CALENDAR

FOR

MAY, 1816.

I. The Name is derived, perhaps, from Maia, the mother of Mercury, to whom sacrifices were offered by the Romans, on the first of this month.

II. Fasts and festivals.—May 1. St. Philip and St. James the Less. The Jews (it is said) commemorate the death of Samuel the prophet, by a general mourning, on the first of May.

May 3. Invention of the Cross. The Romish church celebrates this day as a festival, to commemorate the invention or finding of the cross. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, being warned in a dream to search for the cross of Christ, at Jerusalem, went thither, and employed many days at Golgotha in digging for it! Of this, enough.

May 6. John Evangelist. May 19. St. Dunstan. He was a native of Glastonbury, and was promoted to the see of Worcester by King Edgar. He was afterwards Bishop of London, and at length, Archbishop of Canterbury. He died A. D. 988.

May 21. Rogation Sunday. From rogare, to ask; because on the three subsequent days, supplications were appointed by Mamertus, Bishop of Vienna, in the year 469, to be offered up with fasting, to avert some particular calamities that threatened his diocese.

May 23. Ascension Day. From the earliest times, this day was set apart to commemorate our

Saviour's ascension into heaven.

May 26. Austin, (not Augustine.) This English apostle, as he is termed, was commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great, to convert the Saxons. The Britons had, centuries before, enjoyed the gospel. He was created Archbishop of Canterbury in 556, and died about the year 610.

May 27. Venerable Bede. This celebrated scholar was born at Yarrow, in Northumberland, in 673.

His grand work is the Ecclesiastical History of the Saxons. Being a monk, he studied in his cell, where, spending more hours, and to better purpose, than most of the monks did, it was reported that he never left it. So much attached was he to his retirement, that he would not quit it for any preferment at Rome, to which the Pope had often invited him.

III. Astronomical Occurrences. -The sun enters Gemini on the 21st, at eight minutes after six in the morning. The moon enters her first quarter on the 5th; is full on the 11th; enters her last quarter on the 19th; and her change will happen on the 27th. She passes the Georgian planet on the 13th, at thirty-two minutes after midnight. Mars sets about midnight, a little on the northern side of the place where the sun sets. Jupiter is visible all night, and in a good position for evening observations, being not yet far removed from his nearest approach to the earth, and coming to his highest place in the heavens at thirty-five minutes after eleven on the 1st, and at twenty-four minutes after nine. on the 31st. On the 1st, he passes

Lambda Virginis, a star of the fourth magnitude. The star will be fifty-five minutes, or about two breadths of the sun, below Jupiter. A few of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites may also be seen, on some of the evenings of this month, by those who are provided with a good telescope. On the 7th, the first satellite will come out of Jupiter's shadow at nineteen minutes after ten; on the 10th, the second will emerge, in like manner, at five minutes after ten; on the 25th, the third and brightest satellite will begin to appear at thirty-five minutesafter ten; and, on the 30th, the first satellite will emerge from the shadow at thirty-one minutes after ten. The planet Saturn rises on the 1st, at twenty-five minutes after two in the morning; and, on the 31st, at twenty-eight minutes after midnight. The Georgian planet is in opposition to the sun on the 31st, and is then, consequently, nearest the earth.

On the 27th of this month, the sun is eclipsed at six minutes after three in the morning, or fifty-two minutes before sun-rise. The eclipse, therefore, could not possibly be visible in England at this time of the morning, if other circumstances were favourable, as the sun is then below the horizon. But had the moon's latitude been different, we might have seen the eclipse at a later period of its progress. In the present case, however, it must have been invisible, if it had happened at any hour of the day, as no situation in which England could be placed, by the diurnal revolution of the earth, could bring the moon sufficiently north to occasion her apparent contact with the sun. There is, in fact, a cause which varies the circumstances of an eclipse of the sun, which cannot

