Rearing thy head to brave the storm
That would thine innocence deform!
Of all the flowers that greet the Spring-
Of all the flowers the seasons bring,
To me, while doomed to linger here,
The lowly Primrose shall be dear!

Sprung, like a Primrose, in the wild,
Short, like the Primrose, Marion smiled;
The Spring that gave her blossoms birth,
Tore her for ever from the earth;
Nor left, ah me! one bud behind
To tranquillize a Parent's mind,

Save that sweet bud which strews the way,
Blest Hope, to an eternal May!

Lorn tenant of the peaceful glade,
Emblem of Virtue in the shade!
Pure as the blossoms on yon thorn,
Spotless as her for whom we mourn!
Of all the flowers that greet the Spring-
Of all the flowers the seasons bring,
To me, while doomed to linger here,
The lowly Primrose shall be dear.

Ceremonies for this Night, being Candlemas Eve.

Down with the Rosemary and Bayes,

Down with the Misleto;

Instead of Holly, now up raise

The greener Box (for show.)

The Holly hitherto did sway;
Let Box now domineere
Until the dancing Easter Day,
Or Easter's Eve appeare.

Then youthful Box, which now hath grace
Your houses to renew,

Grown old, surrender must his place

Unto the crisped Yew.

When Yew is out, then Birch comes in,

And many flowers beside;

Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne,

To honour Whitsontide.

Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents,

With cooler Oaken boughs,

Come in for comely ornaments,
To readorn the house.

Proverbs relating to February.

On Candlemas Day throw candle and candlestick away. When Candlemas Day is come and gone,

The snow lies on a hot stone.

February fill dike, be it black or be it white:

But if it be white, it's the better to like.

Februeer doth cut and shear.

The hind had as lief see his wife on the bier,

As that Candlemas Day should be pleasant and clear.

February makes a bridge, and March breaks it.-Ray.

The superstitious husbandman on this vigil anxiously awaits for the oracle of Apollo tomorrow, and hopes to read in his countenance the signs of the weather for the ensuing year.

"There is a general tradition," says Sir Thomas Browne, "in most parts of Europe, that inferreth the coldnesse of succeeding weather from the shining of the sun on Candlemas Day, according to the proverbial distich :

"Si Sol splendescat Maria purificante,

Major erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante."

In the Country Almanack for 1676, under February we read

Foul weather is no news; hail, rain, and snow
Are now expected, and esteem'd no woe;
Nay, 'tis an omen bad, the yeomen say,
If Phoebus shews his face the second day.

February 2. PURIFICATIO B. V. MARIAE, or Candlemas Day.

Lyra et Leo occidunt.-Rom. Cal.

Holiday at the Public Offices. Holly and Ivy taken down.
An old metrical proverb, frequently quoted in Poor
Robin's, Moore's, and other Almanacks, reminds us :-
If Candlemas Day be fair and bright,
Winter will have another flight.

But if Candlemas Day be clouds and rain,
Winter is gone, and will not come again.

This adage seems, in part, to be a free translation of the prophetic ancient verses quoted yesterday :

Si Sol splendescat Maria purificante, &c.

The custom of lighting up candles in churches on the Feast of the Purification is very ancient; and it seems that an imaginary power over the elements was by superstitious people ascribed to those waxen Tapers, similar to that which some of the early Greeks and Romans attributed to Torches.

The Romans of old are well known to have carried about Candles and Torches in processions in honour of Februa, a

rite which coincides as to time of year with the Christian Feast of Candlemas. Nargeorgus observes:

Mira est candelis illis et magna potestas,
Nam tempestates creduntur tollere diras
Accensae, simul ac sedare tonnitrua coeli,
Daemonas atque malos arcere, horrendaque noctis
Spectra, atque infaustae mala grandinis atque pruinae,
Quam facile hi possunt omnes sedare tumultus,
Et coeli et terrae pelagique, ut credere Christo
Nil sit opus, veroque Deo committere cuncta.

A paraphrase on these lines by Barnaby Googe says—
Whose candelle burneth cleere and bright, a wonderous force and might
Doth in these candells lie, which, if at any time they light,
They sure believe that neither Storme nor Tempest dare abide,

Nor Thunder in the Skie be heard, nor any Divel spide,

Nor fearfull Sprites that walk by night, nor hurt by Frost and Haile.

In the "Doctrine of the Masse Booke," &c. from Wyttonburge, by Nicholas Doncaster, 1554, 8vo. signat. A. 8, we find

"The Hallowing of Candles upon Candelmas Day."

