Major and Minor; the former possessing wisdom and counsel to govern the republick, and the latter arms to defend it.

Others are of opinion that it received its name from Maia, the mother of Mercury.

May is represented by a young man dressed in green, embroidered with various flowers, with a garland of the same kind upon his head. In one hand he holds a lute, upon the forefinger of the other a nightingale, with the sign Gemini, the Twins. The sun enters Gemini on the 21st of this month. The green-flowered dress and the garland signify the gayness of the fields, and the general face of nature at this season of the year.

JUNE, the sixth month of the year, is said to have been so named from a temple of the goddess Juno; others, however, are of opinion, that it took its name from Junius Brutus, who expelled Tarquin the kingdom on the 1st of this month.

June is represented by a young man clothed in a lighter dress than the preceding figure, to indicate the commencement of summer. Upon his head is a garland of flowers, upon his arm is a basket of the fruits of the season, and in his right hand is the sign Cancer, the Crab. On the 21st of this month the sun enters Cancer, and makes the summer solstice. JULY, the seventh month of the year, was so named from the Latin word Julius, the surname of Cesar, who was born in this month.

of the months, by producing a copious provision of all the necessaries of life.

This month was, for some time, called Germani cus, from the emperour of that name; and September, from being the seventh after March. The sun enters Libra on the 23d of this month.

OCTOBER, the tenth month in order from January, derives its name in the same manner as the preceding month, from Octo, eight, being the eighth month from March in the Roman calendar.

This month is represented by a young man dress ed in a garment of yellow and carnation; upon his head a garland of oak leaves and acorns; in one hand he holds a basket of medlars, mushroons, and chestnuts, with other fruits that ripen at this time of the year; in the other the sign Scorpion.

The garment is painted in these colours,-a kind of chestnut, because the sun declining in the winter solstice, the juices of the plants begin to shrink, and their leaves become of this teint.

This month, for a time, was called Domitian, from the emperour of that name, but afterwards was cancelled by a decree of the Roman senate. The sun enters the sign Scorpio on the 23d of this month. NOVEMBER, the eleventh month of the year, is so called from its being the ninth month from March in the Roman calendar; and the following month is so named from its being the tenth from March; from the Latin words novem, nine, and decem, ten. Mark Antony first gave this month the name of This month is represented by a young man, whose July, in honour of his illustrious friend,.Julius Ce-drapery is the colour of the leaves when they begin sar; before which time it was called Quintilis, as to fall; round his head is a garland of olives with being the fifth month of the (Roman) year, as had been established by Romulus.

July is represented by a young man in a light jacket, eating cherries, with his face and bosom sunburnt; on his head is a wreath of wild thyme; a scythe on his shoulders, a bottle at his girdle, and at his side the sign Leo, the Lion.

July, by the Saxons, was called Hay-monat; that is, the Hay month, because in this month they usually mowed and made their hay. The sun enters the sign Leo on the 23d of this month.

AUGUST, the eighth month of the year, was dedicated to the honour of Augustus Cesar, because in this month he was created consul, triumphed three times in Rome, subjected Egypt to the power of the Romans, and put an end to the civil wars.

This month is characterized by a young man of a fierce and cheerful countenance, with a flame-coloured garment; upon his head a garland of wheat and rye; upon his arm a basket of ripe fruits; at his belt, a sickle; and at his side, the sign, Virgo, the Virgin. The sun enters Virgo on the 23d of this month.

the fruit; in his left hand bunches of parsnips and turnips, signifying the products of this month; and in his right hand is the sign Sagittarius, the Archer.

The garland of olives is a sign of their maturity, and the time of their being gathered. The sun enters Sagittarius on the 22d of this month.

November is generally said to be the most gloomy month of the year.

DECEMBER, the twelfth and last month of the year. was so named by Romulus in the Roman calendar, which means there the tenth and last month of the Roman year.

This month is characterized by an old man, with an austere and fearful aspect, clad in an Irish rug, or coarse frieze, girt upon him; upon his head no garland, but three or four nightcaps, and over them a Turkish turban; his nose red; his mouth and beard clogged with icicles; at his back is a bundle of holly, ivy, or mistletoe; and holding in furred mittens a hatchet and the sign Capricornus, the Goat.

