes that ripen in the vineyard's shade.

Acts.

SATURNALIA. These merry festivals were introduced at Rome by King Tullus, who perished by fire, B. C. 640. Caligula added the 'fourth' day of the seven, and called it Juvenalis. Games of chance were a necessary appendance; but that pagan folly is now rode down.

Xerxes had reigned twenty-one years, and Artabanus seven months, whose place was next occupied by Artaxerxes Longimanus from this day N.E. 284, B. C. 464.-See 7th Dec. Revolt of the Helots and the earthquake at Sparta fell in that year; also Pindar's Ode, Ol. XIII.

The Goths under Totila capture Rome, which they plunder, A.D. 546. The first British book (extant), "Expositio Sancti Jeronimi in Simbolum Apostolorum ad Papam Laurentium" appears at Oxford, 1468.

Columbus is introduced to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella at Grenada, 1500. That letter in the "Memorials" which he addressed to the Nurse of Prince Don John is altogether worthy of perusal.-See 23d Aug.

Luther notes in his "Table Talk," that he invited the singers and musicians to supper, 1538: " I always loved music, whoso has skill in this art, the same is of good kind, fitted for all things;" a divine saying. Henry VIII. erects the Deanery of "Westminster" into a Bishopric, 1540. Paul Hentzner speaks with interest of the ancient "Thorney." Henry May is cast away upon the N. W. extremity of the Bermudas, or Summer Islands, the first Englishman supposed to have been there, 1593. Jacob le Maire, in his voyage to the Straits reports that he found this day at Port Desire a skeleton of nearly 11 feet in length, entombed, 1615. A marine treaty is closed between Philip IV. and the Provinces, 1650. Evelyn joins the court at St. James's Park, who were inspecting those superb Asiatic horses caparisoned a la Turcisq, taken at Vienna, 1684. He observes," they trotted like does, as if they did not feel the ground."

General Wellesley establishes a peace of submission and cession with the Rajah of Berar, which finished the Indian war. It resulted from that energic and especially distinguished victory at Argaum, 28th Nov. 1803. Thy household timely warm, "The summer's day

Endures not ever; toil while yet ye may.- Works and Days.

Day.

Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces,
And yet so humble too, as not to scorn
The meanest country cottages;

His poppy grows among the corn.

The halcyon sleep will never build his nest

In any stormy breast;

'Tis not enough, that he can find

Clouds and darkness in the mind;

Darkness but half his work will do,

'Tis not enough, he must find quiet too.-Horace.

XV.

Eliz. Petrowna (of Russia), 1709. The Hermit of Eskdale, 1168. Cal. Dr. George Cleghorn, 1716,

18.

Don Emanuel Matti, 1737. d.
Alicant.

C. Hayes, 1760. d. Gray's Inn.
Phi-Philip Miller, 1771. Chelsea.

A friend is gold; if true he'll never leave thee:

Yet both without a touchstone may deceive thee.-Randolph.

And Reason now, through number, time, and space,
Darts the keen lustre of her serious eye,

And learns, from facts compared, the laws to trace,
Whose long progression leads to Deity.

Can mortal strength presume to soar so high?
Can mortal sight, so oft bedimm'd with tears,

Such glory hear?-for lo, the shadows fly

From Nature's face; Confusion disappears,

And Order charms the eye, and Harmony the ears!

Acts.

ARCHBISHOP USHER fixes this day for the descent' of the Father, Iannes, upon that venerable site in Armenia, which re-produced the world. The place is called Har-Mona (Luban) by the prophet Amos, or mountain of the Moon, a name afterwards transferred to the station of the Druids (Saronides) in Britain. Berosus mentions a pilot, and that the patriarch after his thanksgiving disappeared. From the model of the first ship is most probably derived the form of the Temple (Beth) or Grecian Basilick. It may be observed that the pilgrimage occupies exactly a Julian 'Year.' The Ark was called the womb of nature.' See 16 Nov. May every good wife read here the alphabet of Lemuel.

Vitellius abdicates the empire, which he had received against his will,' A. D. 69. The next day he desired to restore the dagger of his authority. The first mass is chanted in St. Sepulchre's Church at Paris, 1327. The great pestilence beginning in 1592 (when bills of mortality for the 109 parishes were first issued), closed this day, 1595. London contains at this moment 146 parishes; ten of which belong to Westminster. The Commons enter a bold protest of their ancient privileges, 1622. Evelyn notes, 1688: "I saw the King take barge to Gravesend at 12 o'clock—a sad sight! The Prince comes to St. James's, and fills Whitehall with Dutch guards. He is very stately, serious, and reserved.” The anniversary of The shutting of the Gates at Londonderry, 1688. Frederick the Great enters Dresden after the battle of Kesseldorf, and commands the performance of " Armenio,” one of the grand operas of Hasse, which induced the conqueror to reward the musician with 1000 dollars and a diamond ring,—a kind of political slavery, 1745.

The younger Pitt's first introduction to the Secretaryship, 1783.
Lord Hood's great and destructive victory at Toulon, 1793.
Napoleon reaches Paris at midnight incognito from Russia, 1812.
The sun entered the sign Capricornus" when 'Cycnus' rose at Rome.
Here for a while, my proper cares resign'd,

Here let me sit in sorrow for mankind.-The Traveller.