struck on the occasion, of which an engraving is given in this account of the massacre. An angel is represented with a cross in the left hand, and a drawn sword in the right, and the dying and dead are lying about. The Jesuit before quoted says, " Gregory taught that that slaughter was not effected without the assistance of God, and the divine counsel, in a medal which was struck, and in which an angel, armed with a sword and cross, is rushing against the rebels." The same writer states that he likewise sent a Legate to the French Monarch, admonishing him "that he should boldly persist in what he had begun,-neque curam asperis remediis inchoatam prosperè, perdat leniora miscendo,—and that he should not lose a cure so prosperously commenced by severe remedies, by mixing with them more lenient ones." The passage quoted above from the French writer will now be all the better understood. At the beginning of his pontificate, Gregory receives the news of the Parisian massacre. He goes to church to return thanks,-proclaims a jubilee,-commands a painting to be executed,―orders a medal to be struck,-and sends a Legate to urge the timid son of an Italian Popish mother, to proceed in the course he had thus begun, and not to lose the cure by the employment of milder measures. This same Pontiff, according to the French writer, sends, subsequently, large sums of money to the Emperor of Germany, and the Kings of France and Spain, to induce them to extirpate heresy from their dominions by force of arms. The statements of the two writers form a whole so complete, that it might have been written by either of them separately. 66 The volume on which we are now remarking, appears to have originated in the denial by some Romanist advocates of the concern of the Pope in the massacre of Paris. The writer gives, therefore, both a large number of authorities; and, as he promises in his title-page, a concise history of the corruptions, usurpations, and anti-social effects of Romanism." This, as well as the other volume, will be a useful addition to the respectable juvenile library. We say juvenile, because we are writing for the young; but persons of riper years may read both works with advantage,— we cannot say, with pleasure. NOTICES OF ANIMATED AND VEGETABLE NATURE, FOR JANUARY, 1840. BY MR. WILLIAM ROGERSON, Royal Observatory, Greenwich. "AN icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool Breathes a pure film, and in its mid career Arrests the bickering stream: Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects A double noise; while at his evening watch, The village dog deters the nightly thief; The heifer lows; the distant waterfall Swells in the breeze; and with the hasty tread JANUARY is the most uninteresting month in the year, so far as animated and vegetable nature are concerned; but its meteorological phenomena often arrest the attention of the Christian philosopher, who not only contemplates the wisdom and goodness of the Deity, as exhibited in beasts, birds, fishes, serpents, and insects, together with trees, shrubs, and flowers; but also in the clouds that ride sublimely on the wings of the wind,—in the fleecy snows, and the brilliant hoar-frosts. The intellectual mind is never at a loss for objects suitable for meditation, and capable of giving exalted conceptions of the power and skill of the great Creator. Such, however, is the ingenuity of man, that great things have been brought about by his means: the application of his knowledge and industry have caused animated and vegetable existences to exhibit, even in the bleak month of January, some of their most interesting phenomena which characterize the vernal season: thus a favourite woodlark will give out sweet airs from its wiry abode ; the blackcap will tune his dulcet notes to his kind benefactor, who secures him from the winterly blasts; the nightingale, in the neighbourhood of a warm fire, breathes out harmonious strains, while he sees the snow-flakes fall thickly through the parlour window, where the geranium and rose are in blow, and the variegated sweet-scented crocus (crocus versicolor) is diffusing its sweets: "But thee no wintry skies can harm, Who only needs to sing, To make even January charm, And every season spring."* The dormouse, the squirrel, the hedgehog, and bat, are now torpid; the latter, in mild evenings, is occasionally seen. The sarcelle and the tufled duck, with the grosbeak and aberdevine, are occasionally, but not regularly, seen; their appearance and departure depending on the severity or mildness of the weather. Fieldfares and redwings are seen in flocks when the snow lies deep upon the ground. Our little friend robin now makes very free: the cold pinches him, and hunger compels him to solicit at your hands a little food; and in return he repays you with a song. "A suppliant at your window comes, Who trusts your faith, and fears no guile : * Cowper, the poet, makes mention of a nightingale which he heard pouring forth, from a withered branch, "The foremost morn of all the year the melody of May." This was on New Year's day, 1792. I have been led to consider how this might have taken place, as nightingales are birds of passage, visiting England in spring, and departing in autumn. The bird, therefore, which Cowper heard, must either have escaped from a cage, or through some cause have been unable to migrate from our shores to the Continent, and had been preserved alive to the period alluded to; for sometimes it happens that mild weather continues in our climate till the beginning of January, after which severe frosts set in, as was the case in 1838. I greatly doubt that this bird lived to see the return of his mates in spring. "For cold and cheerless is the day, And he has sought the hedges round; Nor worm nor ant-egg can be found. No fears his slender feet deter; That wears the scarlet stomacher." In hard frosts, holes must be broken in the ice that forms upon fish-ponds, or the fish will die. It is pleasing to watch the finny tenants rising half torpid beneath a new-formed hole for the benefit of the air. The chirp of the crickets, from the kitchen chimney, breaks the silence of still evenings in the winter: they come from the crevices, when the house is quiet, to the warm hearth, and utter their shrill monotonous notes. Laurustinus remains in blossom: the Christmas rose (helleborus niger) is in flower; and now and then, in mild seasons, a daisy breaks forth. The red dead-nettle, and some of the species of coltsfoot, are in blow. At the end of the month, the snow-drop puts forth its modest milk-white flowers : "While still the cold north-east ungenial lowers, Common groundsel and chickweed, in sheltered situations, occasionally blow; but there are fewer wild flowers in this month than in