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Few are my years, and, yet, I feel
The world was ne'er designed for me;
Ah! why do dark'ning shades conceal
The hour when man must cease to be?
Once I beheld a splendid dream,
A visionary scene of bliss ;
Truth!-wherefore did thy hated beam
Awake me to a world like this?

I loved-but those I loved, are gone;
Had friends-my early friends are fled :
How cheerless feels the heart alone,
When all its former hopes are dead!
Though gay companions, o'er the bowl,
Dispel awhile the sense of ill,

Though Pleasure stirs the madd'ning soul,
The heart-the heart is lonely still.

How dull! to hear the voice of those

Whom rank or chance, whom wealth or power,
Have made, though neither friends nor foes,
Associates of the festive hour:

Give me again a faithful few,

In years and feelings still the same,
And I will fly the midnight crew,
Where boist'rous joy is but a name.

And Woman! lovely Woman, thou!
My hope, my comforter, my all!
How cold must be my boson now,
When e'en thy smiles begin to pall.
Without a sigh would I resign

This busy scene of splendid woe,
To make that calm contentment mine,
Which Virtue knows, or seems to know.

Fain would I fly the haunts of men,

I seek to shun, not hate mankind;

My breast requires the sullen glen,

Whose gloom may suit a darkened mind.
Oh! that to me the wings were given
Which bear the turtle to her nest!

Then would I cleave the vault of Heav'n,
To flee away, and be at rest 1.

Psalm lv, ver. 6.—' And I said, Oh! that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest.' This verse also constitutes a part of the most beautiful anthem in our language.

The following fragment was written at the early age of fifteen, and is singularly prophetic of that noble fame which awaited the productions of Lord Byron's Muse in subsequent years :

When to their airy hall my father's voice

Shall call my spirit, joyful in their choice;
When, poised upon the gale, my form shall ride,
Or, dark in mist, descend the mountain's side;
Oh! may my shade behold no sculptured urns,
To mark the spot where earth to earth returns;
No lengthened scroll, no praise-encumbered stone;
My epitaph shall be, my name alone :

If that with honour fail to crown my clay,
Oh! may no other fame my deeds repay;
That, only that, shall single out the spot,
By that remembered, or with that forgot.

25.-CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.

Saint Paul suffered martyrdom under the general persecution of Nero. Being a Roman citizen, he could not be crucified by the Roman laws, as his colleague St. Peter was; he was therefore beheaded: -hence the usual representation of him with a sword in his hand.-See an account of a Sicilian festival in honour of this day, in T.T. for 1821, p. 13, and T.T. for 1820, p. 20.

26.-SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY.

The institution of this and the two following Sundays cannot be traced higher than the beginning of the sixth or the close of the fifth century. When the words Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima (seventieth, sixtieth, and fiftieth), were first applied to denote these three Sundays, the season of Lent had generally been extended to a fast of six weeks, that is, thirty-six days, not reckoning the Sundays, which were always celebrated as festivals. At this time, also, the Sunday which we call the first Sunday in Lent, was styled simply Quadragesima, or the fortieth; meaning, no doubt, the fortieth day before Easter. Quadragesima was also the name given to the season of Lent, and denoted the quadra

gesimal or forty days' fast. When the three weeks before Quadragesima ceased to be considered as weeks after the Theophany (or Epiphany), and were appointed to be observed as a time of preparation for Lent, it was perfectly conformable to the ordinary mode of computation to reckon backwards, and, for the sake of even and round numbers, to count by decades.'-(Shepherd.)

29. 1820.-K. GEORGE THE FOURTH'S ACCESSION. 30.-KING CHARLES I, MARTYR.

For many interesting particulars of this day consult our former volumes.

31. 1820.-KING GEORGE IV PROCLAIMED.

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*JAN. 1726.-DR. GEORGE SEWELL DIED. He was author of Sir Walter Raleigh, a tragedy; several papers in the fifth volume of the Tatler, and ninth of the Spectator; a Life of John Philips; and some other things. There is something melancholy in this poor man's history. He was a physician at Hampstead, with very little practice, and chiefly subsisted on the invitations of the neighbouring gentlemen, to whom his amiable character made him acceptable; but at his death not a friend or relative came to commit his remains to the dust! He was buried in the meanest manner, under a hollow tree, that was once part of the boundary of the churchyard of Hampstead. No memorial was placed over his remains.

VERSES,

Said to be written by the Author on himself when he was in a

Consumption.

Why, Damon, with the forward day,
Dost thou thy little spot survey,

From tree to tree, with doubtful cheer,
Pursue the progress of the year,

What winds arise, what rains descend,
When thou before that year shalt end?

What do thy noontide walks avail,
To clear the leaf, and pick the snail,

Then wantonly to death decree
An insect usefuller than thee?
Thou and the worm are brother-kind,
As low, as earthy, and as blind.
Vain wretch! canst thou expect to see
The downy peach make court to thee?
Or that thy sense shall ever meet
The bean-flower's deep-embosomed sweet,
Exhaling with an evening blast?
Thy evenings then will all be past.
Thy narrow pride, thy fancied green,
(For vanity's in little seen)
All must be left when Death appears,
In spite of wishes, groans, and tears;
Nor one of all thy plants that grow,
But rosemary will with thee go.

Astronomical Occurrences

In JANUARY 1823.

Obliquity of the Ecliptic.

We have already explained the nature and variation of this obliquity, particularly in the volumes for 1816 and 1817; we shall therefore merely give its quantity for several epochs during the present year. These are as follow, viz.

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The equations of the equinoctial point for the several periods usually computed during this year are,

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The Sun enters Aquarius at 48 m. after 6 in the evening of the 20th of this month. He will also be

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eclipsed on the morning of the 12th, but the eclipse will not be visible at Greenwich, as the following are its characteristics, viz.

Conjunction 53 m. 45 s. after 8 in the morning

In longitude 9 s. 21° 26'

Moon's latitude. 1 24 North.

The Sun will also rise and set at the following times during this month. It may, however, be necessary to inform the youthful student that these times are calculated for the first meridian of Britain; but they may readily be reduced to any other meridian by adding or subtracting the time answering to the difference of longitude, computed at the rate of 15° to an hour. The time corresponding to any intermediate period may also be readily found by proportion.

TABLE

Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day. Sets 55 m. past 3

January 1st, Sun rises 5 m. after 8.

6th,

1

8

59

.........

3

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When the time is taken from a good sun-dial, the following table shows what must be added to it to obtain that which should be indicated by a well regulated clock at the same moment. For the sake of brevity, this is only given for noon of every fifth day of the month, but the quantity to be added at any intermediate time may readily be found by proportion, by saying, as 5 days is to the part of the period for which the quantity is required, so is the difference between the two adjacent numbers to the part of that difference to be added.

Example.-Suppose the equation were required for noon on the 9th, the difference between the 6th and the 11th being 2 m. 7 s., we should have 5:3 ::

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