affect lunar eclipses. If we wish to know whether an eclipse of the moon is visible, we have only to ascertain whether the moon herself is visible. For, between the time of her rising and that of her setting, the eclipse is visible; and, from her setting, to the period of her rising, it is sufficiently obvious that the eclipse must be invisible. In order, however, to ascertain that an eclipse of the sun is visible, we must not only be certain of his being above the horizon, but the moon's latitude must be such as to bring her between the sun and that particular part of the earth for which we wish to calculate. For, at the same point of time, one part of the earth may be covered with the darkness of a total eclipse, whilst, at another, the inhabitants may behold the sun in all his dazzling lustre, without the slightest appearance of any intervening object. To render these observations more intelligible, let any person consider himself walking in a foot-path on the side of a field. Let him also suppose a tree to be placed in the middle of the field, and painted gate on the opposite side. He may then easily conceive, that, when he is at one part of the foot-path, the tree will appear to pass the gate, and either partly or entirely hide it from his view. He will, however, as readily ima gine, that, in other parts of the foot-path, the tree will not appear before the gate at all. Two per sons, therefore, may be placed in the said foot-path, to one of whom the gate may appear to be eclipsed by the tree, and to the other it may not appear to suffer any such effect. In a similar manner, a solar eclipse may vary. The sun may, at the same instant, be shining from the north pole to that of the south, and from

ninety degrees of east longitude to ninety degrees west, and the new moon may be situate between the sun and the equator. Let a person, then, be supposed to pass from the north pole to the south. While he is going the first fifty-six degrees, he sees the sun without any eclipse. Then the moon begins to obscure the lower part of that luminary, and this obscuration gradually increases, till the traveller pass the equinoctial line. There the sun is centrically eclipsed directly over his head. In his progress southward, the moon seems gradually to slide down the sun, till, at thirty-four degrees south, she sink below him; and presenting only her dark side to the earth, she then becomes perfectly invisible, and the eclipse ceases. If the observer traverse the globe from east to west, similar effects will ensue. It is plain, therefore, that the supposed eclipse is visible to all those who live within a circle that passes through thirty-four degrees north latitude, thirty-four degrees south latitude, thirty-four degrees east longitude, and thirty-four degrees west longitude. The eclipse, then, will be invisible to all who live within that ring, which is fifty-six degrees broad in every direction, extending from thirty-four to ninety degrees in north latitude, and in south latitude; in east longitude also, and in west longitude. If the full moon were to be in the fore-mentioned situation, when she suffers an eclipse, she would be visible to the same extent, but the eclipse would appear precisely the same at the poles as it would at the equator. The reason of this is, that an eclipse of the moon is occasioned by the earth's shadow, which falls on her surface. But an eclipse of the sun

is occasioned by the moon passing before that luminary, at a vast distance from it. The moon, then, is eclipsed by an object, (if the expression may be allowed) which adheres to the luminary eclipsed, and which, during such eclipse, is as inseparable as the paint on the fore-mentioned gate may be supposed to be. But the sun is eclipsed by an object which is, upon an average, three hundred and ninety-eight times nearer the earth than himself. We may, therefore, easily account for the fact, that we have so many visible eclipses of the moon, and yet so few solar eclipses visible at any selected spot on the earth's surface.

IV. Naturalist's Diary.-May is usually considered as the most delightful month in the whole year, and has long been the muse's favourite theme; although much that is said of its beauties applies better to more southern climates, or, indeed, to our month of June. Although May will sometimes raise her voice,

"And shake with fury to the ground The garland that she wears."

Yet the morning scenery of this month is, not unfrequently, as beautiful as can possibly be conceived. To press the verdant velvet carpet of nature, to enjoy the serene sky, the pure air, and the refreshing fragrance, which arise from the face of the earth; to listen to the melody of the feathered tribes; these, and a thousand other inexpressible delights, which this season never fails to present; all combine to exhilarate the spirits, and call forth a song of grateful adoration. The great progenitor of the human race, when first conscious of existence, beheld in all around