The hatchet is an emblem of the season, it being now the month for cutting down timber, as the virtue of the trees at this time concentrates in the SEPTEMBER, in the Roman calendar, was so call-trunks, and, for that reason, are more desirable for ed from the Latin word Septem, seven, which by the Romans was reckoned the seventh month of the year; but in the present almanack, it is the ninth month from the beginning of the year

This month is represented by a young man dressed in purple, of a merry and cheerful countenance; upon his head a wreath of white and purple grapes; under his left arm a bundle of oats; in his right a cornucopia of the ripe fruits of the season-as pears, peaches, &c.; and in his right hand the sign Libra, the Balance.

He is dressed in purple, being reckoned the prince

different purposes.

The earth at this season of the year is bereft of all its ornaments, and for this reason he is represented without a garland.

The sun enters the tropick of Capricorn on the 21st, and forms the winter solstice.

THE CEYLONESE SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE.

The Cingalese are strictly materialists. The most learned among them consider life and intelligence as

identical, and as scated in the heart, radiating thence to all parts of the body; being uncreated, and without beginning, capable of infinite modifications, and liable to total annihilation. God and demons, together with every thing possessing animal existence, they consider similar beings. According to their creed, a god may become a man or an animalcule, and the two latter may become gods; for, that one spirit pervades the universe, unites all animated beings to itself, and to one another. These changes, which are almost infinite, are bounded only by annihilation, which they consider the climax of beatitude. They maintain that plants have life, but exclude them from the cycles of their metempsychosis. They acknowledge this system to be a mystery, and therefore are at no pains to explain it.

joyment.

ed to the horrours of this infernal receptacle, such as a parricide, the murderer of a priest or of a teacher a scorner of Boodhoo, or of the gods, they who oppose the common worship, and who injure or profane their sanctuaries. The wretched beings who are consigned to this abode of everlasting torment, are left in darkness, where there is not the slightest visual perception. Here they are exposed to the most intense cold, and visited by the perpetual cravings of an appetite so ravenous and insatiable that they bite, tear, and devour each other. Their sufferings, however, do not end here, for those who are devoured instantly revive; indeed, the principle of life never for a moment becomes extinct, but the body is no sooner disunited than it is restored to its original form and capability of endurance, changing its abode from one place to another in this capacious world of wo, without mitigation and without end,

BOODHISM.

They further maintain that the universe is eternal, but in a state of constant decay and reproduction. A vast rock is the centre of their system, above which are twenty-six heavens, and beneath it eight principal, and a hundred and thirty-six lesser hells. These notions of heaven and hell are to be found in The twenty-six heavens are set apart for different the Boodhist scriptures, Boodhism being the national orders of accepted souls, according to their rank and religion of Ceylon. The antiquity of this religion, pretensions. They are provided with palaces and the quarter in which it originated, and the direction gardens, and every thing that art or nature can sup- in which it spread, are interesting subjects of inply, fitted to afford the most exquisite physical en-quiry, but would be out of place here: I may say, however, in a few words, that the pretensions of the The eight principal hells are hollow metallick Boodhists themselves, on the subject of the antiquity squares, composed of different alloys of the com- of their religion, are of two kinds, one probable, the mon metals, and without any openings. In each other absurd in the extreme. In the latter, they there is an intense fire, producing perpetual combus-connect it with the most monstrous fables of their tion without any supply of fuel. They differ in kind, system of the universe, giving it an existence in but not in degree, the lowest being the largest and ages so remote as to set all calculation at defiance. hottest, and the punishments inflicted in them being Their other notion is much more rational, and comes the severest and most protracted. The doomed are freely within the scope of credibility. They who punished in these hells according to their crimes. maintain this view, reckon the date of Boodhism For each sin there is a particular kind of punish- from the time it was restored by the Boodhist divinment, and every one is detailed with most appalling ity whom they now worship, who lived only about distinctness. The .condemned are represented as six hundred years before the commencement of the suffering intense hunger and thirst, their torments Christian era. If these latter pretensions be just, being heightened by the expectation of appeasing and there is no fair ground for questioning them, it their raging appetites, in attempting which they will, of necessity, follow, that the Brahmir.ical reswallow nothing but fire. Their tormenters are sin-ligion is the most ancient of the two; and this the ners like themselves, in the forms of caffers, dogs, and crows of monstrous aspect, armed with frightful teeth and claws. The most wicked are fleshy and fat, and thus attract their tormentors, while those who have sinned least, being thin and unsightly, possess little or no charms for their hungry tor

