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forced mirth, and real dulness. Man is not made for stated seasons of hilarity, nor to put on and put off his cares by act of parliament. To judge by individual sensations, nothing in the range of pleasurable pursuit can be more wearisome to the mind, more solemnly dull, than the last days of the carnival, when the exhaustion of animal spirits damps the very little stock of wit which the occasion sets afloat; when amusement is reduced to flinging lime in the morning, and in the evening to hearing complaints of inflamed eyes, of spoiled dresses, ennui, disappointed expectation, and congratulations on the approaching termination of the week.

'The fair and bright side of the carnival is to be found in the gentleness, the urbanity, and good humour of the people: neither the security of disguise, nor the privilege of the mask, can urge these kindly disposed Italians to wound the feelings of an enemy, or trifle with the frailties of a friend.'

8.-SAINT LUCIAN.

Lucian, a native of Syria, was celebrated in his youth for his eloquence and intimate acquaintance with polite literature. After the death of his parents, he gave all his fortune to the poor, and confined himself to the study of the scriptures. He was a proficient in the Hebrew, and revised the Septuagint version of the Bible. He wrote an apology for the Christians, and presented it to Maximinus II. After having undergone various torments at the instigation of this emperor, he was martyred in the year 312.

13. SAINT HILARY.

Hilary was born at Poictiers in France, of an illustrious family; and of this place he was chosen bishop in the year 353. Having taken an active part against the Arians, he was banished to Phrygia, by order of the Emperor Constantius, in 356, where he remained for three years. After various travels in different parts, and many sufferings, Hilary died at

Poictiers in 368. He was an excellent orator and poet; his style abounds with rhetorical figures.

13.-PLOUGH MONDAY.

Some curious ceremonies are still observed on this day, in the northern counties, particularly in Yorkshire. See our last volume, p. 9.

*17.-SAINT ANTHONY.

In T.T. for 1822, p. 10, we gave an account of the annual Benediction of Beasts at Rome: the following is the method of observing St. Anthony's-day at Madrid.-On the feast of this renowned patron of Spain, the tutelar saint of all tailors, a peculiar ceremony takes place with horses and mules: they receive the blessing, in St. Anthony's church, which is to protect them throughout the whole year from disorders and sinister accidents. All the morning, a number of coachmen, with their horses and mules cleaned and trimmed out, are seen to stop before the church; each of them has a certain quantity of barley with him, and all wait with anxiety for the benediction. The monk appears; the beasts and the barley are consecrated, and the coachmen gallop off in triumph. N.B. One half of the barley must be given to the church.

In the afternoon, when the siesta is over, the real ceremony takes place. A kind of procession, with horses, mules, and carriages, is seen to drive round St. Anthony's church, and the adjacent streets, with as much festive solemnity as on any other occasion. Coachmen, servants, equipages, but particularly the mules, must then be decorated in the best manner : they rival each other in tasteful and tasteless ornaments; it is, properly speaking, the feast of the mules. Never had the ribbon-manufacturers or the saddlers so much work bespoke; never have the mule-dressers so much to do as in the last week before St. Anthony's-day. It is indeed worth while to look at their procession for a few minutes. The coachmen

wear their laced gala liveries, long stiff tails, shining boots, and broad silver spurs, with as pious, grave, and diplomatic a mien, as if they carried the host. Most of them are Asturians, who have such a point of honour among them, as is scarcely to be met with among the brothers of the whip in England. However tedious this procession may be, yet the people of Madrid deem it a very entertaining spectacle, owing to the great number of spectators on the balconies and in the streets. They look at the different equipages; they criticise them; and coachmen and mules pass in a kind of review. The parties throw sweetmeats or small oranges at each other, and divert themselves in honour of St. Anthony..

18.-SAINT PRISCA.

Prisca, a Roman lady, was early converted to Christianity; but refusing to abjure her religion, and to offer sacrifice when she was commanded, was horribly tortured, and afterwards beheaded, under the Emperor Claudius, in the year 275.

