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FEBRUARY.

When, in the zodiac, the Fish wheel round,
They loose the floods, and irrigate the ground.
Then, husbandmen resume their wonted toil,

Yoke their strong steers, and plough the yielding soil:
Then prudent gard'ners seize the happy time,
To dig and trench, and prune for shoots to climb,
Inspect their borders, mark the silent birth
Of plants, successive, from the teeming earth,
Watch the young nurslings with paternal care,
And hope for "growing weather" all the year.
Yet February's suns uncertain shine,
For rain and frost alternately combine

To stop the plough, with sudden wintry storms-
And, often, fearful violence the month deforms,

February 1,

Flowers

A good garden in a sunny day, at the commencement of this month, has many delightful appearances to a lover of nature, and issues promises of further gratification. It is, however, in ball-rooms and theatres that many of the sex, to whose innocence and beauty the lily is likened, resort for amusement, and see or wear the mimic forms of floral loveliness. Yet this approach to nature, though at an awful distance, is to be hailed as an impulse of her own powerful working in the very heart of fashion; and it has this advantage, that it supplies means of existence to industry, and urges ingenuity to further endeavour. Artificial wants are rapidly supplied by the necessity of providing for real ones; and the wealthy accept drafts upon conditions which

indigence prescribes, till it becomes lifted above poverty to independence.

The manufacture of artificial flowers is not wholly unknown in England, but our neighbours, the French, eclipse us in the accuracy and variety of their imitations. Watering-places abound with these wonders of their work-people, and in the metropolis there are depôts, from whence dress-makers and milliners are supplied by wholesale.

The annexed literal copy of a French flower-maker's card, circulated during the summer of 1822 among the London shopkeepers, is a whimsical specimen of self-sufficiency, and may save some learners of French from an overweening confidence in their acquisition of that language, which, were it displayed in Paris, would be as whimsical in that metropolis as this English is in ours.

M. MARLOTEAU et Cie.

Manufacturers from Paris,

37, MONTMORENCY-STREET,

To London 14 Broad street, Oxford street.

Acquaint the Trade in general, that they have just established in LONDON. A Warhouse for FRENCH FLOWERS, for each Season, feathar from hat ladies of their own Manufacture elegant fans of the NEWEST TASTE. And of Manufactures of PARIS, complette sets ornaments for balls, snuff boxes scale gold and silver, boxes toilette, ribbons and embroidered, hat et cap, from Ladies of the newest Taste, China, all sorts, etc.

He commit generally the articles from Paris, Manufacturers.

And send in all BRITISH CITY.

Attandance from Nine o'Clock in the Morning till five in the Afternoon.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature . . .39 · 70.

February 2.

Purification, or Candlemas. 1826.-Holiday at the Public Offices.

This day, the festival of "the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary," is sometimes called Christ's Presentation, the Holiday of St. Simeon, and The Wives' Feast. An account of its origin and celeA beautiful bration is in vol. i. p. 199. composition in honour of the Virgin is added as a grace to these columns. Portuguese Hymn.

TO THE VIRGIN MARY.

By John Leyden.
Star of the wide and pathless sea,
Who lov'st on mariners to shine,
These votive garments wet to thee,

We hang within thy holy shrine.
When o'er us flushed the surging brine,
Amid the warring waters tost,

We called no other name but thine,
And hoped, when other hope was lost,
Ave Maris Stella!

Star of the vast and howling main,

When dark and lone is all the sky,
And mountain-waves o'er ocean's plain
Erect their stormy heads on high;
When virgins for their true loves sigh,
And raise their weeping eyes to thee,
The star of Ocean heeds their cry,
And saves the foundering bark at sea.
Ave Maris Stella!

Star of the dark and stormy sea,
When wrecking tempests round us rave,
Thy gentle virgin form we see

Bright rising o'er the hoary wave.
The howling storms that seem to crave
Their victims, sink in music sweet,
The surging seas recede to pave
The path beneath thy glistening feet,
Ave Maris Stella!

Star of the desert waters wild,
Who pitying hears the seaman's cry,
The God of mercy, as a child,

On that chaste bosom loves to lie;
While soft the chorus of the sky
Their hymns of tender mercy sing,
And angel voices name on high
The mother of the heavenly king,
Ave Maris Stella!

Star of the deep! at that blest name
The waves sleep silent round the keel,
The tempests wild their fury tame

That made the deep's foundations reel:
The soft celestial accents steal
So soothing through the realms of woe,

Ave Maris Stella!

Star of the mild and placid seas,

Whom rainbow rays of mercy crown, Whose name thy faithful Portuguese

O'er all that to the depths go down,
With hymns of grateful transport own;
When gathering clouds obscure their light,
And heaven assumes an awful frown,
The star of Ocean glitters bright,
Ave Maris Stella!

Star of the deep! when angel lyres
To hymn thy holy name essay,
In vain a mortal harp aspires

To mingle in the mighty lay!
Mother of God! one living ray
Of hope our grateful bosoms fires
When storms and tempests pass away,
To join the bright immortal quires.
Ave Maris Stella!

