The Shining Shares full many Plowmen guide,
And turn their crooked Yokes on either Side,
Still as at either End they wheel around,
Their Mafter meets them with his Goblet crown'd;
The hearty Draught rewards, renews their Toil;
Then back the turning Plough-fhares cleave the Soil:
Behind, the rifing Earth in Ridges rell'd,
And fable look'd, tho' form'd of molten Gold.

Pope's Homer, B. XVIII. Cleon. The Lines you repeat, are the most beautiful Part of Homer's Defcription of Rural Life.-The autumnal Seafon is the chiefeft Time of Action abroad.

And

hence the Poets, fince Homer, have always made the Labours of the Harveft the chief Theme of their Lays, whenever this Seafon has been their Subject.Thus Sir Richard Blackmore:

Next Autumn, when the Sun's withdrawing Ray
The Night enlarges, and contracts the Day,
To crown his Labour to the Farmer yields
The Yellow Treafures of his fruitful Fields;
Ripens the Harvefts for the crooked Steel,
(While bending Stalks the rural Weapon feel)
The fragrant Fruit for the nice Palate fits,
And to the Prefs the fwelling Grape fubmits.

Creation, B. II,

Virgil, from the various Incidents of this Season, gives many fingular and notable Epithets thereto : thus, addṛeffing his 2d Georgic to Bacchus, he says,

To thee his foys the Jolly Autumn oques,

When the fermenting Juice the Vat o'er flows.

In another Place, on Account of the Vintage at this Time of the Year, he calls it the Vine-leav'd Autumn * ; and because the Sun now enters Libra, or the Balance, he makes Autumn weigh the Year.

Now fing we formy Stars, when Autumn weighs The Year, and adds to Nights, and fhortens Days; And Suns declining fhine with feeble Rays. Geor. B. I. Laftly, he calls Autumn the Evening of the Year; as if Spring and Summer were the Morning and Noon, and Winter the Night thereof.

Autumnus pampineus.

-The Evening of the Year;

When Woods, with Juniper and Chefnuts crown'd, With falling Fruits and Berries, paint the Ground; And lavish Nature laughs, and firews her Stores around. Euphrof. This Seafon of the Year, I think, is remarkable upon fome other Accounts; for Inftance, the Harvest Moon, which I have heard much Talk of, but should be glad to know the Reason of it better than I do: Can you explain it, Cleonicus?

Cleon. That which is called the Harveft, or Shepherd's Moon, is a very confiderable Phænomenon; but I chufe to defer the Explication of it 'till we come to the Ufe of the Celestial Globe, where it will be much eafier underflood than by the Orrery.

Euphrof. I am obliged to you, Cleonicus.Is there any Thing more to be noticed at this Seafon of the Year? For I would not tire you with Impertinencies.

Cleon. I need not observe to you, that the Ancients made much more ado about this Seafon of the Year than we in this Age. They had now their Festivals of Bacchus and Pomona, the Deities of their Vintage and Orchards; and their extravagant Mirth, Rejoicings, and Revels, on thefe Occafions, ought rather to be fuppreffed, than related to the Difgrace of our Species. And it were to be wifhed, indeed, that the Harveft-Populace of the prefent Age were more fenfible of the Dignity of human Nature 5 for they would then not debafe it fo much as they do, by fome of their antique and ridiculous Cuftoms at this Seafon of the Year in many Parts of England.-But we shall dwell no longer on this difagreeable Topic.

DIALOGUE XII.

of WINTER.

Cleonicus,

OU now obferve, my Euphrofyne, the Autumnal
Seafon is over in the Orrery, and the Winter begins;

which brings on the cold Conclufion of the Year. Euphrof. I can scarce help fhuddering at the Mention

of Winter; and methinks, the northern Parts of the Globe seem to enter upon a horrid State Gloom and Darkness are now their Portion-They are turning farther and farther from the Sun, which now begins to chear the inferior Regions of the Earth.-How difmal is the Face of Winter, even in Machinery!

Cleon. A heavy and dreary Seafon, indeed! The Sun, as the Earth moves towards Cancer (), declines from its meridian Height, and the Polar Parts go gradually into Darkness, till at length, when the Earth is got to Cancer (), the northern frigid Zone will be overwhelmed in Obfcurity, like that of the Evening Twilight.

Euphrof. So I observe,—And at the fame Time, I see the fouthern Pole, and its Regions, became more and more illuminated; and when the Sun has reached Cancer, I suppose the whole polar Circle will enjoy its Light uninterruptedly for a While.

Cleon. It will be so for one Day; and then the Sun will begin to leave the Pole, and the Parts about it by Degrees,

-Thus all Things will appear reverse to what they were in the Summer Season.The Days are fhort, and the Nights long; which you plainly difcern by the northern Parallels continuing but a fhort Time in the Light, or illumined Hemisphere, and a much longer Time in the dark_one.And therefore, by a natural Confequence, the Cold must greatly increase in all north Latitudes, and this, together with the Shortness of Days, conftitute the Nature of this Seafon, and make what we call Winter; which is one great Cause of the increafing Coldness of this Season.

Euphrof. You have already taught me to understand, that as the Sun's Rays falling more directly on us in Summer helped to augment the Heat of that Season; fo his Rays falling now more obliquely on our Parallel, and all the northern ones, conduce to increase the Cold, and render it more intense

The Reader, by cafting his Eye on the Diagram in Plate XXIII, will fee an exact and natural Reprefentation of the Earth in its Winter-Situation in the Orrery, and fuch as it really has in its Orbit, with respect to the Sun, in the Middle of Winter; from whence as eafy an Idea of the concurring Caufes of Cold