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. 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, The voice of Morning widely spread. With discord hoarse to glut their ire, And drown the gentle, soothing sound No clouds now intervene to hide O may thy children all partake The slumbers of this silent hour! 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; The rumbling thunders gender in its womb, PENNIE's Royal Minstrel. The Naturalist's Diary For AUGUST 1826. Fair Flora now to CERES leaves the plain, She opes her stores, and strews them through the mead, 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. |