As though she were abashed to be thus seen
From the sun's couch with silver steps retreating?
Hast thou ne'er marked, that when by slow degrees,
Night after night, her crescent shape is lost,
And steadily she gains her stores of light,
Till half her form resplendently proclaims
An envious rival to the stars around-

Then mark'st thou not, that nought of her sweet blush
Remains to please the gazer's wistful sight,
And that she shines increasingly in strength,
Till she is full-orb'd, mistress of the sky ?—
So is it with the mind, when silently

Into the young heart's void steals timorous love.
Then enter with it fancy's fairy dreams,
Visions of glory, reveries of bliss;

And then they come and go, till comes, alas!
Knowledge, forced on us, of the "world without !"
How soon these scenes of beauty disappear!
How soon fond thought sinks into nothingness!
How soon the mind discovers that true bliss
Reposes not on sublunary things,

But is alone when passion's blaze is o'er
In that high happy sphere, where love's supreme.
Here it may not be out of place to en-
deavour to describe, as familiarly as pos-
sible, the cause of the lunar appearance.
Hold a piece of looking-glass in a ray of
sunshine, and then move a small ball
through the reflected ray: it is easy to
conceive that both sides will be illumined;
that side towards the sun by the direct
runbeam, and the side towards the mirror,
though less powerfully, by the reflected
runbeam. In a somewhat similar manner,
the earth supplies the place of the mirror,
and as at every new moon, and for several
days after the moon is in that part of her
orbit between the earth and the sun, the
rays of the sun are reflected from the
earth to the dark side of the moon, and
consequently to the inhabitants of that
part of the moon, (if any such there be,
and query why should there not be such ?)
the earth must present the curious appear-
ance of a full moon of many times the
diameter which ours presents.

J. O. W.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature ... 36. 05.

January 9.

1826. Plough Monday, The first Monday after Twelfth day.”

CHRONOLOGY.

On the 9th of January, 1752, William Stroud was tried before the bench of

* See vol. i. p. 71.

justices at Westminster-hall, for personating various characters and names, and defrauding numbers of people, in order to support his extravagance. It appeared by the evidence, that he had cheated a taylor of a suit of velvet clothes, trimmed with gold; a jeweller of upwards of 1007. in rings and watches, which he pawned; a coachmaker of a chaise; a carver and cabinet-maker of household goods; a hosier, hatter, and shoemaker; and, in short, some of almost every other business, to the amount of a large sum. He sometimes appeared like a gentleman attended with livery servants; sometimes as a nobleman's steward; and, in the summer time, he travelled the west of England, in the character of Doctor Rock; and, at the same time, wrote to London for goods, in the names of the Rev. Laroche, and the Rev. Thomas Strickland. The evidence was full against him; notwithstanding which, he made a long speech in his own defence. He was sentenced to six months' hard labour in Bridewell, and, within that time, to be six times publicly whipped.

Such offences are familiar to tradesmen of the present times, through many perpetrators of the like stamp; but all of them are not of the same audacity as Stroud, who in the month following his conviction, wrote and published his life, wherein he gives a very extraordinary account [of his adventures, but passes slightly over, or palliates his blackest crimes. He was bred a haberdasher of small wares in Fleet-street, inarried his mistress's sister

before his apprenticeship determined, set up in the Poultry, became a bankrupt, in three months got his certificate signed, and again set up in Holborn, where he lived but a little while before he was thrown into the King's Bench for debt, and there got acquainted with one Playstowe, who gradually led him into scenes of fraud, which he afterwards imitated. Playstowe being a handsome man, usually passed for a gentleman, and Stroud for his steward; at last the former, after many adventures, married a girl with 4000, flew to France, and left Stroud in the lurch, who then retired to Yorkshire, and lived some time with his aunt, pretending his wife was dead, and he was just on the brink of marrying advantageously, when his real character was traced. He then went to Ireland, passed for a man of fashion, hired an equipage, made the most of that country, and escaped to London. His next grand expedition was to the west of England, where he still personated the man of fortune, got acquainted with a young lady, and pursued her to London, where justice overtook him; and, instead of wedlock, bound him in the fetters of Bridewell.

On the 24th of June, 1752, Stroud received "his last and severest whipping,

from the White Bear to St. James's church Piccadilly."*

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR.' Mean Temperature ... 36 12.

January 10.

Winter in London.

On the 10th of January, 1812, it is observed, that London was this day involved, for several hours, in palpable darkness. The shops, offices, &c., were necessarily lighted up; but, the streets not being lighted as at night, it required no small care in the passenger to find his way, and avoid accidents. The sky, where any light pervaded it, showed the aspect of bronze. Such is, occasionally, the effect of the accumulation of smoke between two opposite gentle currents, or by means of a misty calm. The fuliginous cloud was visible, in this instance, from a distance of forty miles. Were it not for the extreme mobility of our atmosphere, this volcano of a hundred thousand months would, in winter, be scarcely habitable !†

Winter in the Country.

All out door work

* Gentleman's Magazine.
+ Howard on Climate.

Now stands; the waggoner, with wisp-wound feet,
And wheelspokes almost filled, his destined stage
Scarcely can gain. O'er hill, and vale, and wood,
Sweeps the snow-pinioned blast, and all things veils
In white array, disguising to the view
Objects well known, now faintly recognised.
One colour clothes the mountain and the plain,
Save where the feathery flakes melt as they fall
Upon the deep blue stream, or scowling lake,
Or where some beetling rock o'erjuṭting hangs
Above the vaulty precipice's cove.

Formless, the pointed cairn now scarce o'ertops
The level dreary waste; and coppice woods,
Diminished of their height, like bushes seem.
With stooping heads, turned from the storm, the flocks,
Onward still urged by man and dog, escape

The smothering drift; while, skulking at a side,
Is seen the fox, with close downfolded tail,
Watching his time to seize a straggling prey;
Or from some lofty crag he ominous howls,
And makes approaching night more dismal fall.

Grahame.

"Just popp'd in, you know!"

MR. PAUL PRY'S SONG,

Intended to have been sung by him at the Theatre,
In the Character of MR. LISTON,
ON NEW YEAR'S EVE.

TUNE Mr. Liston's,

(Pryingly.) I hope I don't intrude !—
Fearfully.) I thought I heard a cough-
(Apologetically) I hope I am not rude-
(Confidentially.) I say-the Year's going off!

(Inquisitively.) Where can he be going to?
(Ruminatively.) Its very odd!-its serious !—
(Self-satisfactively.) I'm rather knowing too!-
(Insinuatively.) But isn't it mysterious?

(Comfortably.) 'Twas better than the other(Informingly.) The one that went before;(Consolingly.) But then there'll be another(Delightedly.) And that's one comfort more!

(Alarmedly.) I'm half afraid he's gone!
(Kindlily.) Must part with the old fellow!
(Hastily.) Excuse me-I must run—(Exit.)

(Returns.) Forgot my umbrella.

(Determinedly.) I'll watch the new one though,
(Circumspectly.) And see what he'll be at―(Exit.)

(Returns.) Beg pardon-did'nt bow-(Bows and exit.) (Returns.) Bid pardon-left my hat.