these in their several capacities, whereof some use may be made at one time or another. A blow bestowed in the striking-time is of more effect than ten delivered unseasonably. There are some nicks in time, which whosoever finds may promise to himself success. Lay this up as a maxim, that if thy soul be not adorned with modesty, prudence, and solid goodness, all thy external accomplishments will be nothing but mere pageantry. Seeing no man on earth is endued with absolute perfection, thou oughtest to make humane allowances, and not mock at others' infirmities, lest others likewise laugh at thine. What thou wouldest have pass for the effect of human frailty, or thoughtlessness, in thyself, thou canst, with no tolerable ingenuity, give a worse name to it in another. Never let thy tongue so loose as to reflect upon another man's religion, reputation, infirmity, or misfortune: it is not only ungenerous, but inhumane and unchristian. Thy duty is to cure thy mind rather than seek delights for it. I tell thee thou hast as much business within thyself as a Physician has in an hospital. The sooner thou beginnest to apply thyself to it, and the more haste thou makest, the longer wilt thou enjoy the comforts of a rectified mind. If thou canst not satisfy others, satisfy thyself: whoever accuseth, yet let thy conscience clear thee. And persevere in a good cause, though neither thou nor thy cause prosper. Thy danger or safety must flow from a principle within thee. The devil and the world may tempt thee; but they have no power to constrain thee, if thou standest but up for thyself. NOTE. It is a common saying, "It never rains but it pours." As we have always to prepare copy for our July and August Number at the same time, fearing that we should not have enough, so much was provided, that we had a quantity standing over for September. However, we have pretty well cleared the table now, and shall have the next three months for going on with, and closing, our continuations.-ED. Y. I. NOTICES OF ANIMATED AND VEGETABLE NATURE, FOR SEPTEMBER, 1847. BY MR. WILLIAM ROGERSON, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. "By genial fervour and prolific rain, Gay vegetation clothes the fertile plain; And still she's pregnant, though she still bestows! And yield the grazing herd a fresh supply! Luxuriant, waving in the wanton air, The golden grain rewards the peasant's care! "THE character of this month sensibly reminds us of the decline of the year. The weather is in general clear and serene, but the days are considerably shortened, and the morning and evening air has all the chilliness of autumn. The sun shines with a mellow lustre, still imparting summer's heat during the middle of the day. The change which has taken place in the appearance of the country tells us plainly that the youth of the year is gone, and that even its full maturity and strength are passing away. The fields, lately covered with wavy corn, or enlivened by the busy labours of those engaged in its ingathering, are now deserted and bare; and the harvest-moon (as the planet is at this season called, on account of its bright and lengthened radiance,) sheds its beams on our land, when, with the exception of the northern counties, the harvest is in most cases fully gathered in. The meadows, divested long since of their second crop of grass, are still looking fresh and beautiful, and afford pasturage to the numerous cattle now freely admitted to graze in them. The hedges have lost nearly all their beauty; few and solitary are the blossoms that adorn them, and even these are pale and wan, compared with the earlier productions of the year. "The scarlet hip and stony haw have not yet attained their full colouring, and therefore do not materially enliven the dull green of the branches on which they hang. The bending and rustling boughs of the hazel-thicket often remind us that the season of nutting has arrived, and the young hands are as busily employed as ever in that favourite occupation. The settled state of the weather usual during this month makes it a favourite season for country excursions. The silent recesses of woods and forests are invaded by groups of merry visitants, who find abundant pleasure in threading the tangled and intricate paths, and then in assembling beneath the wide-spread canopy of some aged oak, and partaking of the rural repast, made doubly refreshing by the rambles of the morning, and the healthful tone of spirits and appetite thus acquired. But it is not on such occasions, or when surrounded by a laughing throng of young and happy persons, that we have leisure to take in the full majesty and richness of the scene presented by some of our still remaining forests. There is an awful grandeur in their dark recesses, a sublimity about their lofty canopies, and massy pillars, and an impressive stillness throughout their seemingly immeasurable extent, which deeply affect and solemnize the mind, and with which the voice of merriment seems little consonant. There is not yet much of autumn colouring in the foliage of the trees: a few bright patches on the elm and beech contrast with the deep hue of firs and oaks; and show us that the varied colours of the year are in preparation. The song of birds is heard more frequently during this than in the last month. Their tones, however, are subdued, and almost plaintive; and we may easily imagine them to be pouring forth a long farewell to the departing summer."-Saturday Magazine. The first half of the month.