The orbits of these satellites are nearly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic, and they all perform their revolutions in their orbits contrary to the order of the signs; that is, their real motion is retrograde. We are reminded, by the consideration of satellites, of Mrs. Barbauld's appropriate lines:

Seized in thought,

On fancy's wild and roving wing I sail,

From the green borders of the peopled earth,
And the pale Moon, her duteous fair attendant;
From solitary Mars; from the vast orb

Of Jupiter whose huge gigantic bulk

Dances in ether like the lightest leaf

To the dim verge the suburbs of the system,
Where cheerless Saturn, 'midst his watery Moons,
Girt with a lucid zone, majestic sits

In gloomy grandeur, like an exiled queen
Amongst her weeping handmaids: fearless thence
I launch into the trackless deeps of space,
Where, burning round, ten thousand Suns appear
Of elder beam, which ask no leave to shine
Of our terrestrial star, nor borrow light
From the proud regent of our scanty day;
Sons of the morning, first born of creation,

And only less than God who marks their track,
And guides their fiery wheels.

Few considerations fill the mind with more admiration than that of the immensity of bodies that Astronomy has unfolded to us:

Unknown Suns to unknown systems rise,

Whose numbers who shall tell? stupendous host!
In flaming millions through the vacant hung
Sun beyond Sun, and world to world unseen,
Measureless distance, unconceived by thought!
Awful their order; each the central fire

Of his surrounding Stars, whose whirling speed,
Solemn and silent, through the pathless void,
Nor change nor error knows.

July 25.

ST. JAMES the Great. St. Christopher. SS. Thea and Valentina V. M. St. Cucufas. St. Nissen.

rises at Iv. 8'. and sets at vII. 52'.

Furinalia.-Rom. Cal.

CHRONOLOGY.-Battle of Bovines in 1214.

Edward I. crowned in 1274.

Furina the goddess of robbers was worshipped at Rome. Some say that she is the queen of the Furies. Her festivals were called Furinalia. - Cic. de Nat. 3, c. 8. Varro de L. L. 5, c. 3.

On St. James's day, old style, Oysters come in, in London; and there is a popular superstition still in force, like that relating to Goose on Michaelmas day, that whoever eats Oysters on that day will never want money for the rest of the year. Hence Churchill:

July to whom, the Dogstar in her train,

St. James gives Oysters and St. Swithin Rain.

St. James is called " the Great," either because he was much older than the other James, or because our Lord conferred upon him some peculiar honours and favours; he being one of the three disciples whom our Saviour admitted to the more intimate transactions of his life. He was brother to the beloved disciple, and they were called Boanerges, which signifies sons of thunder. He was put to death by the command of King Herod, nephew of Herod Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist, and brother to the infamous Herodias. The Spaniards have the highest veneration for St. James; and, on account of his appearing armed cap a pie, mounted on a stately prancing white horse, and assisting them in their battles with the Moors, they have chosen him for their Patron Saint, and instituted a military order, which is called by his name.

FLORA.-About this time, and through the next month, the Purple Loosestrife Lythrum salicaria, ornaments the sides of ponds and brooks, and, by its tall spike of blue flowers, gives a rich appearance to the cooling retreats of river banks: it is intermixed with the Meadowsweet Spiraea ulmaria, the spicy fragrance of which scents the surrounding air.

The following lines on the flowers are from the classic pen of Percy Bysshe Shelley: :

A sensitive plant in a garden grew

And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fanlike leaves to the light
And closed them beneath the kisses of night.

And the Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the spirit of love felt every where;

And each flower and shrub on earth's dark breast,
Rose from the dreams of its wintery rest.

But none ever trembled and panted with bliss
In the garden, the field, or the wilderness,

Like a doe in the noontide with love's sweet want,
As the companionless sensitive plant.

The Snowdrop, and then the Violet,

Arose from the ground with warm rain wet,

And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent
From the turf, like the voice and the instrument.

Then the pied Windflowers, and the Tulip tall,
And Narcissi, the fairest among them all,
Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess,
Till they die of their own dear loveliness.

And the Naiadlike Lily of the vale,
Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale,
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen,
Through their pavilions of tender green.

And the Hyacinth purple, white, and blue,
Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew
Of music so delicate, soft, and intense,

It was felt like an odour within the sense.

And the Rose, like a nymph to the bath addrest,
Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast,
Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air
The soul of her beauty and love lay bare.

And the wandlike Lily, which lifted up,
As a Moenad, its moonlightcoloured cup,
Till the fiery star, which is its eye,

Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky.

And the Jessamine faint, and sweet Tube Rose,
The sweetest flower, for scent, that blows;
And all rare blossoms from every clime,
Grew in that garden in perfect prime.

July 26.

