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And sparkled and shone

Thro' the night of St. John,

And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied.

With noiseless tread

To her chamber she sped,

Where the spectral Moon her white beams shed :—
'Bloom here-bloom here, thou plant of pow'r,
To deck the young bride in her bridal hour!"
But it drooped its head that plant of pow'r,
And died the mute death of the voiceless flow'r;
And a withered wreath on the ground it lay,
More meet for a burial than bridal day.

And when a year was passed away,
All pale on her bier the young maid lay!
And the glow-worm came

With its silvery flame,
And sparkled and shone

Thro' the night of St. John,

And they closed the cold grave o'er the maid's cold clay.

For an account of some strange customs observed in Yorkshire and Cornwall on Midsummer eve and day, the festival-fires and sacrificing of beasts, and the immolation of human victims in France, consult our last volume, pp. 169-173.

Midsummer-day is one of the quarter days on which rent becomes payable, we cannot say is paid, -during the present great depression of agricultural produce, and the consequent inability of the farmer to discharge his obligations to his landlord. To all such proprietors of land as may be lovers of the wonders and curiosities of nature, we particularly recommend, at the present crisis, the practice of a worthy character mentioned in the RAMBLER, No. 82: As Alfred received the tribute of the Welsh in wolves' heads, I allowed my tenants to pay their rents in butterflies, till I had exhausted the papilionaceous tribe. I then directed them to the pursuit of other animals; and obtained, by this easy method, most of the grubs and insects which land, air, or water can supply. I have three species of earthworms not known to naturalists; have discovered a

new ephemera; and can show four wasps that were taken torpid in their winter quarters. I have, from my own ground, the largest blade of grass upon record; and once accepted, as a half year's rent for a field of wheat, an ear containing more grains than had been seen before upon a single stem. One of my tenants so much neglected his own interest, as to supply me, in a whole summer, with only two horse flies, and those of little more than the com mon size; and I was on the brink of seizing for arrears, when his good fortune threw a white mole in his way, for which he was not only forgiven but rewarded.'

29.-SAINT PETER.

Peter's original name, Simon, was not abolished by Christ, but that of Cephas was added to it, which in Syriac, the vulgar language of the Jews, signifies a stone or rock; hence the Greek IIérpos, and our Peter. The apostle's father was Jonah, probably a fisherman of Bethsaida. His brother Andrew, being first converted, was said to be an instrument of Peter's conversion, John i, 40, 41. St. Peter lived at Capernaum: he was a married man, and his wife's mother lived with them... Christ seems to have frequently lodged or sojourned at his house.-See Luke iv, 31-38, and Bp. Hall's Contemplation on the Tribute Money.

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Among the most brilliant spectacles ever witnessed in modern times, may be placed the splendid illumination of St. Peter's Church, and the magnificent girandola, or fire-works, from the Castle of St. Angelo, at Rome, annually exhibited on this day: the latter bear no resemblance to the squibs and crackers denominated fire-works in England; and throw at an immeasurable distance all our attempts at pyrotechny on the occasion of the last peace, or the late grand ceremonial of the coronation; as well as those of our neighbours the French, at their much vaunted Fête of Saint Louis. These illuminations and fire-works at Rome have been well described

by a modern writer before quoted in our account of the ceremonies of the Holy Week; and, as her interesting description would materially suffer by abridgment, we shall give the whole without mutilation. At Ave Maria (she observes) we drove to the piazza of St. Peter's. The lighting of the lanternoni, or large paper lanterns, each of which looks like a globe of ethereal fire, had been going on for an hour, and, by the time we arrived there, was nearly completed. As we passed the Ponte San Angelo, the appearance of this magnificent church, glowing in its own brightness-the millions of lights reflected in the calm waters of the Tiber, and mingling with the last golden glow of evening, so as to make the whole building seem covered with burnished gold, had a most striking and magical effect.