-Several of the summer warblers now take their departure for southern regions: amongst the rest is that pretty little songster, the black-cap. This bird's visit in the spring we welcomed with pleasure, and we sung, "O! fair befall thee, gay Fauvet, With trilling song, and crown of jet; Far hast thou flown on downy wing, In later hours of flowery May." The woodcock arrives from the north, and starlings congregate. The woodlark commences his autumnal warble, and the sprightly notes of the robin again arrest our attention. Insects, though diminished in numbers, are yet numerous. The saffron-butterfly, and willow red under-wing moth, appear. Several species of dragon-fly are seen, but the principal one that attracts notice at this time is the libellula varia, or great dragon-fly, as the most brilliant and conspicuous of British species. The larvæ of the glow-worm are now seen shining in the early part of the night. I have frequently seen them in Yorkshire; also in this neighbourhood, about Epping-forest, Bexley-heath, Chislehurst, and Hayes' commons, &c. The charms of Flora are various during the reign of this mild and pleasant month: the garden exhibits, in full blow, heart's-ease, nasturtia, China-aster, marigolds, sweet-peas, mignonette, golden-rod, stocks, tangier-pea, holly-hock, and Michaelmas-daisy, in fine weather almost covered with bees; also marvel-of-Peru, Indian pinks, and passion-flowers, &c. In the fields we find hawk-weed; the traveller's-joy, powdering the hedges with its white flowers; and the bramble, bearing fruit ripe and unripe, with blossoms on the same branch. The great burnet-saxifrage is in flower; and those elegantly-twining and ornamental plants the convolvuli, or bind-weeds, adorn almost every hedge with their milk-white blossoms. On the margins of streams, and the banks of rivers, and other moist places, that favourite plant, the forget-me-not, (myosotis palustris,) continues to display its lovely and delicate bright blue flowers: "Thou sweet little flower with the bright blue eye, That peepest from the bank so modestly, "Thou art come to repeat an assurance of love, From that changeless Friend in the mansions above: His goodness declares, I will not forget thee."" The squirrel is The last half of the month.-The bat continues to be busy on his silken wing at twilight hours in quest of moths. active in the day in quest of nuts, &c. "The little squirrel hath no other food Than that which Nature's thrifty hand provides : She lies not idle in her mossy dray, Nor feareth to adventure through the rain, The whitethroat, The char spawns, and the eel descends rivers. the redstart, &c., take their departure. Field-fares arrive from the north. Several species of coleopterous and lepidopterous insects yet arrest the attention of the industrious entomologist. The housecricket is very noisy; so is also the large green grasshopper, which frequents reeds and rushes on the banks of rivers, ditches, &c. The large sun-flower and Michaelmas-daisy are in blow: the China-aster unfolds its beauteous flowers, whilst the dahlia uplifts its stately head among the other beauties of our gardens. In the fields the following wild plants are in blow :-harvest-bells, maiden-pink, field-gentian, mouse-ear, ploughman's spikenard, hawk-weed, devil's-bit-scabious, &c. Convolvuli continue to decorate the hedges, banks, &c., with manifold blossoms. BRIEF ASTRONOMICAL NOTICES, FOR SEPTEMBER, 1847. BY MR. WILLIAM ROGERSON, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. "THIS wide machine, the universe, regard: With how much skill is each apartment rear'd! In solar glory sunk and more prevailing light. Venus the next, whose lovely beams adorn And round him turn, as round the Earth the Moon. Appears; and, further still, the Georgium Star: "WHEN we behold the vast concave of the sky, with all its radiant orbs moving in majestic grandeur around our globe, an idea of sublimity and almighty energy irresistibly forces itself upon the mind, which throws completely into the shade the mightiest efforts of human power, so that the most stupendous machines ever constructed by human art can afford no assistance in forming a conception of that incomprehensible power which sustains and carries forward in their course thousands of spacious worlds. The shining orbs which the firmament displays, are evidently placed at an immense distance from the earth, and, consequently, are bodies of an immense size; and if the apparent motions to which we have adverted were real, the swiftness with which they would fly through the regions of space would exceed all human calculation and conception. But whether these motions be real or apparent, we find motions actually existing among the orbs of heaven which astonish and overpower every rational and contemplative mind. The very circumstance that motions so sublime appear in the expanse of the firmament, is a demonstrative proof that motions of a wonderful and incomprehensible nature exist somewhere; and the ideas of majesty, of grandeur, and of omnipotent energy which this single circumstance is calculated to inspire, are such as irresistibly to lead the mind to the contemplation of a Being whose perfections are incomprehensible, and whose ways are past finding out."-Dr. Dick. The SUN rises at London and Greenwich on the 1st at thirteen minutes past five, and sets at forty-six minutes after six: on the 16th he rises at thirty-six minutes past five, and sets at twelve minutes after six. On the 23d the Sun enters the equinoctial sign Libra, and the autumn quarter commences; and on the 26th he descends below the western horizon at fifty minutes past five, followed by the twilight which entirely disappears at a quarter before eight. The MOON rises on the 1st at twenty-three minutes past ten, about an hour after entering on her last quarter: she rises on the 3d at midnight, and on the 7th about three o'clock in the morning. The Moon changes on the 9th, at thirteen minutes before four in the afternoon; and sets on the 12th at twenty minutes past seven in the evening: she is half-full on the 17th, and sets at a quarter past ten, and on the 18th at a quarter after eleven. The Moon is due south on the 21st at twenty-five minutes past nine, and on the 23d |