gether different from biography. Happy as is Dr. Osborn's "Introduction," it leaves a longing. A fuller "Introduction" might, with advantage, be prefixed to a subsequent edition of this most enjoyable and most valuable volume. Class-Meetings in Relation to the Design and Success of Methodism. By S. W. CHRISTOPHERS. London: Wesleyan Conference Office. 1873.-This is by far the most mature and thorough work on Class-Meetings which has yet appeared. The writer has brought to bear upon the subject all the powers of a vigorous and cultivated intellect, which fully estimates the importance of its theme. Nothing could be more seasonable than such a publication at a time when the question is occupying-we might almost say agitating-the Methodist mind, and when outsiders, from their external position and point of view, are taking an eager, and not very considerate, part in the discussion. Mr. Christophers looks at the matter all round. The bare headings of his chapters will indicate his exhaustive treatment of the subject: -Class-Meetings in their Relation to the Design of Methodism-To the World-To the Churches-To Preaching and Conversion-To Sacraments and Devotional Services-To the Agencies of MethodismOther Agencies of Methodism in their Relation to the Class-Meeting--The ClassMeeting in Relation to Methodist Finances -Class-Meetings in their Relation to Objectors and Neglecters. Every one wishing to form a fair and solid judgment on a point of vital importance to Methodism, should peruse and ponder this valuable book. We may be allowed to add that the late venerable Thomas Jackson, shortly before his death, saw the M.S. of Mr. Christophers' book, and expressed his high appreciation and warm admiration of it. ASTRONOMICAL NOTICES. FOR NOVEMBER, 1873. BY A. GRAHAM, ESQ. RISING AND SETTING OF THE SUN AND PLANETS FOR GREENWICH. 4th, Full Moon...... 3h. 48m. after. .... 0h. 48m. morn. 20th, New Moon ...... 3h. 37m. morn. 27th, First Quarter.... 8h. 13m. morn. MOON'S DISTANCES FROM THE EARTH. 1h. after., Perigee; distance 225,372 miles. 9h. morn., Apogee; 3h. 251,597 228,827 This year is prolific in small comets. In addition to the comet of short period alluded to last month, which was discovered by M. Tempel, at Marseilles, two other comets of short period have been re-discovered, by the aid of ephemerides previously calculated. One of these was first detected by M. Faye, at the Paris Observatory, on the 22nd November, 1843, and was soon found to have a period of about seven years and a half. It has been re-observed near its perihelion in 1851, 1858, 1865, and in the present year. The other was discovered by M. Brorsen, at Kiel, on the 26th February, 1846, and was seen and observed, after the lapse of two revolutions, in March and April, 1857. The perihelion passage in 1846 took place on the evening of the 25th of February; in 1857, on the morning of the 29th of March, which gives a period of rather more than five years and a half. It was seen again in 1868, and astronomers were able to predict its place in the present year with such accuracy that the time of perihelion passage only erred by one day; M. Stephan, at Marseilles, detected it on the 1st of September. Another comet has been added to the list by M. Stephan, on the 20th of August; and three days after another brighter one by M. Paul Henry, at the Paris Observatory: their orbits have been approximately determined on the supposition that they move in parabolas. A total eclipse of the Moon will be visible on the afternoon of the 4th, throughout Asia and Australia and a part of Europe and Africa. The total phase begins at 3h. 8m., and ends at 4h. 34m., a little after the time of the Moon's rising at Greenwich. The Moon will be clear of the shadow at 5h. 35m., and of the penumbra at 6h. 34m. A partial eclipse of the Sun takes place on the morning of the 20th, but the range of its visibility is chiefly confined to the regions near the South Pole. Mercury will be at its greatest distance southward from the plane of the Earth's orbit on the morning of the 8th. On the afternoon of the 10th it will be at its greatest angular distance from the Sun, twenty-three degrees eastward, but its low southern declination will prevent its being visible to the naked eye. It will be near the Moon on the 21st, at 3h. in the afternoon. On the morning of the 27th it will be in the plane of the Earth's orbit, going northward; and on the 30th, at 6h. 24m. in the afternoon, it will be in inferior conjunction with the Sun. Had this last phenomenon occurred three days earlier, we should have had a transit of Mercury across the Sun's disc. Venus is the morning star, with Jupiter as a fainter rival; though the latter is alone in his glory for several hours before Venus rises. She will be very near the Moon on the morning of the 18th, but the nearest approach takes place below our horizon. To the inhabitants of some regions of the earth, especially in the southern hemisphere, the planet will be occulted by the Moon on that occasion. On Mars and Saturn are the evening stars. On the 20th, a little before noon, they will be in conjunction, when the distance will be a little more than a degree; up to that time Mars will be west of Saturn, after that time it recedes eastward. the evening of the 24th both will be near the Moon: it will be interesting to watch the motion of our Satellite relatively to the two planets; all three are moving eastward among the fixed stars, but with very different velocities. The motion of the Moon is apparent to the naked eye in an hour or two, the relative motion of the planets can only be perceived by watching them on successive nights. Uranus will be in quadrature with the Sun on the evening of the 2nd. It will rise on the 7th at ten o'clock, and on the 22nd at nine o'clock in the evening. Neptune is now favourable for telescopic examination. On the 15th it will be on the meridian at ten o'clock in the evening, altitude forty-s -seven degrees. J. ROCHE, PRINTER, 25, HOXTON-SQUARE, London. THE HOME OF AN ENGLISH PASTORAL POET. WHEN I consider that the two great pastoral poems of our country were written and composed in the very centre of London, amid its dreary waste of brick and pavement, in the very heart of its VOL. XIX.