*18.-LA FESTA DI CATTEDRA,

Or commemoration of placing the supposed Chair of St. Peter, is thus described by a recent traveller: 'At the extremity of the great nave of St. Peter's, behind the altar, and mounted upon a tribune, designed or ornamented by Michael Angelo, stands a sort of throne, composed of precious materials, and supported by four gigantic figures. A glory of seraphim, with groups of angels, sheds a brilliant light upon its splendours. This throne enshrines the real, plain, worm-eaten wooden chair, on which St. Peter, the Prince of Apostles, is said to have pontificated; more precious than all the bronze, gold, and gems, with which it is hidden, not only from impious but from holy eyes, and which once only, in the flight of ages, was profaned by mortal inspection. The Festa di Cattedra is one of the very few functions, as they are called (funzioni), celebrated in St. Peter's.

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The splendidly dressed troops that line its nave, the church and lay dignitaries-abbots, priests, canons, prelates, cardinals, doctors-dragoons and senators, all clad in various and rich vestments, marching in procession--complete, as they proceed up the vast space of this wondrous temple, a spectacle nowhere to be equalled within the pale of European civilization. In the midst of swords and crosiers, of halberds and crucifixes, surrounded by banners, and bending under the glittering tiara of threefold power, appears the aged, feeble, and worn-out POPE, borne aloft on men's shoulders, in a chair of crimson and gold, and environed by slaves (for such they appear), who waft, from plumes of ostrich feathers mounted on ivory wands, a cooling gale, to refresh his exhausted frame, too frail for the weight of such honours. All fall prostrate as he passes up the church to a small chair and throne, temporarily erected beneath the chair of St. Peter. A solemn service is then performed, hosannas arise, and royal votarists and diplomatic devotees parade the church, with guards of honour and running footmen; while English gentlemen and ladies scramble, and crowd, and bribe, and fight their way to the best place they can obtain.'-(Italy, vol. ii, pp. 283, 284.)

20.-SAINT FABIAN.

St. Fabian succeeded St. Anterus in the pontificate in the year 236. He governed the church sixteen years, sent St. Dionysius and other preachers into Gaul, and condemned Privatus, the promoter of a new heresy in Africa, as appears from St. Cyprian. St. Fabian died a glorious martyr in the persecution of Decius in 250, as St. Cyprian and St. Jerom bear witness.

21.-SAINT AGNES

Has been always considered by the Catholics as a special patroness of purity, with the immaculate Mother of God and St. Thecla. Rome was the

theatre of the triumph of St. Agnes; and Prudentius says, that her tomb was shown within sight of that city. She suffered not long after the beginning of the persecution of Dioclesian, whose bloody edicts appeared in March in the year of our Lord 303. She was only thirteen years of age at the time of her glorious death. See our last volume, pp. 12, 13, for some beautiful lines on this subject by Mr. Keats.

*22. 1788.-LORD BYRON BORN.

In our volume for 1820, p. 21, we have given some account of his lordship's early poems, and of the reception which they met with from the Edinburgh Review; and in T.T. for 1817, p. 6, will be found a specimen from the Hours of Idleness.' As this volume is but little known, we shall continue the selection with the following beautiful stanzas, written at the age of seventeen, which display, in every line, the thoughts, feelings, and diction of the future poet-the splendid blossoms of that tree which was destined to bear so rich and promising a harvest of Hesperian fruit.

I would I were a careless child,

Still dwelling in my Highland cave,
Or roaming through the dusky wild,

Or bounding o'er the dark blue wave:
The cumbrous pomp of Saxon1 pride
Accords not with the freeboru soul,
Which loves the mountain's craggy side,

And seeks the rocks where billows roll.
Fortune! take back these cultured lands,
Take back this name of splendid sound!
I hate the touch of servile hands,

I hate the slaves that cringe around;

Place me among the rocks I love,

Which sound to Ocean's wildest roar,

I ask but this-again to rove

Through scenes my youth hath known before.

Sassenagh, or Saxon, a Gaelic word, signifying either Lowland or English.

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