weather being not so severe in England as in regions of higher north latitude.

The chaffinch sings freely towards the middle of the month: the earliest I ever heard this bird was on the 26th of January, 1832, in Greenwich Park. The loud voice of the missel-thrush is now heard. Blackbirds, song-thrushes, and skylarks occasionally sing: but much depends on the state of the weather; for when February happens to be very severe, they are for the most part mute; but in mild and open seasons they sing freely.

Vegetation offers yet but few charms, that attract a common observer; though a philosopher finds a thousand objects in this department of nature, that are calculated to lead him to admire the wisdom and goodness of the Deity. Dr. Foster, in his "Perennial Calendar," remarks, that " buds and embryo blossoms, in their silky, downy coats, often finely varnished to protect them from the wet and cold, are the principal botanical subjects for observation in January and the early part of February, and their structure is particularly worthy of notice; to the practical gardener an attention to their appearance is indispensable, as by them alone he can prune with safety. Buds are always formed in the spring preceding that in which they open, and are of two kinds,-leaf-buds and flower-buds, distinguished by a difference of shape and figure, easily discernible by the observing eye; the fruit-buds being thicker, rounder, and shorter than the others: hence the gardener can judge of the probable quantity of blossoms that will appear,"

"When all this uniform uncolour'd scene

Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load,

And flush into variety again:

From dearth to plenty, and from death to life,

Is Nature's progress, when she lectures man

In heavenly truth; evincing, as she makes

The grand transition, that there lives and works

A soul in all things, and that soul is God.

He sets the bright procession on its way,

And marshals all the order of the year;

He marks the bounds where Winter may not pass,
And blunts his pointed fury; in its case,
Russet and rude, folds up the tender germ,

Uninjured, with inimitable art;

And ere one flowery season fades and dies,
Designs the blooming wonders of the next."

The lau-
The buds

The snow-drop now ornaments our gardens, and towards the month's end the beautiful yellow crocus is in bloom. rustinus is still in blossom, and so is the China rose. of the lilac-tree are forward, waiting for the vernal sun and southern breezes with warm rain, to unfold them into green leaf; but perhaps bleak Boreas will bring keen frosts, and some heavy falls of snow, before then. In the fields the white dead-nettle, the dandelion, the common crowfoot, and some of the speedwell tribe exhibit a few flowers: and here and there a daisy is seen.

67

BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL NOTICES,

FOR FEBRUARY, 1840.

BY MR. WILLIAM ROGERSON, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

""Tis pleasant to behold the joyous sun,

Commingling with the mountains of the west;
Making dull earth awhile his lawful throne,
Ere his closed eye resumes its wonted rest:

And as the' assembling spirits of the sky,

The diamond host of wheeling worlds immense,

In silvery light immantled, meet the eye,

And o'er the mind unearthly joys dispense;
They speak of Him who rules the boundless whole,
The Sun of life,-the universal Soul:

Sure none e'er gazed upon yon worlds of light,
Whose heart dissolved not in admiring awe!

The star-graven glories in the book of night

Must raise even untaught minds from grovelling here below!" THE SUN, owing to the motion of the earth, and the position of its poles with regard to the ecliptic, appears to approach the vertex of the equatorial regions from the south, and thereby causes the days with us rapidly to increase, and the nights to diminish in length, during the revolution of this month; as the following calculations exhibit :

The Sun rises on the 1st at forty-one minutes past seven, and sets at forty-seven minutes after four; on the 8th he rises at halfpast seven, and sets exactly at five o'clock; on the 15th the Sun rises at seventeen minutes past seven, and sets at thirteen minutes after five; on the 22d he rises at three minutes after seven, and sets at twenty-five minutes past five.

"Rise, rolling Sun, diffuse thy cheering ray,

Spread the deep blush, and give luxuriant day;
Sing the great God who guides thy haughty fire,
Thy beacon bright, that bids mankind aspire."