"

On Candlemas-day, 1734, there was a grand entertainment for the judges, sergeants, &c. in the Temple-hall. The lord chancellor, the earl of Macclesfield, the bishop of Bangor, together with other distinguished persons, were present, and the prince of Wales attended incog. At night the comedy of "Love for Love was acted by the company of his Majesty's revels from the Haymarket theatre, who received a present of 50%. from the societies of the Temple. The judges, according to an ancient custom, danced "round the coal fire," singing an old French song.

THE COAL AND THE DIAMOND
A Fable for Cold Weather.
A coal was hid beneath the grate,
("Tis often modest merit's fate,)

"Twas small, and so, perhaps, forgotten; Whilst in the room, and near in size,

In a fine casket lined with cotton, In pomp and state, a diamond lies.

"So, little gentleman in black," The brilliant spark in anger cried, "I hear, in philosophic clack, Our families are close allied;

But know, the splendour of my hue, Excell'd by nothing in existence,

Should teach such little folks as you To keep a more respectful distance." At these reflections on his name, The coal soon redden'd to a flame; Of his own real use aware, He only answer'd with a sneer"I scorn your taunts, good bishop Blaze, And envy not your charms divine; For know, I boast a double praise, As I can warm as well as shine."

Gentleman's Magazine.

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For she was all froze in with frost, Eight days and nights, poor soul! But when they gave her up for lost, They found her down the hole.

On Saturday, the 2d of February, 1799, Elizabeth Woodcock, aged forty-two years, went on horseback from Impington to Cambridge; on her return, between six and seven o'clock in the evening, being about half a mile from her own home, her horse started at a sudden light, probably from a meteor, which, at this season of the year, frequently happens. She exclaimed, "Good God! what can this be?" It was a very inclement, stormy night; a bleak wind blew boisterously from the N. E.; the ground was covered by great quantities of snow that had fallen during the day. Many of the deepest ditches were filled up, whilst in the open fields there was but a thin covering; but in roads and lanes, and in narrow and enclosed parts, it had so accumulated as to retard the traveller. The horse ran backwards to the brink of a ditch, and fearing lest the animal should plunge into it, she dismounted, intending to lead the animal home; but he started again, and broke from her. She attempted to regain the bridle; but the horse turned suddenly out of the road, over a common field, and she followed him. Having lost one of her shoes in the snow, and wearied by the exertion she had made, and by a heavy basket on her arm, her pursuit of the horse was greatly impeded; she however persisted, and having overtaken him about a quarter of a mile from whence she alighted, she gained the bridle, and made another attempt to lead him home. But on retracing her steps to a thicket contiguous to the road, she became so much fatigued, and her left foot, which was without a shoe, was so much benumbed, that she was unable to proceed farther. Sitting down upon the ground in this state, and letting go the bridle, "Tinker," she said, calling the horse by his name, "I am too much tired to go any farther; you must go home without me:" and exclaimed, "Lord have mercy upon me! what will become of me?" The ground on which she sat was upon a level with the common field, close under the thicket on the south-west. She well knew its situation, and its distance from her own house. There was then only a small quantity of snow drifted near her; but it accumulated so rapidly, that when

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Chesterton bell rang at eight o'clock, she was completely hemmed in by it. The depth of the snow in which she was enveloped was about six feet in a perpendicular direction, and over her head between two and three. She was incapable of any effectual attempt to extricate herself, and, in addition to her fatigue and cold, her clothes were stiffened by the frost; and therefore, resigning herself to the necessity of her situation, she sat awaiting the dawn of the following day. To the best of her recollection, she slept very little during the night. In the morning, observing before her a circular hole in the snow, about two feet in length, and half a foot in diameter, running obliquely upwards, she broke off a branch of a bush which was close to her, and with it thrust her handkerchief through the hole, and hung it, as a signal of distress, upon one of the uppermost twigs that remained uncovered. She bethought herself that the change of the moon was near, and having an almanac in her pocket, took it out, though with great difficulty, and found that there would be a new moon the next day, February the 4th. Her difficulty in getting the almanac from her pocket arose, in a great measure, from the stiffness of her frozen clothes; the trouble, however, was com pensated by the consolation which the prospect of so near a change in her favour afforded. Here, however, she remained day after day, and night after night, perfectly distinguishing the alterations of day and night, hearing the bells of her own and the neighbouring villages, particularly that of Chesterton, which was about two miles distant from the spot, and rung in winter time at eight in the evening and four in the morning, Sundays excepted; she was sensible to the sound of carriages upon the road, the bleating of sheep and lambs, and the barking of dogs. One day she overheard a conversation between two gipsies, relative to an ass they had lost. She recollected having pulled out her snuff-box, and taken two pinches of snuff, but felt so little gratification from it, that she never repeated it. Possibly, the cold might have so far blunted her powers of sensation, that the snuff no longer retained its stimulus. Finding her

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