-Second Series.-DECEMBER, 1873. Z "thousand and one" streets, in the locality which is devoted to the worship of Mammon, and has no interest in aught else save what may contribute to the deification of this greater than Diana of the Ephesians, I come to the conclusion that the first city of the world is without limit in capacity, and its intellectual treasures are exhaustless. I wonder that Thomson, before he had composed a single passage of "The Seasons," had not betaken himself from uncongenial Fleetstreet to the country; or that Bloomfield did not in despair abandon his sweet lay of "The Farmer's Boy," instead of wearily trying to win music from the shoe-maker's bench in Bell-alley. Strange as it may appear to some minds that genius should flourish beneath cottage eaves, or in even still more humble circumstances, yet stranger will it be accounted that under the most adverse circumstances genius is developed, as the rough, unhewn stone, cut and ground and polished by no tender hand, coruscates at last with light and beauty. Under such conditions, in a home more humble than any country cottage, ROBERT BLOOMFIELD, maker of shoes and Æolian harps, wrote "The Farmer's Boy." Just out of Moorgate-street strikes Bellalley. No. 14, in 1797, 8, was tenanted by a man who, contented to live himself, was not unmindful that others also might desire the same privilege. In this house lodged Bloomfield, with six or seven others, who each paid one shilling per week for the accommodation. We shall presently see how adverse were all his associations to the development of that great gift which "enrolled him in Fame's lasting register." On the 3rd of December, 1766, at Honington, near Bury St. Edmunds, Mrs. Bloomfield presented her husband with their sixth child, the subject of this sketch. The poor man was the village tailor, who, six months after this event, under the pressure of cares, passed out of this mortal existence. The widow bravely battled with her difficulties. She immediately commenced a dame's school, to which her own six children were no small contribution. All that his mother could teach him Robert learned, and all the education he ever had came from her lips. He learned to read, nothing more; but undoubtedly with that simple teaching were instilled those high and holy lessons of living and dying which Robert never forgot; and that little learned in this Suffolk village became a power for good. As Dr. Beard has observed, what encouragement is there not in this simple account for Sunday-school teachers; what capacity may be developed from only learning to read! So extreme was the poverty of Mrs. Bloomfield, that, with all the skill in the small economies of her household, after clothing, her five ! elder children, her resources were exhausted before Robert's turn came. Consequently, at the tender age of eleven, the future poet became a farmer's boy in the neighbourhood. Barely four years of this rough life proved too much for his feeble constitution, and at the end of that time his mother took him up to London to an elder brother, to be instructed in the mysteries of shoe-making. This elder brother ever manifested towards him the most affectionate regard, as may be noted by his description of Robert at this period:-"I have him in my mind's eye, a little boy not bigger than boys generally are at twelve years old. When I met him and his mother at the Inn, (in Bishopsgate-street,) he strutted before us, dressed just as he came from keeping sheep, hogs, etc., his shoes filled full of stumps in the heels. He, looking about him, tripped up; his nails were unused to a flat pavement. I remember viewing him as he scampered up; how small he was! Little I thought that the fatherless boy would be one day known and esteemed by the most learned, the most respected, the wisest, and the best men of the kingdom." His literature was of the most limited range, -an occasional newspaper, (and these were but few, the very advertisements in them being taxed,) and some borrowed books of Poems; his chief favourite being Thomson's "Seasons." These germinated in his brain a short poem descriptive of "The Milk-maid," which, one day repeating to his astonished brother, Robert was at once urged to send to "The London Magazine," and this was followed by "The Sailor's Return." The publication of these poems brought about, from the kindlydisposed landlord in Bell-alley, the offer of an unused garret, wherein he afterwards worked, and thought out his poems. In December, 1790, he married. I believe that the annals of "the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties" do not furnish a greater triumph over discouragements than the production of "The Farmer's Boy" in such circumstances. Robert Bloomfield was too poor to purchase writing materials; half the large poem was composed without the transcription of a single line. He impressed it on his memory, and corrected it, so after that he "had nothing to do but write it down," when he could afford to buy pen, ink, and paper. And so while pursuing the mechanical part of his calling, his mind went out from the solitary garret in Bell-alley, and over the hills and down the meadows and along the lanes of English country life, as line after line of "The Farmer's Boy" was stored up ready for writing down. This point was however reached, and by the year 1798 the poem was completed and written out. His deep affection for his mother, and anticipation of her natural pride of the work he had accomplished, led him to desire to see it printed for her sake, and it was offered to various publishers on the simple condition that he might have |