mentors.

The one hundred and thirty-six smaller hells, though similar to the eight principal, and situated immediately round them, differ from them greatly in the degrees of their punishment, which, in them, though of immense duration, is not eternal. Here the sinner undergoes an entire expurgation, after which commences his metempsychosis.

The Locarnantarika-narikay is the general receptacle for utterly corrupt souls, a place of extreme punishment, and where the most iniquitous persons are consigned, after they have paid the common debt of nature. This hell, which is described by their theological writers with a minuteness so distinct and powerful, as to realize the most frightful picture of eternal torments, is represented as an immense hollow, composed of walls of clay, without either light or heat, a place of unendurable privation. It is only the most heinous offenders that are doom

Boodhists themselves do not deny, as they admit that the latter religion was in full operation when their Boodhoo appeared to revive their own religion, which had previously become extinct. The whole subject of the controversy, as to which has the higher claim to antiquity, the Brahminical or Boodhist religion, is one of great interest, but of extreme difficulty.

POETRY.

MY NATIVE LAND.
Though joys in other climes be found,
There's purer joy at home,
And I the world might wander round,
In distant climes might roam:
But never to my soul be known,
Upon a foreign strand,

The peace, the hope, the pride I own,
In this my native land.

Though other fields may be as green,
And other skies as blue;
And other faces fair be seen,

And hearts be found as true;
Oh! be it ruled by mildest rule,
Or swayed by lawless hand,
With joy, with pride, whate'er betide.
I'll love my native land.

and confined as our knowledge necessarily is upon this subject, we cannot but be struck with amazement at the apparent complexity of the various parts, and the adaptation of each to the necessities of the whole; arteries, veins, muscles, nerves, and bones, being combined in such a way as would seem almost

whole covered with that natural silken garment, the skin, without which the frame would appear deformed and repulsive; while each organ, amidst the complex mechanism of this wonderful machine, appears to perform its functions with the greatest regularity, and in the most simple manner. And, notwithstanding the abuse it often suffers from man's imprudence, seems inherently to possess the elastick power of regaining its healthy state, and performing its functions as usual.

Were we not surrounded, as we are on every side, by the interesting and innumerable wonders of the creation, which bounteous nature presents to our view in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, all clearly and absolutely demonstrating the preexistence of a FIRST GREAT CAUSE; the most skeptical, if he would deign to contemplate but for a moment to defy the research of the anatomist; and the the curious mechanism and contrivance evidenced in his own frame, would, we believe, be constrained to admit the utter ignorance and helplessness of man, and his own incapacity to comprehend the infinity of his Creator. În taking a glimpse at the economy of our complicated frame, we are first struck with the extraordinary form of man, so peculiarly adapted to his situation, and the elements with which he is surrounded, combining the most perfect muscular symmetry and beauty, with activity and strength, in a higher degree than any other animal, and being, in fact, physically constituted-"Lord of the creation;" and physically, as well as morally, calculated to rule over all the inferiour animals in the creation. No animal, not even a lion, can brook the determined eye of an intelligent man; and the wildest and most ferocious beast of the forest will tremble at his voice.

Upon taking a view of as much as can be shown by anatomy of the internal economy of our frame,

To this elasticity of compensatory power in the body, the circulation of the blood would appear mainly to contribute.

