eminent splendour of that luminary, which of itself would naturally excite reverential awe and admiration. From the earliest periods of history, mankind in every age and nation appear to have acknowledged some transcendant power by which the universe was governed; nor has man yet been in any instance discovered totally destitute of some object of worship, although, from ignorance of the true God, the imagination has frequently been found to be influenced, by such visible objects as appeared most calculated to command respect. It is thus, and thus only, that we can account for the worship paid by unenlightened nations, not only to the Sun, but to the Moon and other planets; as well as to Fire, Water, &c.

To the shining light or Glory in which the Deity manifested his presence, may "perhaps be ascribed the custom, generally adopted by painters, of placing round the head of our Saviour, the Virgin, the Apostles, and even, in the superstitious ages, of the Romish Saints and Martyrs, the nimbus or diverging rays usually termed a glory, to mark them as superior beings; and little justifiable as such practice may be deemed, in these times of purer sentiment, it is far from being the most vain or impious relict, that has been handed down to us, from our weak and bigoted ancestors. In the most antient paintings, the Nimbus was drawn as a solar globe surrounded by rays of light, or flames of fire or, for variety, thus

and sometimes :subsequently, as the

1

fancy of the artist prompted, or as best suited the rest of the drawing, the rays were reduced thus

, and thus: and it is considered that a misconception of the latter mode of delineating the glory, was the origin of the absurd practice of distinguishing the patriarch MOSES by a huge pair of horns, which the popish Critics contend to be his proper distinguishing emblem! In some of the Anglo-Saxon illuminations of the tenth century the nimbus is described as a plain circle; it is also occasionally yet so drawn, though more frequently in an oval form..

SUNDAYS are divided into two classes in the Romish breviaries, and other Popish offices: those of the first class are, Palm, Easter, Advent, Quasimodo, Quadragesima, and WhitSunday; those of the second, the ordinary Sundays of the year. While it is to be remembered, that every Sunday formerly had its particular appellation, which was taken from the mass of the day: Reminiscere, Oculi, Lætare, and Judica, are still retained in Lent.

Monday,

the second day of the week, was by our Saxon ancestors dedicated to the especial adoration of the Moon, whence its name MON-DAY, MOONDAY, MOONE-DAY, Monan-Daeg.

"The form of this doll seemeth very strange and ridiculous, for, being made for a woman, shee hath a short coat like a man: but more strange it is to ser her hood with such two long eares. The holding of a Moone before her breast may seem to have been to erpresse what she is, but the reason of her chapron with long eares, as also of her short coat, and ppkes shoes, I doe not finde. Verstegan.

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MR. HORNE TOOKE observes, "that in many of the Asiatic languages, and in all the Northern languages of this part of the globe, and particularly in our mother language, the Anglo-Saxon. (from which Sun and Moon are immediately derived to us) Sun is feminine, and Moon is masculine; and so feminine is the Sun, ('that fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffata,' 1st part of Henry IVth,) that our Northern mythology makes her the wife of TUISCO." As the Idol of the Sun has not any peculiar characteristic to ascertain whether it was designed for a male or a female; the observation (taken from VERSTEGAN) that "it was made, as here appeareth, like half a naked man,” may have arisen from a mistake similar to that which Mr. ToOKE assigns to our English poets, Shakspeare, Milton, &c.; who, he proceeds to state, reversed the genders of the Sun and Moon, "by a familiar prosopopeia, because from their classical reading they adopted the Southern not the Northern Mythology, and followed the pattern of their Greek and Roman masters." But if there be room to suppose, that an error has been committed, as respects the gender of the idol of the Sun, there seems still greater cause to consider that a similar mistake has occurred in the ideal sex of the Moon. The figure under which the latter idol is depicted, certainly bears more semblance to a male than a female; and the remark that, "the form of this idoll seemeth very strange, for being made for a woman, shee hath a

short coat like a man," undoubtedly affords some confirmation that Mr. ToOKE has the better side of the argument; particularly as "in the Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, German, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish languages, all of which it is contended were originally from the same root, it is incontrovertible that Sun is feminine and Moon masculine," in the Northern mythology; although they are of reputed contrary genders in that of the South. By the former, the Sun is made the wife of TUIsco, the idol that gave name to Tuesday; by the latter, the Sun is made the husband of the Moon, and as such, received, in the sovereignty of ANTONINUS, the rich marriage portion of his spouse worshipped by the Africans as ASTARTE, when a general festival was held in honour of the union, at Rome, and throughout the Empire.

By the Romans, who, as well as the Saxons, dedicated this day to the Moon, it was called DIES LUNE, feria secunda; and antiently, on the first day in every lunar month, festivals were held by our forefathers in commemoration of the benefits bestowed during the former Moon, and in gratitude for the return of that luminary.

This secondary planet, and the earth, are reciprocally moons to each other, though when the former presents to us what is called a new moon, we are at full to that orb. The distance at which we are separated is 240,000 miles, a space, vast as it is, yet insignificantly small, when compared with