The meanest Insect we can see, the minutest and most contemptible Weed we can tread upon, is really sufficient to confound ATHEISM, and baffle all its pretensions. How much more that astonishing variety and multiplicity of God's works with which we are continually surrounded! Let any man survey the face of the earth, or lift up his eyes to the firmament; let him consider the nature and instincts of brute animals, and afterwards look into the operations of his own mind: Will he presume to say, or suppose, that all the objects he meets with are nothing more than the result of unaccountable accidents and BLIND CHANCE? Can he possibly conceive that such wonderful order should spring out of confusion? Or, that such perfect beauty should be ever formed by the fortuitous operations of unconscious, inactive particles of matter? As well, nay better, and more easily, might he suppose that an earthquake might happen to build towns and cities; or the materials carried down by a flood fit themselves up without hands into a regular fleet. For what are towns, cities, or fleets, in comparison of the vast and amazing fabric of the Universe! To study GOD, God's student, man was made; To earth, his easier book: where, to suspend DR. BALGUY. SIR W. DAVENANT. I have long thought that the motions of the heavenly bodies, the propagation and 'growth of animals and plants, the faculties of the human mind, and even the ability of moving my hand up and down, by a simple volition, afford, when deliberately reflected on, more convincing arguments against ATHEISM than all the recondite lucubrations of the most profound philosophers. In a word, the Argument for the Existence of God, which is drawn from the Contemplation of Nature, is so clear and so strong, that the most ignorant can comprehend it, and the most learned cannot invent a better. BP. WATSON. TIME'S TELESCOPE FOR 1826. TIME is duration in reference to finite beings. An almanack may be regarded as a divider or marker of time by the year; a calendar, one by the month; and an ephemeris, by the day. This is consistent with the derivation of the several words. A year, in Latin annus, is the interval of time which the Sun occupies in his apparent motion through the twelve signs of the zodiac. This is the natural or tropical year, and consists of 365 d. 5 h. 48 m. 451⁄2 s. The vicissitude of the seasons obviously gave occasion to the first institution of the year; and but slight observation would lead men to refer the principal cause of such vicissitude to the motion of the Sun: but in a matter where all was fleeting and mutable, it was not so easy to assign a fixed point, from which, as from a starting post, the year should be said to commence. Nor was it easy, in the early ages of astronomy, to assign, with tolerable precision, the length of the yearly period. The commencement of the year took place at the autumnal equinox among the Egyptians, the Chaldæans the Persians, the Syrians, the Phoenicians, and the Coaginians; at the same epoch among the Jews. for their civil year, and at the vernal equinox for their A ecclesiastical year; at the winter solstice among the Greeks before Méthon, and at the summer solstice after Méthon, or Meton; at the vernal equinox among the Romans, with Romulus, and at the winter equinox with Numa Pompilius; at this latter epoch among the ancient inhabitants of the north; among the Chinese, it took, and still takes place, in the month which answers to February. The ecclesiastical year commences with Advent, The English civil year formerly commenced at Ladyday, March 25th, although the historical year commenced on the 1st of January. The part of the year between these two terms was expressed thus, 172, 174g, &c.; but by the English act for altering the style, the civil year, ever since 1752, has commenced with January 1st. With us, also, the exchequer year commences in March; and municipal years at various times, as in London at Lord Mayor's Day, &c. The year begins at the winter solstice, among the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the Germans, the Siamois', and the Peruvians; at the vernal equinox among the Mexicans; without a determinate epoch among the Mahometans and Arabians. According to Varro, Livy, Ovid, &c. the Roman year, in the time of Romulus, had 10 months, and consisted of 304 days. It began in the month of March, and December was the last. This year is designated by chronologers under the title of the Romulean year. Numa Pompilius, who succeeded the founder of Rome, added 2 months to this year, because he thought that 12 lunar months were sufficient to agree with the seasons, and he extended t to 355 days, because he believed even days unla Some chronologists assert that the ancient year Italy always consisted of 12 lunar months, mo * Since 1752, with the exception of the Greek churches, they have abandoned the old style, and date according to the Gregorian calendar. in the whole, 354 days, which was that of the ancient Latins, and consequently anterior to Romulus. So that Numa Pompilius did but change the order of the months. JANUARY. JANUARY was so named, because sacred to Janus. Its tutelar divinity was Juno. On the first day of this month, the artificers were anxious to commence those works which they intended to perform during the course of that year. The principal feasts of January were, on the 1st of the month a festival in honour of Jupiter, Juno, and Janus; on the 24th, the feast of corn sowing; on the 27th, the grand festival in honour of Castor and Pollux. The ides of this month were announced by criers dressed like women-a singular custom, for which history has assigned no reason. The sign of this month is Aquarius, supposed to denote that snows and rains are now more frequent than in any other season of the year.-See the Imperial Almanack for 1825'. Remarkable Days In JANUARY 1826. 1.-CIRCUMCISION, THIS festival commemorates the circumcision of our Lord on the 8th day of his nativity. It was first observed, so far as we have been able to ascertain, in. the year 487. The day of its observance of course depends upon the time assigned to Christmas day. This Library Compendium of Astronomical, Statistical, Scienife and interesting Information (to which we are frequently indated in the course of the present work) is edited by an emiDent Astronomer and Philosopher of the day, and its contents are far more valuable than those of any Almanack we have seen: Seng printed in 12mo, it may be bound up with our volume, to ich forms a convenient and even necessary Appendix. This, or the Feast of the Nativity, as it was called, was observed certainly in the 2d, and probably in the 1st century. During the Dioclesian persecution, that monarch finding a multitude of Christians assembled in a large place of worship, to celebrate the day of Christ's nativity, commanded the doors to be fastened up, and the church to be set on fire; so that, in a short time, the church, and the numerous Christians which it contained, were burnt to ashes. Baronius, and some other writers, affirm that Christmas day was always observed on the 25th of December; but that is not correct. Clemens Alexandrinus informs us that the Basilidians observed it in April, and that many other Christians, who had taken great pains to affix it correctly, assigned it to the 25th day of the Egyptian month Pachon. This would place it in our month of May, as Basnage shows. The present dates however, both of Christmas Day and the Circumcision, have been recognized in England ever since the year 1550. The first of January is called New Year's Day, a day the best suited for a universal holiday of any of the three hundred and sixty-five. It is the period of the regeneration of the Calendar in the most interesting parts of the civilized world. Persons of all ranks and occupations take an interest in it. It is the beginning of a new era. We have made up our accounts of happiness and sorrow with the old year; we have struck the moral balance, calculated the profit and loss, and taken stock as a trader does of his gos. We turn over a new leaf, we enter upon a fresh series of transactions; and the common maxim, 'As is the beginning so shall be the ending,' disposes us to enter upon it joyfully. The King of Light, Father of aged Time, Hath brought about that day which is the prime In looking back to the past year, we shall be struck |