Our progress was slow, being much impeded by the long line of carriages before us; but at length we arrived at the Piazza of St. Peter's, and took our station on the right of its farther extremity, so as to lose the deformity of the dark dingy Vatican Palace. The gathering shades of night rendered the illumination every moment more brilliant. The whole of this immense church-its columns, capitals, cornices, and pediments-the beautiful swell of the lofty dome, towering into heaven, the ribs converging into one point at top, surmounted by the lantern of the church, and crowned by the cross,-all were designed in lines of fire; and the vast sweep of the circling colonnades, in every rib, line, mould, cornice, and column, were resplendent in the same beautiful light.

While we were gazing upon it, suddenly a bell chimed. On the cross of fire at the top waved a brilliant light, as if wielded by some celestial hand, and instantly ten thousand globes and stars of vivid fire seemed to roll spontaneously along the building, as if by magic; and, self-kindled, it blazed in a moment into one dazzling flood of glory. Fancy herself, in her most sportive mood, could scarcely have conceived so wonderful a spectacle as the in

stantaneous illumination of this magnificent fabric: the agents by whom it was effected were unseen, and it seemed the work of enchantment. In the first instance, the illuminations had appeared to be complete, and one could not dream that thousands and tens of thousands of lamps were still to be illumined. Their vivid blaze harmonized beautifully with the softer, milder light of the lanternoni; while the brilliant glow of the whole illumination shed a rosy light upon the fountains, whose silver fall, and ever-playing showers, accorded well with the magic of the scene.

'Viewed from the Trinità de' Monti, its effect was unspeakably beautiful: it seemed to be an enchanted palace hung in the air, and called up by the wand of some invisible spirit. We did not, however, drive to the Trinità de' Monti till after the exhibition of the girandola or great fire-works from the Castle of St. Angelo, which commenced by a tremendous explosion that represented the raging eruption of a volcano. Red sheets of fire seemed to blaze upwards into the glowing heavens, and then to pour down their liquid streams upon the earth. This was followed by an incessant and complicated display of every varied device that imagination could figureone changing into another, and the beauty of the first effaced by that of the last. Hundreds of immense wheels turned round with a velocity that almost seemed as if demons were whirling them, letting fall thousands of hissing dragons, and scorpions, and fiery snakes, whose long convolutions, darting forward as far as the eye could reach in every direction, at length vanished into air. Fountains and jets of fire threw up their blazing cascades into the skies. The whole vault of heaven shone with the vivid fires, and seemed to receive into itself innumerable stars and suns, which, shooting up into it in brightness almost insufferable, vanished, like earth-born hopes. The reflection in the depth of the calm clear waters of

the Tiber was scarcely less beautiful than the spectacle itself; and the whole ended in a tremendous burst of fire, that, while it lasted, almost seemed to threaten conflagration to the world.

"The expense of the illumination of St. Peter's, and of the girandola, when repeated two successive evenings, as they invariably are at the festival of St. Peter, is 1000 crowns: when only exhibited one night, they cost 700.. Eighty men were employed in the instantaneous illuminations of the lamps, which to us seemed the work of enchantment: they were so posted as to be unseen.'-(Rome in the Nineteenth Century, vol. iii, pp. 169-173.)

Astronomical Occurrences

In JUNE 1823.

SOLAR PHENOMENA.

THE Sun.enters Cancer at 10m. after 7 in the morning of the 22d of this month.

Refulgent SUMMER now his hot domain

Hath carried to the tropic, and begins

His backward journey.

The Sun also rises and sets at this period of the year as in the following

TABLE

Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day. June 1st, Sun rises 53 m. after 3. Sets at 7 m. past 8

6th,

50

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Equation of Time.

As the motion of the earth in its orbit is not uniform, the time, as indicated by a good sun-dial and that given by a well-regulated clock, agrees only four times a year; therefore, to find the true time from the apparent, a correction must be used as indicated in the following

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