The circulation of this vital fluid throughout the frame, seems to have excited great attention and in quiry in all ages; but, from the time of Hippocrates and Galen, down to the seventeenth century, mankind appeared to have been in perfect ignorance respecting it. Many were the theories started; but it was preserved for Dr. Harvey, to discover the

eirculation of the blood, and its passage from the heart through the lungs, and then back to the heart, and thence propelled throughout the body.

20

but we trust that the above general description will not only be acceptable, but useful and instructive— physical economy will often enable us, by adopting useful, because even a superficial knowledge of our simple precautions, and following nature, to avoid many evils and diseases-and instructive, because from it we may draw many philosophical inferences, highly improving to our moral condition.

In a future article we will explain the general constituent parts of the blood. We shall now describe its circulation; and, in order to aid us in this interesting inquiry, we present our readers with an engraving, showing the bloodvessels of the human frame; the one represents the ARTERIAL SYSTEM, or the blood which is propelled by the heart through dent, and, as is very frequent, wound a vein in the Should a person, for instance, meet with an accithe arteries, and through the body; and the other leg, the bleeding might immediately be stopped by representing the VENOUS SYSTEM, or the veins, applying the finger below the wound, pressing on the through which the blood returns, after having nour-vein; because the blood, circulating back through ished the body; but, in order to make ourselves better understood, we shall briefly describe the

process.

the vein upwards, the pressure of the finger below the wound would effectually stop the blood flowing. till a more permanent bandage could be applied:

pres

The food after passing into the stomach, by its muscular action and the gastrick juices, becomes an wounded, the living blood rapidly flows, and must be Not so with the arteries; for when an artery is amalgamated pulpy mass called chyme, which, passing speedily stopped by a pressure above the wound, or into the bowels, the nutritive portion, a milky fluid, nearer towards the heart, in whatever part of the body called chyle, is separated and taken up by the lacteal the artery may be; and the pressure must be conabsorbent vessels, (the refuse portion of the food tinued for several hours for instance, in a wound being passed off by the stimulus of the bile;) the of one of the arteries of the arm or finger, the lacteals conduct the chyle to the thoracick duct, sure must be applied above the wound by a little pad which empties itself into the left subclavian vein, of folded linen, and a piece of tape made tight round where it meets and mixes with the blood returning the arm or finger; or for want of this, a large knot from the left arm and left side of the head (see en- might be tied with a handkerchief and applied upon graving); and the subclavian vein then empties itself the bleeding vessel, and made tight upon the arm, into the vena cava, or great vein, into which all the which will effectually stop the bleeding. Should it veins empty themselves; auricle of the heart, and then into the right ventricle, pressing above or below it, it may be soon ascertained and, passing into the right not be known whether it is an artery or vein, by from which it is propelled through the pulmonary which way the blood runs, and the bandage applied artery into the lungs; and it then circulates through accordingly; and thus a person's life may be saved the innumerable small vessels which are diffused by himself or a bystander, until surgical aid can be through the lungs, in which it meets the air vessels, procured. and, by the action of the atmosphere, undergoes a change, and becomes the red or arterial blood; this operation is so extremely minute as to be very little understood. The blood now having been supplied with the necessary nutrition from the lacteals, as before explained, and having been vivified by the action of the lungs and atmosphere, is ready to nourish the body; and, accordingly, is conducted by the pulmonary vein to the left auricle, whence it passes into the left ventricle, which, being distended, contracts, and, with great force, throws the blood through the aorta, or large artery, and through all the minor arteries to the extremities; when it passes throughout the whole body, giving out nutrition as required: by this means the blood appears to be deprived of a great portion of its red colour, and becomes purple or venous blood, and is returned by the veins into the vena cavæ, there to meet the chyle as before, and again pass through the lungs to be rearterialized and become fit for circulation. Thus, LOCOMOTIVE STEAM-CARRIAGES. by means of this important action of the blood, every derstood, and have indeed been long known by those The nature and power of steam are now well unpart of the body lives, becomes warm, and is nour- who have studied the physical sciences. ished; the warmth of the body being increased in water is exposed to the action of heat, it expands proportion to the velocity of the circulation. What and assumes the gaseous state called steam. When is commonly called the pulse, is the alternate action this state, it is extremely light and expansive, like of the ventricles of the heart called systole and air; and like it, may be reduced into less space by diastole, each contraction of the ventricle forming pressure; and resists also the force which coma distinct pulsation; hence the velocity with which presses it. As steam possesses the elasticity of air, the blood circulates is discovered by feeling one of the artenes of the wrist, which communicates to the finger, by the sense of touch, the number of contractions of the ventricles in a given time.