The Moon changes on the 3d, at one minute before two in the afternoon; and presents her fine crescent in the west on the 5th, and sets at about half-past seven in the evening: she sets on the 6th at a quarter before nine, and on the 8th at half an hour after eleven, at night. The Moon enters on her first quarter on the 10th, at four minutes past four in the afternoon; and is due south on the 11th at six minutes before seven in the evening: she is full on the 17th, at fifty-three minutes past one in the afternoon; and rises in her full splendour, on the same evening, at half-past five o'clock: she rises on the 20th at a quarter after nine, and on the 22d a little before midnight. The Moon enters on her last quarter on the 25th, at nine minutes before eleven in the forenoon; and rises on the 27th at a quarter after four in the morning.

MERCURY is invisible.

VENUS appears in the morning, near the horizon at daybreak: during the whole month she rises about a quarter after five: on the 29th she is in the neighbourhood of the Moon.

MARS is yet discernible in the evenings near the western hori

zon, but, being now at a great distance from the earth, appears only small: : on the 5th he is near the Moon.

JUPITER shines with refulgent beams in the southern skies before sun-rise. This beautiful planet, with his belts and satellites, rises on the 1st day at twenty minutes before two in the morning, and on the 27th exactly at midnight: on the 24th he is in conjunction with the Sun. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and fourteen hundred times larger than the earth.

:

"Illustrious planet! sometimes evening star,
And sometimes morning: these are appellations
Of trivial import, vast participator

With this our globe, in those blest influences
Which Sol exuberant sheds; though much superior
In bulk and magnitude, yet dost thou range,
Great as thou art, but as a single member
Link'd to one family. To art indebted.
I have seen what our forefathers never saw,
In backward ages,-thy four satellites,
Or rather thy four Moons. How admirable
A tube enhances vision's power, and shows
A further demonstration of the fiat

Of the sublime Creator; and advances,

If such were needed, a fresh proof that wisdom
Infinite and exalted must have moulded

Thy sphere, and with auxiliaries furnish'd thee!
Had I a doubt remaining on the subject,
This were enough to' eradicate it fully;
How could such order be by chance effected?
An orb stupendous framed! accompanied

By others necessary; these again

At distance proper placed, and all revolving,
And all harmonious! yet to' impute the whole
To accident, how frivolous!-how absurd!
No, no; there ever was, there ever will be,
Let man's audacity say what it may,

A high Intelligence, supreme, divine,

To whom all nature owes her origin,

And but for whom these triflers ne'er had been."

J. GORTON.

SATURN is visible in the morning, near the south-eastern horizon at the beginning of the month he is not far from Venus, and on the 26th and 27th he appears in the neighbourhood of the Moon he rises on the 8th at four o'clock, and on the 21st at a quarter after three. This year Saturn's ring attains its greatest opening, as seen from the earth, and renders this planet a very interesting telescopic object: this phenomenon takes place once in fifteen years.

"Muse! raise thy voice, mysterious truth to sing,
How o'er the copious orb a lucid ring,
Opaque and broad, is seen its arch to spread,
Round his big globe at stated periods led;
Perhaps (its use unknown) with gather'd heat

To aid the regions of that gelid seat,

The want of nearer Phoebus to supply,

And warm with reflex beams his summer sky;

Else might the high-placed world, exposed to frost,
Lie waste, in one eternal winter lost."

BROWN.

Note.-On Friday, the 14th, in the night, the Moon occults x Geminorum, a star of the fourth magnitude: the star immerges at the Moon's dark edge, near her lower limb, at fifty-one minutes past nine, and emerges at the bright limb twenty-three minutes past ten o'clock, after being hid behind the lunar orb thirty-two minutes. The annexed type represents the Moon and star, as they appear through a telescope that does not invert. I, the place of immersion, and E, that of emersion. V, the Moon's vertex, or upper limb.

V

E

JUVENILE OBITUARY.

