an assembly of the people and clergy, held for the election of a pastor in his room, a dove, to the great surprise of all present, settled on the head of St. Fabian; and that this miraculous sign united the votes of the clergy and people in promoting him, though a layman and a stranger. He governed the church sixteen years, sent St. Dionysius and other preachers into Gaul, and condemned Privatus, the promoter of a new heresy in Africa, as appears from St. Cyprian. St. Fabian died a glorious martyr in the persecution of Decius in 250, as St. Cyprian and St. Jerom bear witness. The former, writing to his successor, St. Cornelius, calls him an incomparable man; and says, that the glory of his death was equal to the purity and holiness of his life.

21.-SAINT AGNES.

St. Jerom says, that the tongues and pens of all nations are employed in the praises of this saint, who overcame both the cruelty of the tyrant and the tenderness of her age, and crowned the glory of chastity with that of martyrdom. St. Austin observes, that her name signifies chaste in Greek, and a lamb in Latin. She has been always considered by the Catholics as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate Mother of God and St. Thecla. Rome was the theatre of the triumph of St. Agnes; and Prudentius says, that her tomb was shown within sight of that city. She suffered not long after the beginning of the persecution of Dioclesian, whose bloody edicts appeared in March in the year of our Lord 303. She was only thirteen years of age at the time of her glorious death.

On the eve of St. Agnes's-day, many kinds of divination are practised by the rustic damsels in the north, to discover their future husbands.-See T. T. for 1815, p. 9, where are some further particulars of this saint.

22.-SAINT VINCENT.

Vincent, a deacon of the church in Spain, suffered martyrdom in the Dioclesian persecution, about the year 303. A full description of the dreadful cruelties which he bore may be seen in T. T. for 1815, p, 12.

25.-CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL.

Saint Paul suffered martyrdom under the general persecution of Nero. Being a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified by the Roman laws, as his colleague St. Peter was; he was, therefore, beheaded-hence the usual representation of him with a sword in his hand. St. Chrysostom tells us that his picture was preserved by some of the christians in his time, and that he was but of a low stature (three cubits), that is, four feet six inches high. Nicephorus describes him as a small man, somewhat crooked, of a pale complexion, and appearing older than he really was.

Lord Lyttleton's Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul' deserve the most careful perusal of every scholar and every christian.

*28. 1725.-PETER THE GREAT DIED, ÆT. 52.

A people savage from remotest time,

A huge neglected empire, ONE VAST MIND,
By Heaven inspired, from Gothic darkness called.
Immortal PETER! first of monarchs! he

His stubborn country tamed, her rocks, her fens,
Her floods, her seas, her ill-submitting sons;
And while the fierce barbarian he subdued,
To more exalted soul he raised the man.
Ye shades of antient heroes, ye who toiled
Through long successive ages to build up
A labouring plan of state, behold at once
The wonder done! behold the matchless prince!
Who left his native home, where reigned till then
A mighty shadow of unreal power;

Who greatly spurned the slothful pomp of courts;
And, roaming every land, in every port
His sceptre laid aside, with glorious hand,
Unwearied plying the mechanic tool;
Gathered the seeds of trade, of useful arts,
Of civil wisdom, and of martial skill.

THOMSON.

*29. 1739.-WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.

The first stone was laid on this day: the masonry used in its erection was nearly double the quantity employed in building St. Paul's Cathe dral!

30.—KING CHARLES I, MARTYR.

He was the worthiest gentleman, the best master, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best christian, that the age in which he lived produced. (Clarendon,) An elegant and candid tribute is paid to the memory of King Charles in the sermon of Bishop Horne, entitled The Christian King.

One of the Lansdowne MSS. now deposited in the British Museum (lately copied into the Morning Advertiser) records the following singular affair respecting the unfortunate Charles I and the accomplished Lord Falkland, who was slain in a skirmish in which he unnecessarily engaged, the day before the first battle of Newbury:

About this time, there befel the king an accident, which, though a trifle in itself, and that no weight is to be laid upon any thing of that nature; yet since the best authors, both ancient and modern, have not thought it below the majesty of history to mention the like, it may be the more excusable to take notice of.

The king being at Oxford during the civil wars, went one day to see the public library, where he was shewn, among other books, a Virgil, nobly printed and exquisitely bound. The Lord Falkland, to divert the king, would have his majesty make a trial of his fortune by the sortes virgiliana, which every body knows was an unusual kind of augury some ages past. Whereupon the king opening the book, the period which happened to come up was that part of Dido's imprecation against Æneas, which Mr. Dryden translates thus:

Yet let a race untamed, and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose;
Oppressed with numbers in th' unequal field,
His men discouraged and himself expelled,
Let him for succour sue from place to place,
Torne from his subjects and his sons embrace,
First let him see his friends in battle slain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain ;
And when at length the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace.
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command,
But fall untimely by some hostile hand,
And lie unburied on the barren sand.

ENEID, b. iv, l. 88.

'It is said, King Charles seemed concerned at this accident, and that the Lord Falkland observing it, would likewise try his own fortune in the same manner, hoping he might fall upon some passage that could have no relation to his case, and thereby divert the king's thoughts from any impression the other might have upon him. But the place that Falkland stumbled upon was yet more suited to his destiny than the other had been to the king's; being the following expressions of Evander upon the untimely death of his son Pallas, as they are translated by the same hand :

O Pallas! thou hast failed thy plighted word
To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword:
I warned thee, but in vain; for well I knew
What perils youthful ardour would pursue.
That boiling blood would carry thee too far;
Young as thou wert in dangers-raw in war!
O curst essay in arms,-disastrous doom,-
Prelude of bloody fields and fights to come.
ÆNEID, b. XI, l. 230.

For an account of the character and manners of King Charles, we refer to T. T. for 1815, p. 16; some particulars of his trial will be found in p. 18 of the same volume, and in T. T. for 1816, p. 6. See also T. T. for 1814, p. 8, for a descrip

B

tion of the finding of his body in St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

*30. 1817.-DUKE OF MARLBOROUGgh died.

The first duke was called, and deservedly retains, the title of "the great Duke of Marlborough:" the late duke (the third) will, undoubtedly, for many years, be distinguished by the yet prouder appellation of "the good Duke of Marlborough." He died at Blenheim, aged 78; and only the day previous to his dissolution, took his usual exercise in his carriage.

Astronomical Occurrences

In JANUARY 1819.

Obliquity of the Ecliptic.

THE explanations we have already given in our previous volumes will be fully sufficient for enabling our readers to comprehend what is meant by the obliquity of the ecliptic and its variations; and, consequently, to understand the following table on this subject.

The equation of the equinoctial points for the same periods of this year is also as follows:

viz.

The Sun enters Aquarius at 41 m. after 7 on the evening of the 20th of this month. The following table also shows the time of his rising