any other period of the year. Mezereon, in our gardens, begins to open its delicate pink flowers; and under walls, sheltered from the north winds, but exposed to the sun, a polyanthus or primrose is seen to blow. BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL NOTICES, FOR JANUARY, 1840. BY MR. WILLIAM ROGERSON, Royal Observatory, Greenwich. "LET praise to Thee, all-sovereign power, arise, Who fix'd the mountains, and who form'd the skies! Who o'er thy works extend'st a Father's care; Whose kind protection all thy works declare: From the glad climes, where morn, in radiance drest, On thee alone the whole dependent lies, And thy rich boon all nature's want supplies. THE celebrated astronomer, Kepler, who discovered that famous law, "that the squares of the times of the sidereal revolutions of the planets round the Sun are to each other as the cubes of their mean distances from that luminary,"-was a man of strong and lively piety; and the exhortation which he addresses to the reader, before entering on the exposition of some of his discoveries, may be quoted, not only for its earnestness, but its reasonableness also:"I beseech my reader, that, not unmindful of the divine goodness bestowed on man, he do with me praise and celebrate the wisdom and greatness of the Creator, which I open to him from a more inward explication of the form of the world, from a searching of causes, from a detection of the errors of vision: and that thus, not only in the firmness and stability of the earth, he perceive with gratitude the preservation of all the living things in nature as the gift of God, but also that in its motion, so recondite, so admirable, he acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator. But him who is too dull to receive this science, or too weak to believe the Copernican system without harm to his piety, him, I say, I advise that, leaving the school of astronomy, and condemning any doctrines of the philosophers, he follow his own path, and desist from this wandering through the universe, and, lifting up his natural eyes, with which alone he can see, pour himself out from his own heart in praise to God the Creator; being certain that he gives no less worship to God than the astronomer, to whom God has given to see more clearly with his inward eye, and who, for what he has himself discovered, both can and will glorify God." Two hundred years have now revolved since Kepler flourished. Since that period the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, and other astronomers, have been published to the world, which demonstrate, in the clearest manner possible, the truth of the Copernican system. This system has been explained with the greatest simplicity, by Ferguson and other persons; and of late years it has been exhibited in a sublime, pleasing, and religious point of view, by Dr. Dick, &c.: so that he who runs may read; and he who reads can understand. Therefore, it is almost unpardonable for youth, in this enlightened age, not to form some tolerably correct idea of the Copernican or solar system. The Sun being in the centre,-and Mercury, Venus, the Earth with her Moon, Mars, Vesta, Juno, Pallas, Ceres, Jupiter with his four Moons, Saturn with his double Ring and seven Moons, and Uranus with his six satellites, all moving around the Sun in circles, one greater than another, Mercury revolving in the smallest, and Uranus in the largest,-all taken together, as one revolving whole," in a very striking manner unfold the wisdom, power, and goodness of the great Creator, who in the beginning spoke, and the universe was formed,— "Who set the bosom of old night on fire, Peopled her deserts, and made horror smile ;" whose providence "is over all his works," and whose mercy extends to every fallen child of man, in the rich provision made for his restoration. "God so loved the world, that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The SUN, owing to the motion of the earth on its axis, rises, at London, on the 1st at eight minutes past eight; and sets at one minute after four: on the 21st he rises at fifty-six minutes past seven; and sets at twenty-eight minutes after four. The Sun rises on the 1st, at Edinburgh, at thirty-five minutes past eight, and sets at thirty-three minutes past three: on the 21st he appears in the horizon at eighteen minutes after eight, and descends from view at six minutes after four. The MOON changes on the 4th, at twenty minutes past nine at night she presents her beautiful crescent in the west on the 6th; and sets at twenty minutes before six: she sets on the 9th at about a quarter before ten, and on the 10th at eleven o'clock at night. The Moon enters on her first quarter on the 12th, at seven in the morning; souths on the 14th at eight, and on the 17th at a quarter past eleven, at night: she is full on the 19th, at half an hour before one in the morning. The Moon presents her refulgent orb in the oriental verge on the 20th at half-past six, and on the 21st at fortynine minutes after seven, in the evening: she enters on her last quarter on the 26th, at half-past one in the afternoon; and rises on the morning of the 28th at a quarter after three. The solemn pleasure which a fine moonlight night awakens in the mind of an intelligent Christian is more than language can portray :— "Attendant on thy silent course, ten thousand stars appear, In silent sacred majesty, around thy rolling sphere: Queen of the night! thy radiance cheers my meditative mind ; MERCURY is visible during the first week, when he rises nearly two hours before the Sun: on the second day he is near the Moon. VENUS, "fairest of stars," gilds the mornings "with her bright circlet" long before day's radiant orb begins to disperse the darkness from the face of the sky: she rises on the 1st at nine minutes past four, and on the 20th at ten minutes before five: on the 1st and 30th she is near the Moon. MARS appears near the western horizon after sun-set: on the 6th he is near the Moon. JUPITER is to be seen every clear morning with greater elevation than Venus, and nearer the south: he is next in splendour to Venus: he is not far from the Moon on the 27th day. SATURN appears at the end of the month, near the horizon in the south-east, at the break of day. ALDEBARAN, or the Bull's Eye, is due south, at a quarter before ten, on the first day, and on the last day of the month about two hours sooner. CAPELLA, a bright fixed star, appears nearly overhead, in the south, at the beginning of the month, about half-past ten; and at the end at half an hour after eight. ORION exhibits to view Bellatrix, Rigel, Betelguese, and other splendid stars in the southern skies, about ten o'clock at night. Orion is indeed a beautiful constellation : : "Now brightens round thee many a sun; |