St. Anne Mother of the Virgin Mary.
St. Germanus.

Hoc mense rutilae Canes Caniculae sacrificabantur, Festum.-Rom. Cal. CHRONOLOGY.-King Philip of Spain excluded from the sovereignty of the United Provinces at Utrecht in 1581.

POMONA. The early Summer Fruits are now afforded in full profusion; Currants, Strawberries, Cherries of various sorts, besides early Apricots, and a few early melting Peaches, which begin to ripen, and afford a delicious repast. Peaches, before they be quite ripe, serve to make an excellent entrée called Charlotte des Pêches.

GYMNASIA.The Grass being now cut and carried, many games of children which require space in fields commence; such as Cricket, various games with Ball, and particularly the favourite diversion of flying Kites or Dragons

as they are called in France and in the county of Norfolkone of the prettiest of all our childish pastimes.

For the amusement of the day we insert a beautiful imitation of Catullus' Epithalamium of Julia and Manlius:The Nuptial Felicitation.

Soon may ye be completely blest,
Soon may a young Torquatus rise,
Who, hanging on his mother's breast,
To his known sire shall turn his eyes,
Outstretch his infant arms awhile,
Half ope his little lips, and smile.

In every feature of his face,

May the boy like the father shine!

That even nurserymaids may trace

Each well known mark, and stamp him thine!

And, from his lineal look, declare

How chaste thy consort, and how fair!

Nor less exalted be the praise

From his dear mother's worth acquired,
Than that which made, in ancient days,
The good Telemachus admired;
Whose virtues, and unblemished name,
Held up Penelope to fame.

Now close the doors, ye virgins fair;
Enough in sport have we pursued:
And O, ye soulaccording pair,

Be love beyond the tomb renewed,
Nor here let youthful vigour sleep,
But one eternal vigil keep!

July 27. S. Pantaleon M. St. Congall. St. Luican. SS. Martyrs.

rises at Iv. 11'. and sets at vII. 49'.

CHRONOLOGY.-Battle of Talavera de la Reyna in 1809.

FLORA. The Lythrum Salicaria is in full blow about this time, and its purple flowers adorn the steep banks of rivers, streams, and ditches.

Verses on a Moonlight Walk by the Seaside in 1820,
imitated from the Anthologia.

The soft sea breeze blows warm and light

Along the welkin fair,

While fleckered clouds float on by night

In the roscid moonlight air.

By Thetis silver tinselled shoon,

The breast of Earth is prest,

And Fairies play by the light of the moon,
While the mortal world is at rest.

On a Pet Redbreast killed by a Favourite Cat this Day in 1821.

Curruca erat felix dominae dum cara manebat

Felina, in gremio ludere laeta tuo,

Nec fuit infelix domina, et gaudere videtur,
Dum digito morsus provocet illa suos:
At nimium incautò pedibus cum luserit, illum
Calcavit tereti dum salit ipsa pede;

Ergo turgidulos lacrymis implevit ocellos,

Nec doluit volucrem Lesbia pulchra magis.-P.

FAUNA.-Multitudes of Mackerel are still taken on our coast; at times they sell exorbitantly dear, but chiefly in the opposite extreme. The first Brighton boat of Mackerel, sold the 14th of May, 1807, at Billingsgate, for forty guineas per hundred, seven shillings each, the highest price ever known at that market. The next boat that came in reduced their value to thirteen guineas per hundred. In 1808 these fish were caught so plentifully at Dover, that they sold sixty for a shilling. At Brighton, in June the same year, the shoal of Mackerel was so great, that one of the boats had the meshes of her nets so completely occupied by them, that it was impossible to drag them in. The fish and nets, therefore, in the end sank together; the fisherman thereby sustaining a loss of nearly sixty pounds, exclusive of what his cargo, could he have got it into the boat, would have produced. See Daniel's Sports.

At Hastings, and some other Fishing Towns of Britain, a very large number of fishing boats goes out every favourable evening to fish; and it is very amusing to see them bring in their cargoes in the morning at this time of year.

The Jews kept today as a fast on account of the burning of the Temple.

FLORA.-Persons at this time of year should caution children against eating the berries of the Deadly Nightshade Atropa Belladonna, as several fatal accidents have occurred from their being devoured unthinkingly. Hemlock, Henbane, and several other plants which now flourish, also possess narcotic and poisonous qualities; of many of which we are reminded in the following Song of the Twelve Enchantresses:

1. I have been all day looking after

A Raven feeding upon a quarter;

And soon as she turned her beak to the south,

I snatched this morsel out of her mouth.

2. I have been gathering Wolves' hairs,

The mad Dog's foam, and the Adder's ears,

The spurgings of a dead man's eyes,

And all since the evening star did rise.