We do not expect all our readers to be anatomists;

the wonderful circulation of the blood-the heart If we religiously and philosophically contemplate to propel it through the body—the lungs to vivify it with the air-the valves to prevent the return of the blood back through the veins the admirable position of the arteries, all placed as near the bones as possible, so as to be protected from all injury-in the hands, for instance, deeply seated, and passing inside near the bone, while the veins, less important, pass over the wrist on the outsidestrained to admit that our frames present to us a piece of contrivance, ingenuity, and mechanism, beyond our comprehension, and incontrovertibly prov ing the exceeding wisdom and omnipotence of the grand Architect of the universe.

-we must be con

In

and as it may be condensed by the application of cold, it is obvious that it may be used as a moving force, and that it possesses power to an unlimited usually so applied, is called the steam-engine, and extent. The medium, or instrument, in which it is

cylinder, the vacuum removed, and the piston rises to the top, because of the load at the other end of the beam. The cylinder is again filled with steam and condensed, the piston forced down, more water pumped up, and thus the engine continues to act as long as it is supplied with steam.

boats, as has since been done.

constitutes one of the most useful benefits, which | science has conferred on the arts for practical purposes. In its earliest forms, it was used to raise water, although early efforts were made to adapt it to propel vessels. The marquis of Worcester, in the 17th century, has the credit of inventing the steam-engine; but he did not apply it to any useful The steam-engine is now applied to almost every purposes, nor did he cause any great attention to it. species of manufacture as a substitute for labour. At Some time later, one Savary gave an account of its first, it was used only to raise water, though early power; and even received a patent for it. In his efforts were made, as already stated, to propel vesmachine, the elasticity of steam was used to force sels. Savary proposed to make water, raised by it, water up a pipe. But so imperfect was his plan, turn a wheel in a vessel which should carry paddlethat there was a great waste or loss of steam, and wheels on the outside; and Watt, who made ima great consumption of fuel. A great improvement provements in the steam-engine, towards the close was made in the engine by Savary and others, in of the last century, declared that, with proper en1705, which consisted chiefly in a metallick cylin-couragement and leisure, he could apply it to propel der, in which a piston, air-tight, was capable of moving from top to bottom. The top was open and the bottom closed. The piston was attached to a piston-rod, or chain which connected it with the end of the working beam. This was supported on a gudgeon, and the end opposite to that to which the piston-rod was attached was loaded, and of course the pump-rod attached to it was at the bottom of the well from which the water was to be pumped. The cylinder is filled with steam till all the air is driven | out. The piston was at the top of the cylinder. The steam in the cylinder is condensed by means of a jet of cold water; and a vacuum is produced in the cylinder. The atmosphere presses on the top of the piston, and forces it to the bottom of the cylinder. The pump-rod at the other end of the working beam is drawn up-it makes a stroke, and quantity of water is pumped out of the well or mine. Steam is again let in below the piston in the

But steam is also employed to propel carriages on land. For this purpose, the wheels of the carriage are set in motion by the engine, in the manner wheels of a steam-boat are made to turn. The tire of the wheels is made of iron; and steam-carriages run on tracks of iron. Rail-roads are parallel bars of iron, laid either level or with a gentle and uniform slope; and steam has been chiefly applied to locomotion on roads of this kind. The locomotive machines have been much improved within a few years past. They now drag after them several cars, or carriages, equal to seven times their own size or weight.

The great advantages of rail-way conveyance are now fully appreciated in this country, indeed, railways are multiplying to an astonishing extent, and wherever they are practicable, they seem destined to supersede all other modes of land conveyance.