The Prayer." O Lord Jesu Christ, blesse thou this creature of a waxen Taper at our humble supplication, and, by the vertue of the holy crosse, poure thou into it an heavenly benediction; that as thou hast graunted it unto Man's use for the expelling of darknes, it may receave such a strength and blessing, thorow the token of thy holy crosse, that in what places soever it be lighted or set, the Divel may avoid out of those habitacions, and tremble for feare, and fly away discouraged, and presume no more to unquiete them that serve thee, who with God," &c. There follow other prayers, in which occur these passages: "We humbly beseech thee, that thou wilt vouchsafe to blesse and sanctifie these Candels, prepared unto the uses of Men, and health of bodies and soules, as wel on the land as in the waters." "Vouchsafe Xto blesse and sanctifye, and with the Candle of heavenly benediction, to lighten these Tapers; which we thy servants taking in the honour of thy name (whan they ar lighted) desire to beare," &c. "Here let the Candles be sprinkled with holy water." Concluding with this rubrick : "When the halowyng of the Candels is done, let the Candels be lighted and distributed."

In Wodde's Dialogues, under Palm Sunday and keeping of Candles, he says, these are useful to light up in Thunder, and to bless Men when they lie a dying.-See a curious Form for the Benediction of Candles recorded in BRAND's Antiquities. See also Forster's Atmos. Phenom. London, 1823.

FLORA.-The Snowdrop Galantha nivalis first blows about this time, and is hailed as the harbinger of the early Spring.

On the Snowdrop, by Mrs. BARBAULD,
ALREADY now the Snowdrop dares appear,
The first pale blossom of the unripened year:
As Flora's breath, by some transforming power,
Had changed an icicle into a flower:

Its name and hue the scentless plant retains,
And Winter lingers in its icy veins.

Ovid notices the setting of Lyra and Leo, above alluded to, and denoted in the Roman Calendar, in the following lines:

Proximus Hesperias Titan abiturus in undas,
Gemmea purpureis cum juga demet equis;

Illa nocte aliquis, tollens ad sidera vultum
Dicet, ubi est hodie, quae Lyra fulsit heri?
Dumque, Lyram quaerit, medii quoque terga Leonis,
In liquidas subito mersa notabit aquas.

That the ancient Pagan, as well as the modern Christian Romans, should have celebrated a purified Queen of Heaven on nearly the same day, is so curious a coincidence, that it has been made use of, among numerous other similar coincidences, to prove that both had reference to some particular phenomena of the seasons, whose particular meaning is lost in the night of time. Nevertheless, there are two other modes of explaining it which are more consistent with Christianity: firstly, the Februatio Junonis, afterwards personified into a separate goddess Februa, may be the remains of some obscure and ancient type of the Purificatio Beatae Virginis Mariae; and pious Catholics may have transferred many of the ceremonies of the prototypical feast to the real and sacred festival, as appears to have been the case in numerous other instances alluded to in this work; or there may be some particular laws respecting the coincidence of events which our imperfect perceptions of the grand scheme of nature have not yet unravelled. The two above explanations are compatible. And while the Christian relies on the succession of miracles performed in attestation of the sanctity of the Church, he fearlessly attempts the explanation of every apparently contradictory problem.-See Milner's End of Religious Controversy, London, 1819, a work which has been styled a code of learning on religious subjects.

In this work the author has ably combatted the arguments of Middleton, Volney, and other writers, who, rallying all their forces in opposition to the Catholic religion, endeavoured to identify the religious rites of modern with the superstitions of ancient Rome.

February 3. ST. BLAZE. St. Margaret, V.
Wereburge, V. A.

Delphinus occidit.—Rom. Cal.

St.

FLORA.-Double Daisies begin in mild Seasons to blow and ornament Cottage Gardens about this time. THE GREAT HENBIT Lamium amplexicante is generally in flower by this time in mild seasons.

St. Margaret, celebrated this day, was a Virgin of English birth, who retired to the Cistercian Nunnery of Seaove Benoite in France. From her, perhaps, the Daisy obtained its cognomen.

Etymologists agree with the old Bard in his derivation of the Daisy, viz. Day's Eye. Under the French name Belle Margarette it is probable a compliment was intended to some lady, but critics are not agreed who this lady was.

Like many other flowers, the single Daisy becomes double by culture, and frequently proliferous; in this state it is called the Hen and Chicken Daisy. Chaucer writes:

And in special one called se of the daie
The Daisie, a floure white and rede,
And in French called La bel Margarete
O commendable floure and most in minde.

Above all flouris in the mede

Than love I most those flouris white and rede
Such that Men callen Daisies in our Town.

The 3d of February is, in some Calendars, recorded as the Woolcombers' Festival.

Candles were lighted up on this day as well as on Candlemas Day in former times, and their power over the coming weather was acknowledged by the superstitious, who confounded a particular physical fact with an imagined miraculous influence. Great light as well as great noise is known to break superimpending clouds, and a great blaze of light may exercise an influence on impending storms. similar notion to this, namely, that the music of Bells will disperse Storms, is founded on fact. In Weaver's Funeral Monuments, among a number of inscriptions on Church Bells, we find the following:

Sabbata pango, funera plango, fulgura frango,
Excito lentos, dissipo ventos, paco cruentos.

A

And Bells were formerly rung to dispel storms as well as to repel the Devil. The aerial percussion being extended up to the clouds above, is well known to produce changes in their structure so as to produce rain.

charge of artillery, in battle, has brought down drops of