FEBRUARY.

"Hail! then, February! month and mother of Love!" Mirror of the Months.

THE second month of the year derived its name either from the God Februs, or from Februs, a name of Juno, in whose honor a feast of atonement was held by the ancient Romans for twelve days in this month.

2. PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, OR, CANDLEMAS DAY.

The festival in commemoration of the Purification is also called Candlemas Day, from the ancient Romish custom of lighting up the churches and chapels on this day with candles and lamps.

ON SEEING A PICTURE OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
PAINTED SEVERAL CENTURIES SINCE.

A FRAGMENT, BY L. MARIA DAVIDSON, WRITTEN IN HER
FIFTEENTH YEAR.

Roll back, thou tide of time and tell
Of book, of rosary, and bell;

Of cloistered nun with brow of gloom,
Immured within her living tomb;
Of monks, of saints, and vesper song,
Borne gently by the breeze along ;

Of deep-toned organ's pealing swell;
Of ave-marie, and funeral knell;
Of midnight taper, dim and small,

Just glimmering through the high arched hall;
Of gloomy cell, of penance lone,
Which can for darkest deeds atone;
Roll back, and lift the veil of night,
For I would view the anchorite.
Yes, there he sits, so sad, so pale,
Shuddering at Superstition's tale;
Crossing his breast with meagre hand,
While saints and priests, a motley band,
Arrayed before him, urge their claim
To heal in the Redeemer's name ;
To mount the saintly ladder, (made
By every monk, of every grade,
From portly abbot, fat and fair,

To yon lean starveling, shivering there,)
And mounting thus, to usher in
The soul, thus ransomed from its sin.
And tell me, hapless bigot, why,
For what, for whom did Jesus die,
If pyramids of saints must rise
To form a passage to the skies?
And think you man can wipe away
With fast and penance, day by day,
One single sin, too dark to fade,
Before a bleeding Saviour's shade?
O ye of little faith, beware!

For neither shrift, nor saint, nor prayer,
Would ought avail ye without Him,
Beside whom saints themselves grow dim.
Roll back, thou tide of time, and raise
The faded forms of other days!
Yon time-worn picture, darkly grand,
The work of some forgotten hand,
Will teach thee half thy mazy way,
While Fancy's _watch-fires dimly play.

Roll back thou tide of time, and tell
Of secret charm, of holy spell,
Of Superstition's midnight rite,
Of wild Devotion's seraph flight,
Of Melancholy's tearful eye,
Of the sad votaress' frequent sigh
That trembling from her bosom rose,
Divided twixt her Saviour's woes,
And some warm image lingering there,
Which, half repulsed by midnight prayer,
Still, like an outcast child, will creep
Where sweetly it was wont to sleep,
And mingle its unhallowed sigh
With cloister-prayer and rosary ;
Then tell the pale, deluded one
Her vows are breath'd to God alone;
Those vows, which tremulously rise,
Love's last, love's sweetest sacrifice.

2, 1831. JAMES CHRISTIE DIED, ÆTAT. 58.

An eminent auctioneer, and a gentleman of distinguished classical attainments. He was the author of An Essay on the Ancient Greek Game supposed to have been invented by Palamedes, antecedent to the Siege of Troy; A Disquisition upon Etruscan Vases; and an Essay on the Earliest Species of Idolatry, the Worship of the Elements. He was a member of the Dilletanti Society; of the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle; and one of the Registrars of the Literary Fund.

3. ST. BLAISE.

He was Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, and suffered martyrdom in the persecution of Licinius about the year 319. The wool-combers consider him their patron saint, and keep this day as a holyday in many parts of England.

3, 1831. THOMAS HOPE, F. R.S. & F.S. A. DIED.

The distinguished author of Anastasius was descended from a wealthy mercantile family, and being possessed of an ample fortune, travelled over various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in early life. Being an able draughtsman, he returned with a large collection of sketches, principally of architecture and sculpture. On his return to England he purchased a large mansion in Duchess Street, Portland Place, the whole interior of which he had finished, fitted up, and furnished, from his own designs. The drawings from which his furniture was made he afterwards published in a folio volume, which led to a complete revolution in the upholstery and interior decoration of houses. Mr. Britton says: "To Mr. Hope we are indebted, in an eminent degree, for the classical and appropriate style which now generally characterize our furniture and ornamental utensils." "In forming my collection," says Mr. Hope, "and in fitting up my houses, my object has neither been an idle parade of virtu, nor an ostentatious display of finery. I have observed with regret, that most persons employed in our manufactures, or in furnishing our habitations, are rarely initiated even in the simplest rudiments of design, whence it has happened that immense expense has been employed in producing furniture without character, beauty, or appropriate meaning."

In 1809 Mr. Hope published The Costume of the Ancients, in two volumes, and three years afterwards, Designs of Modern Costume. These works evinced a profound research into the works of antiquity, as well as a familiarity with all that is graceful and elegant: and tended very materially to improve female costume. His most popular production, however, is Anastasius; or Memoirs of a Modern Greek, which, in the form of a romance, conveys so accurate a picture of the customs, manners, and countries, of the Turks and Greeks, that when a gentleman, of high diplomatic station and abilities, was advised to publish an account of his travels among those people, he replied that Mr. Hope had already given such an accurate and graphic description of them in Anastasius, that there would be nothing new for him to relate.

At the period of his decease, Mr. Hope was engaged in printing a work, On the Origin and Prospects of Man, which has since appeared. It is a most extraordinary work, and would alone have handed down its author to posterity. It treats in a perfectly new and original manner of the metaphysical abstractions least examinable by human sense or reason: -of eternity, time, space, matter, force, movement, mind, soul, God. The views of the creation of the world; of the origin of man, literally from the dust of the earth (or a congregation of entities); of evil being deduced from good arrived at a certain point, as death follows life; of the progress of the inorganic and organic world; of vitality; of society in all its advanced and civilized relations; and of the future. The whole presenting a new system of philosophy, enforcing the advantages of virtue and righteousness in our present state, and offering a bright hope of the blissful enjoyment of soul in the world to come.

Mr. Hope was in all respects a munificent patron of art and of artists; and even of the humbler mechanic; for he has been known to traverse obscure alleys, lanes, and courts, to find out and employ men of skill and talent in their respective pursuits. Thorwaldsen, the celebrated Danish sculptor, was chiefly indebted to him for the early support and patronage which he experienced. Flaxman was extensively employed by him; and he enjoyed the satisfaction of having excited the genius and fostered the talents of Chantrey. He left an extensive collection of drawings and engravings, illustrative of buildings and scenery in Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, and Germany; as well as of antique sculpture, vases, &c., which it is hoped may yet be given to the world.

5. ST. AGATHA.

A virgin martyr, who suffered by order of Quintianus in the year 251. She was born in Sicily, but whether at Palermo or Catana is uncertain, both claiming the honour.

6, 1831. RODOLPH KREUTZER DIED, ÆTAT. 63.

This eminent violinist and composer, the son of a musician