673. His grand work is the Ecclesiastical History of the Saxons. Bede has obtained the title of Venerable, for his profound learning and unaffected piety, and not on account of any celebrity for miraculous and angelic operations.

29.-KING CHARLES II RESTORED.

On the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II was proelaimed in London and Westminster, and afterwards throughout his dominions, with great joy and universal acclamations. On the 16th he came to the Hague; the 23d he embarked with his two brothers for England, and landed at Dover on the 25th, where he was received by General Monk, and some of the army. He was then attended by numbers of the nobility and gentry to Canterbury, and on the 29th he made his magnificent entry into London. This day is also his birthday.

In some parts of England it is customary for the common people to wear oak leaves, covered with leafgold, in their hats, in commemoration of the concealment of Charles II in an oak tree, after the battle of Worcester. To this tree, not far from Boscobel House, the king and his companion Colonel Careless resorted, when they thought it no longer safe to remain in the house; climbing up by the henroost ladder, and the family giving them victuals on a nut-hook. An account of the king's escape to France, extracted from his own Narrative, will be found in T. T. for 1815, p. 176.

*MAY 1643.-LOUIS XIII died.

The character of this monarch manifested that propensity to be governed, which displays weakness of the heart, together with a coldness and indifference joined to a melancholy disposition, which rendered his attachments rather the effect of habit than of affection, and inspired all about him with weariness and disgust. One of his principal favourites said to a friend, How unhappy I am to live with a man

who wearies me from morning to night!' He was devout; but his devotion shewed itself in minute observances, and submission to his confessors. He had a share of judgment and solid sense, and did not want decision. For the administration of justice, he was inclined to rigour, and thence, perhaps, acquired the epithet of the Just; though some ascribe it only to the circumstance of his being born under the sign of the Balance.

*MAY 1774.-LOUIS XV Died.

During this reign, the arts and sciences made a great progress in France, which was aided by the munificence of the Court, as long as other demands did not anticipate the funds for this purpose. The voyages of the French mathematicians to the equatorial and polar regions, in order to measure a degree of the meridian, were equally honourable to the government and the persons employed. The king

himself possessed much more information than his predecessor, and was well versed in historical and geographical studies. He was polite, affable, naturally mild and humane; but want of strength of character, and fondness for sensual indulgences, degraded him both as a sovereign and as a man.

Astronomical Occurrences

In MAY 1818.

THE Sun enters Gemini at 48 m. after 5 in the afternoon of the 21st of May; and his rising and setting will take place as specified in the following

TABLE

Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every Fifth Day. Friday, May 1st, Sun rises 37 m. after 4. Sets 23 m: after 7

Wednesday, 6th,

29

4.

31

Monday, 11th,
Saturday, 16th,
Thursday, 21st,
Tuesday, 26th,
Sunday,

31st,

7

Eclipse of the Sun.

There will be a visible eclipse of the Sun on the 5th of this month; the several circumstances of which, as answering to the Royal Observatory, will be as follow, viz.

End of the eclipse

46%

Digits eclipsed 4° 31' on the Sun's southern limb.

Equation of Time.

If the quantities in the following table be taken from the time as indicated by a good sun-dial, the remainders will be the mean time at the several epochs, on every fifth day.

TABLE.

May 1st, from the time by the dial subtract

Phases of the Moon.

5th day,at 26 m. after

13th

20th

7 morning.

11 forenoon.

Passage of the Moon over the Meridian.

The Moon will be on the first meridian at the following convenient times for observation, viz.

May 14th, at 27 m. after 7 in the evening.

Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites.

The eclipses of Jupiter's 1st and 2d satellite during this month, will be as follow, viz.

IMMERSIONS.

1st Satellite, 14th, at 58 m. 25 s. past 1, morning.

30th,

2d Satellite, 20th,

Other Phenomena.

1, morning.

Mercury will be in his inferior conjunction at 45 m. after 2 in the morning of the 23d of May. The Moon and Mercury will be in conjunction at 32 m. after midnight of the 6th. Venus and Mercury will be in conjunction on the 11th; at which time Venus will be 73' south of Mercury; and on the 12th, Mercury will be stationary.

On the ROTATION of the SUN, MOON, and PLANETS, and the INCLINATION of their AXES, &c.

Besides that motion of the planets by which they revolve round the Sun, in given periods of time, as the common centre of the system, it has been proved that most of them, like the earth, have another motion about their own axes; and analogy furnishes the strongest reason to believe that they all participate in this rotary motion. This was first established for the Sun, then for Jupiter, Mars and Venus, and afterwards for Saturn and Mercury: nor can it be reasonably doubted that the same rotation takes place with the other planets Uranus, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta; though their distance or their comparative smallness has hitherto prevented their rotary motion from being observed.

The general method by which these rotations are ascertained is to search for some remarkable point on the disc of the Sun or a planet; and then carefully to observe whether this point appears to be at rest or in motion, with respect to the apparent disc on which it is observed. If this point be stationary, or always

occupy the same place on the disc, except the small changes that may be produced by the relative motions of the earth and planet in their revolutions round the Sun, the planet can have no rotary motion, or at least a very slow one; but if the point rapidly change its position, there is not any other means of explaining the phenomenon but that of a rotation of the planet about its axis.

Of all these rotations, that of the Sun is the easiest to be ascertained, and the best determined. Its disc almost always presents spots visible with common astronomical telescopes. Their variable forms and dimensions, however, sometimes throw a shade of uncertainty over the accuracy of these observations.

The first discovery of these spots has been claimed by several astronomers. Galileo saw them in April 1611; Scheiner, in the following October; and Fabricius about the same time. These spots consist of dark and irregular parts; but whether they adhere to the Sun, or float on the ocean of that lu minous matter which is supposed to surround the solid and obscure body of that luminary; whether they are scoriæ thrown up to the surface of the fluid; rocks or prominent parts, elevated above this ocean; whether they are below its level, and what is their nature; are questions which it is perhaps impossible to decide.

When one of these spots is in the middle of the disc, it is seen in its true shape; because there the surface is the least curved, and its central part perpendicular to the visual ray but when the same spot by the rotary motion is brought near the margin of the apparent disc, it is seen more obliquely. Its breadth diminishes while its height remains the same. The form of the spots is not only irregular, but also variable. They are of different shades; their edges are ill defined and changeable; which renders it necessary to make the observations on the centres, and even these are not altogether free from change.