ture; and what can contribute more to convince us of the Almighty power,-to raise our minds from 'Nature up to Nature's God,'-than the contemplation of the sweeping whirlwind and the awful thunder, or the examination of the structure of the meanest insect? Can we look upon the great world of animated beings without admiring how all are adapted to each other, and how suited they are to the purposes for which they were intended? or, can we examine the commonest production of Nature, and not be convinced of its great superiority over the finest piece of workmanship that the most clever artist was ever able to produce? Imitate, if you can, the structures of the bee, the granaries of the ant, the webs of the spider, and the threads of the silkworm! GOD alone can work these wonders, and he presents them to us, not as models for our imitation, but as so many testimonies of his power and wisdom. It is our duty therefore to correspond to his views, and to contemplate his perfections, even in the smallest of his works. Among all the animals, we alone are capable of this contemplation. The sun sheds his beams over all the earth; but man alone comprehends their source and perceives their effects. Beasts live and grow, but they know not how. The lion is unconscious of his strength; the nightingale of the melody of her voice; the butterfly of the beauty of its wing; and the caterpillar feeds upon the leaf without knowing what it is that affords it sustenance. Can we doubt, then, that the tribute of admiration which they demand from the faculties of man is a reasonable tribute, which he owes to his CREATOR? Like Nature's law no eloquence persuades, And, O SUPREME! whene'er we cease to know Thee, the sole Source, whence sense and science flow! And more than monster o'er the man prevail. O think, if superficial scenes amaze, And e'en the still familiar wonders please, Whelmed on our soul, and lightning on our view !— No longer dictate to the Grand Supreme, But, waking, wonder whence they dared to dream. BROOKE. Select Books on Ensects. Turton's Translation of Linnæus, vols. 2 and 3. The sixth volume of Dr. Shaw's General Zoology; or his Zoological Lectures, 8vo. 2 vols. Lesser's Insecto-Theology, by Lyonnet, 8vo. The Works of Swammerdam, Ray, Reaumur, Bonnet, de Geer, Fabricius, &c. &c, Kirby and Spence's Entomology, Svo. 2 vols. Samouelle's Entomology, 8vo. Graves's Naturalist's Pocket Book, on the Method of procuring and preserving Insects. Donovan's History of British Insects, 16 vols. royal 8vo.; and his splendid publications on the Insects of China, India, and New Holland, in royal 4to. The article Entomology, in the PANTALOGIA, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, containing more than three hundred subjects of Natural History, beautifully coloured after Nature. See also the article Entomology in the great Cyclopædia of Dr. Rees. TIME'S TELESCOPE FOR 1820. JANUARY. THE name given to this month by the Romans was taken from JANUS, one of their divinities, to whom they gave two faces; because, on the one side, the first day of this month looked towards the new year, and on the other towards the old one. The titles and attributes of this old Italian deity are fully comprised in two Choriambic verses of Sulpitius; and a further account of him from Ovid would here be superfluous: Jane pater, Jane tuens, dive biceps, biformis, O cate rerum sator, () principium deorum! 'Father Janus, all-beholding Janus, thou divinity with two heads, and with two forms; O sagacious planter of all things, and leader of deities!' He was the god, we see, of wisdom; whence he is represented on coins with two, and, on the Etruscan image found at Falisci, with four faces; emblems of prudence and circumspection. Thus is GANESA, the god of Wisdom in Hindoostan, painted with an elephant's head, the symbol of sagacious discernment, and attended by a favourite rat, which the Indians consider as a wise and provident animal. His next great character (the plentiful source of many superstitious usages), was that, from which he is emphatically styled the Father,' and which the A second verse before cited more fully expresses, ‹ The origin and founder of all things.' Whence this notion arose, unless from a tradition that he first built shrines, raised altars, and instituted sacrifices, it is not easy to conjecture: hence it came, however, that his name was invoked before any other god— that, in the old sacred rites, corn and wine, and, in later times, incense also, were first offered to Janus— that the doors or entrances to private houses were called Januæ; and any pervious passage or thoroughfare, in the plural number, Jani, or with two beginnings'---that he was represented holding a rod as guardian of ways; and a key, as opening, not gates only, but all important works and affairs of mankind---that he was thought to preside over the morning or beginning of day---that, although the Roman year began regularly with March, yet the eleventh month, named Januarius, was considered as first of the twelve: whence the whole year was supposed to be under his guidance, and opened with great solemnity by the consuls inaugurated in his fane, where his statue was decorated on that occasion with fresh laurel; and, for the same reason, a solemn denunciation of war, than which there can hardly be a more momentous national act, was made by the military consul's opening the gates of his temple with all the pomp of his magistracy. The twelve altars and the twelve chapels of Janus might either denote, according to the general opinion, that he leads and governs twelve months; or that, as he says of himself in Ovid, all entrance and access must be made through him to the principal gods, who were, to a proverb, of the same number. We may add, that Janus was imagined to preside over infants at their birth, or the beginning of life. The Indian divinity has precisely the same character. All sacrifices and religious ceremonies, all addresses even to superior gods, all compositions in writing, and all worldly affairs of moment, are begun with an invocation of GANESA; a word composed of isa, the Governor or Leader, and gana, or a Company of Deities. Instances of opening business auspiciously by an ejaculation to the Janus of India might be multiplied with ease. Few books are begun without the words "Salutation to Ganes;" and he is first invoked by the Brahmins, who conduct the trial by ordeal, or perform the ceremony of the 'homa,' or sacrifice to fire. Mons. Sonnerat represents him as highly revered on the " Coast of Coromandel; where the Indians,' he says, would not, on any account, build a house, without having placed on the ground an image of this deity, which they sprinkle with oil, and adorn every day with flowers. They set up his figure in all their temples, in the streets, in the high roads, and in open plains at the foot of some tree: so that persons of all ranks may invoke him, before they undertake any business; and travellers worship him, before they proceed on their journey.' To this may be added that, in the commodious and useful town which now rises at Dharmaranya or Gaya, every new-built house, agreeably to an immemorial usage of the Hindoos, has the name of Ganesa superscribed on its door; and, in the Old Town, his image is placed over the gates of the temples.---(See Sir Wm. Jones's Works, vol. iii, p. 326, Svo ed.) Remarkable Days In JANUARY 1820. THIS festival was instituted in the sixth century, in commemoration of the circumcision of our Saviour; a rite of the Jewish law, first enjoined to Abraham as a token of the covenant God made with him and his posterity. New Year's Day has ever been considered a season of joy and congratulation for blessings re |