1. DIED, June 18th, 1837, at Battlesden, near Hockliffe, in the Luton Circuit, David Stevens Labrum, aged seventeen. Favoured with parents who themselves feared God, he was in early life instructed in the ways of God. In January, 1835, his mind was deeply impressed under the ministry of the word, and he began, with all his heart, to seek the Lord for himself. He was not long before he obtained the Spirit of adoption, and was enabled to cry, Abba, Father. About the same time, believing it to be his duty to become personally connected with the professing church of Christ, he began to meet in class. Desiring to be useful, likewise, he became a Sunday-school Teacher; and, though constitutionally timid, and somewhat reserved, yet, as he engaged in this work upon principle, so he continued in it with a zeal and steadiness that were quite exemplary. His conduct as a youthful Christian was very even. He kept eternity in view; and gradually, but evidently, advanced in the divine life.

The affliction of which he died was very protracted and tedious; and, in the course of it, he suffered much from extreme and most painful debility. But, in the early part of it, impressed by the symptoms that had appeared, he sought for the especial grace of God, not only to comfort and support him, but likewise to make him fully meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. And he did not seek in vain. His affliction was greatly sanctified to him; and the power of religion to inspire, not only patience, but joy, was very evidently seen.

The closing scene, though melancholy,-for such must the chamber of death, seen under one aspect, always appear,-was at the same time glorious. His mother, wiping his pale face, and kissing his already-chilled lips, said to him, "You are going to heaven, my dear?" Faintly, and with difficulty, he replied, Happy in God!” A few minutes after, opening his eyes, and looking around him on the beloved members of his family, he calmly said, "Going home!" and fell asleep in Jesus. THOMAS WOOD.

2. Elizabeth Taylor was born at the Don Pottery, near Mexborough, in the Rotherham Circuit, July 2d, 1818. Her parents, who had long been associated with the Wesleyan Methodists, directed her attention to divine things in very early life; and their labour was not in vain. Subsequently, she was placed at a boarding-school, at Wath, whose principal attended to the spiritual concerns of her pupils, as well as endeavoured to promote their secular education. Here, the impressions of earlier life were strengthened, and she was evidently under the influence of gracious thoughts and feelings; and, in the month of October, 1832, under the ministry of the word, she was powerfully affected. She saw her need of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus; and, at a prayer-meeting held after the former service had been closed, she was enabled fully to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ: she received the end of her faith, even the salvation of her soul, and rejoiced with joy unspeakable. From this time, her entire character was evidently Christian. In her deportment there was not only a combination of gravity, and modesty, but of sweetness and cheerfulness. She lived in the view of eternity, and was therefore serious: she lived in the favour of God, walking in the light of his countenance; she was therefore happy and cheerful.

In the month of July, 1837, she was taken ill; and in the short space of a month, her earthly course was finished. She suffered much, but she was wholly resigned to the will of God. As her day was, so likewise was her strength. In the midst of strong pain, she was enabled to exercise an unshaken faith in the merits of Christ, and through Him to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. She frequently sang with great sweetness verses of hymns, expressive, sometimes, of her faith in Christ; at others, of the joyful hope of immortality which animated her spirit while passing through the valley and shadow of death. A short time before she died, while apparently unconscious of surrounding objects, her father approached her bedside, and could not refrain from bursting into tears. The sound seemed to recall her. Opening her eyes, and looking on her beloved parent with great tenderness, she said, "Do not weep, father: there is no occasion for weeping." A few minutes afterwards, faintly whispering the name of the Saviour, she ceased to suffer and to breathe. THOMAS J. MESSER.

3. Died, August 3d, Miss Wright, of Elmswell, in the Bury Circuit, aged seventeen. She had been for several years a member of the Wesleyan society, walking in consistency with her profession. Her conversion was a very scriptural one; and her subsequent conduct evinced the depth and power of the change that had been wrought in her.

At the commencement of her affliction, she was convinced it would terminate in death. Her prospects in life were flattering, and her friends most affectionate; but she said, "I can give them up freely. There is nothing here to court my stay, or to hold me back from God." Indeed, she was the comforter of her friends.