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This stone was erected to the memory of
WILLIAM BURNESS,

Who died Feb. 13, 1784, aged 63 years, and was

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buried here.

The Poet and his brother Gilbert abreviated the family name from Burness to Burns.

27.-1756.—J. C. W. G. MOZart born.

ON HEARING A SACRED SONG OF MOZART.

By the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles.

Oh! still, as with a seraph's voice, prolong
The harmonies of that enchanting song,
Till, list'ning, we might almost think we hear,
Beyond this cloudy world, in the pure sphere
Of light-acclaiming hosts the throne surrounding,
The long Hosannah's evermore resounding-
Soft voices, interposed, in pure accord,
Breathing a holier charm:

Oh! every word,
Falls like a drop of silver, as the strain,
In winding sweetness, swells, and sinks again.
Sing ever thus, beguiling life's long way,
As here, poor pilgrims of the earth, we stray;
And, Lady, when thy pilgrimage shall end,
And late the shades of the long night descend,
May sister-seraphs meet with welcome song,
And gently say, Why have you stay'd so long?"
29.-1820.-King George THE FOURTH'S
ACCESSION.

66

There is a prediction preserved by the Monkish annalists, which is said to have been delivered in the time of William the Conqueror; as an anathema, or curse; signifying, that no more than three monarchs should ever reign over this kingdom without some violent interruption. His present Majesty, by his accession, was the first that broke the spell, as the following will clearly shew.

William I. William II. Henry I. Interrupted by the usurpation of Stephen.-Henry II. Richard I. John. Interrupted by the usurpation of Louis the Dauphin.-Henry III. Edward I. Edward II. Interrupted by the abdication and murder of Edward II.

-Edward III. Richard II. Interrupted by the deposition of Richard II.-Henry IV. Henry V. Richard III. Interrupted by the usurpation of Henry Richmond.-Henry VII. Henry VIII. Edward VI. Interrupted by the election of Lady Jane Grey, and making King Henry's daughters illegitimate.Mary 1. Elizabeth. A foreign King called to the crown.-James I. Charles I. Interrupted by the Commonwealth.-Charles II. James II. Interrupted by the abdication of James and election of a foreigner. -William III. Anne. Interrupted by Parliament appointing a foreigner.-George I. II. III. IV.

30.-1648.-MARTYRDOM OF CHARLES I.

Mr. D' Israeli, in his Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First, gives the following estimate of the character of that unfortunate monarch:-" The characteristic of the mind of Charles the First, was that inflexible firmness to which we attach the idea of strength of character. Constancy of purpose, perseverance to obtain it, and fortitude to suffer for it,-this is the beautiful unity of a strong character. We should, however, observe, that this strength of character is not necessarily associated with the most comprehensive understanding, any more than the most comprehensive understanding is necessarily supported by this moral force. Hence, the stronger the character of the man, the stronger may be its errors, and thus its very strength may become its greatest infirmity. In speculating upon the life of Charles the First, through all the stages of his varied existence, from the throne to the scaffold, we may discover the same intellectual and moral being. Humiliated by fortune beneath the humblest of his people, the King himself remained unchanged; and whether we come to reproach or to sympathise, something of pity and terror must blend with the story of a noble mind wrestling with unconquerable fate.

"The more delightful arts he pursued with intense pleasure; for this monarch was not only a lover of arts, but could himself have aspired to the honors of an artist. These, however, had not absorbed his studies. The library of St. James's, before the civil wars, contained a manuscript volume, which Charles in his youth had presented to his father, consisting of his literary collections and other epitomes the fruits of juvenile studies. But these philosophical and ingenious pursuits have been barbarously censured as mean and trivial in a monarch. The arts and sciences were considered by the rigid puritanic politicians merely as sources of emolument for the mechanics who professed them. The intellectual part of these studies-the meditation, and the elegance and knowledge which discipline the mind in the progress of invention, had never rectified their crude principles, softened their harsh tempers, or illumined their dark minds. These studies, not unworthy of a Sovereign, would have reflected his tastes among a people whose fanaticism had so long persecuted the finer arts; and our nation would not have suffered the reproach of foreign critics, who, ignorant of our history, ventured to assign the natural causes which, as they imagined, incapacitated us from excelling in the practice of the arts of imagination and sensibility. Charles the First, had it been his happiness to have reigned in peace, would have anticipated by a century the glory of English arts."

31.-1820.-KING GEORGE THE FOURTH

PROCLAIMED.

"In his days every man shall eat in safety,
Under his own vine, what he plants; and sing
The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.
Wherever the bright son of heav'n shall shine,
His honor and the greatness of his name

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Astronomical Occurrences

In January, 1830.

What call we then the firmament?

Call it, the noble pasture of the mind;

Which there expatiates, strengthens and exults,
And riots through the luxuries of thought.
Call it, the Garden of the Deity.

Blossomed with stars, redundant in the growth
Of fruit ambrosial, moral fruit to man.

YOUNG.

We resume the sublime and interesting employment of tracing the brightly-beaming stars, as they shine forth from their depths of blue, encircling the earth with a robe of splendour, and diminishing the dreariness and desolation of the winter season; a contemplation of their glories, especially connected with the principles of the science which treat of their phenomena, is calculated to enkindle the sublimest emotions in the mind, whether we consider the vastness of the scene in which the heavenly bodies move, or examine more minutely their numbers, magnitudes, and immense distances, their velocity, and the precision of their revolutions; each of these is sufficient to impress the mind of the student of nature, and leave him more of the ethereal, and less of the earthy, as he returns from the survey.

That heart must be under the dominion of vice, or paralysed by the leaden sceptre of apathy, that can behold with indifference those bright orbs which beamed forth in beauty on the garden of Eden, which shone on the path of the antediluvian patriarch in his pastoral wanderings, which guided the bark of the adventurous mariner in the early ages of nautical science, which inspired the songs of the bards of antiquity, which drew forth the admiration of our immediate progenitors, and which

shall continue to shed their sweet influences when the present generation shall have mingled their dust with the clods of the valley.

Independently of these delightful associations, which appeal at once to the best feelings of our natures, and the consideration of the light which a cultivation of this science throws on the vast universe, every new discovery in which proves that it is organized with infinite skill, and declares to every intelligent mind the boundless benevolence that pervades immensity,—there is in the science of astronomy that which is intimately connected with the prosperity of the human race, even the common concerns of life being regulated by the celestial motions; the nicest astronomical skill has been required to adjust the calendar; the apparent inequalities of the celestial movements, involving quantities which in some cases must be added, and in others rescinded from the calculations; a familiar instance may be cited: owing to an accumulation through a long period of time of these inequalities, it was found requisite to change the style; or in other words, in the month of September, 1752, ten days were at once expunged from the Calendar, so that the day following the 4th of September was called the 14th; this might be considered a trifling inconvenience, and only important to the historian, for a lapse of ages must ensue before the irregularity would press on the interests of mankind; yet as it respects the prosperity of a maritime country, the cultivation of this science is intimately connected. What is it expedites the vessel of the merchant in its voyage from these fair northern isles to utmost India, where with "plumed and jewelled turban" she pours into the lap of Britannia her richest treasures? it is the perfection to which this science has been brought by the calcu lating mind, the wakeful faculties, the accurate eye

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