of the month, and may be found for other days, as well as for other places, by the directions already

given.

As the nights now begin to close in earlier, and this planet continues to approach the earth, her brightness increases. The proportion of her phases is,

August 1st, Dark part...... 2770

Illuminated part 9 230

Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites.

As Jupiter now approaches so near the Sun, none of the eclipses of his satellites will be visible this month, though there will be nearly twenty of the first and second of these small bodies.

Conjunction of the Moon with the Planets and Stars. August 11th, with Mars at 2 in the morning

16th, 8 in Capricorn 1

24th,

...

in Aries......11

......

Mercury will attain his greatest elongation on the 1st of this month; he will also be stationary on the 16th, and in his inferior conjunction at 15 m. past 2 on the 30th. Venus and Jupiter will be in conjunction with each other at 39 m. after 8 in the morning of the 1st; at which time the former will be 11 north of the latter. Mars will also be in quadrature at 5 in the morning of the 22d.

The Chinese divide their zodiac into twenty-four parts, instead of twelve, to which they apply charac

S

ters and names descriptive of the weather in their climate at the different periods; and as all that relates to that singular people now possesses an increasing interest, we shall insert their divisions, with the corresponding terms adopted by Europeans.

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo...........

Ta-han, great cold.
{Leih-chun, commencement of Spring.
Yu-shwuy, rain water.

King-chih, rousing the torpid insects.

{Chun-fun, verear

Tsing-ming, clear bright weather.

Kuh-yu, great rain.

Leih-yea, commencement of Summer.

Seaou-man, a little full, referring to grain.

Mang-chung, bearded grain.

Hea-che, summer solstice.

{Seaou-shoo, a little heat.

Ta-shoo, great heat.

Leih-tsew, commencement of autumn.

Choo-shoo, repressed heat

Virgo {Photo, represse

Libra............ { Tsew-fun, autumnal equinox.

Scorpio

Han-loo, cold dew.

Shwang-heang, hoar frost descending. {Leitung, common frost

Seaou-seue, a little snow.

Sagittarius...Ta-seue, great snow.

Capricorn.... {Tung. che, winter solstice.

Seaou-han, a little cold.

The following poetical effusion is peculiarly applicable to many of the calm nights of this month:

SONG of the STARS to the EARTH.

[From the German of Stolberg.]

Sweet be thy slumbers, sister dear,
Upon thy odour-scented bed;
Repose in peace until thou hear

The voice of Morning widely spread.
Then may'st thou wake all fresh and gay,
Adorned with tints of rosy light;
And, 'mid thy rest, may no rude sway
Of sudden storms thy beauty blight!
May no wild winds with furious wing
To rend thy lovely locks conspire;
Nor high the waves of Ocean fling,

With discord hoarse to glut their ire,

And drown the gentle, soothing sound
That rises from the heaving main;
And may no thunders burst around,
From Etna's womb, to blast the plain :
And may the winged lightnings sleep
Upon the high Alps' darksome breast;
While now through air reigns silence deep,
O Sister dear, to aid thy rest.

No clouds now intervene to hide
From us thy beauty, planet fair;
No vapours dim are seen to glide
Athwart the tranquil void of air.
Now do the mild Moon's lovely beams
Upon thine orb delight to play;
And swift shall fly the hours, till gleams
Of new-born light restore the day.

O may thy children all partake

The slumbers of this silent hour!
While those who may their couch forsake,
Tossed by relentless sorrow's pow'r,
The Moon shall soothe ;-her mild regard
Hath often solaced the distressed;
For when the storm of grief blows hard,
Her gentle influence calms the breast.

Those now who sail the faithless sea,

The calmness of these evenings, however, is sometimes interrupted by a transient storm, which is thus described by the poet:

The midnight tempest walks abroad

Muffled in pall of deepest Stygian woof;
Wild devastation marks the path it treads,
While tumbling turrets, rocks, and mountain pines
Before it bow their heads, and fall to earth.

The rumbling thunders gender in its womb,
And send their bright forerunners round the skies
To singe the raven locks of frighted Night,
And lift the cloak of darkness up, to show,
By fitful glimpses, to the trembling world
The wreckful terrors of the bowling storm,
That madly mingles ocean with the clouds,
And scares the savage wanderers of the gloom
Back to the shelter in their delved caves:
But soon looks rosy forth the smiling Morn,
And with her radiant finger calms the roar,
And lays the piping winds and waves to sleep.

PENNIE's Royal Minstrel.

The Naturalist's Diary

For AUGUST 1826.

Fair Flora now to CERES leaves the plain,
Diffusing plenty o'er her wide domain;

She opes her stores, and strews them through the mead,
And golden harvests all the surface spread.

THE various kinds of grain are generally ripened in this month by the powerful influence of the solar ray; and as every month has its peculiar beautics, so August has its fields of waving corn, its groups of nutbrown reapers, and its cheerful HARVEST-HOME.'How grateful, then, should we be to the great Creator of all things, who, in the emphatical words of David, visiteth the earth, and blesseth it, who maketh it very plenteous, who watereth her furrows, and sendeth rain into the little valleys thereof, who maketh it soft with showers, and blesseth the increase of it: who

'In Yorkshire, at the carrying in of the last corn (or harvest home) the labourers and servants, by way of triumph, cry mel, mel; and 'tis a proverbial question, when will you get mel,' that is, when will you end your harvest? At which time all the workmen are treated with a supper by the farmer, where the chief fair is a roast goose, called an inning goose. The word mel may be supposed from mæl, an end or term, or mael, a feast or banquet.-Kennett MS.

crowneth the year with his goodness, while his clouds drop fatness: making the valleys stand so thick with corn, that they laugh and sing,' and whose beneficent hand and liberal bounty to the sons of men calls forth all their praise, and claims all their thankfulness. 'For whatever we may think of it' (observes Dr. Dodd), 'and however inattentively through its frequency pass over this mighty word of the Lord, it is, notwithstanding, no less a miracle that the Lord should marvellously every day support and feed the whole race of mankind, cattle, and every living thing upon the earth, than that Christ should feed five thousand with five loaves and two fishes: for what are five thousand to those infinite millions of millions of men that are daily fed from the fruits of the earth! For how small proportion doth the seed sown bear to the produce! It is carried out in handfuls and brought home in sheaves; and which of us can tell by what secret operations this wonderful effect is wrought? How is it that the seed sown groweth up from the blade into the ripe corn in the ear, and is blessed to the nourishment aud support of life in man? Nature is no less wonderful in all her works than in this particular, and the Divinity, to an attentive observer, is no less visibly seen in these regular productions, than in the miraculous supplies afforded; no less seen in the wine produced from the moisture of the earth through the branches of the vine, than in that instantaneously changed from the water; no less seen in the corn gradually ripened, and made into bread for the support of all mankind, than in the bread marvellously blessed to the support of the five thousand!'-(Discourses on the Miracles.)

About the 11th of August, the puffin migrates; and soon afterwards the swift disappears, probably winging its way to more southern regions. Lapwings and linnets congregate, and the nuthatch chatters. Young broods of goldfinches are now seen.