He cheerfully complied with the call, leaving all to follow him. Soon after this, he was made an apostle; and, with Peter and John his brother, was taken to see the miraculous raising of Jairus's daughter,Christ's glorious transfiguration, and was also with our Saviour in the garden a witness of those bitter sufferings which he there endured for us. It does not appear how James was employed after our Lord's ascension. St. Jerome thinks that he preached to the Jews of the dispersion; but that his labours ever carried him at all out of Judea, or even from Jerusalem itself, no authentic history informs us. Of his ardent zeal, no other proof is necessary than his becoming the victim of Herod Agrippa. The Spaniards esteem James their tutelar saint.

26. SAINT ANne.

She was the mother of the Virgin Mary, and the wife of Joachim her father. Her festival is celebrated by the Latin church.

Astronomical Occurrences.

Of the Fixed Stars.

WHEN viewed with the best telescopes, the fixed stars do not appear at all magnified, but rather diminished in bulk, inasmuch as the telescope takes off that twinkling appearance which is observed by the naked eye. The smallness of their apparent diameter is proved by the suddenness with which they disappear on their occultations by the Moon. The time this takes does not amount to a single second, which proves that their apparent diameter does not exceed 4". The brilliancy of their light, compared with their small diameter, leads us to suppose them to be at a much greater distance than the planets, and to consider them as luminous bodies like our Sun, instead of borrowing their light from that luminary like the planets.

The stars, on account of their apparently various magnitudes, have been distributed into several classes: the largest are called stars of the first magnitude; the next to them in lustre, stars of the second magnitude; and so on to the sixth, which are the smallest that are visible to the naked eye. This distribution having been made long before the invention of telescopes, the stars which cannot be seen without the assistance of these instruments are distinguished by the name of telescopic stars.

The antients divided the starry sphere into particular constellations, or systems of stars, according as they lay near one another, so as to occupy those spaces which the figures of different sorts of animals, or other things, would take up, if they were delineated there. Those stars which could not be brought, into any particular constellation, were called unformed stars. The division of the stars into different constellations, or asterisms, serves to distinguish them from one another, so that any particular star may be readily found in the heavens by means of a celestial globe, on which the constellations are so delineated, as to put the most remarkable stars into such parts of the figures as are most easily noted. The number of the antient constellations is 48, but upon modern globes there are about 70. On Senex's globes are inserted Bayer's letters; the first in the Greek alphabet being put to the largest star in each constellation, the second to the next, and so on; by which means, every star is as easily found, as if a name were given to it. Thus, in the Occurrences of January for the present year, we have given an account of the star Ceti being eclipsed by the Moon on New Year's Day; and, by looking on the globe, we instantly find it, and by that means are enabled to direct our views to the heavens to watch the phenomenon.

μ

There is a division of the heavens into three parts: (1.) The Zodiac, so called because most of the constellations in it, which are twelve in number, have the names of animals: these are,

The zodiac goes quite round the heavens: it is 16 degrees broad, so that it takes in the orbits of all the planets, and likewise the orbit of the Moon. Along the middle of this zone, or belt, is the ecliptic, or circle which the earth describes annually as seen from the Sun, and which the Sun appears to describe as seen from the earth. (2.) All that region of the heavens which is on the north side of the zodiac, containing 21 of the antient constellations; and (3.) That on the south side, containing 15.

New stars sometimes appear, while others disappear. Several stars mentioned by antient astronomers are not now to be found: several are now visible to the naked eye, which are not mentioned in antient catalogues; and some stars have suddenly appeared, and again, after a considerable interval, vanished. The following apparently well authenticated examples have been noted: The first new star of which we have an accurate account is that discovered by Cornelius Jansen, November 8, 1572, in the chair of Cassiopeia: it exceeded Sirius in brilliancy, and Jupiter in apparent magnitude; it gradually decayed, and, after 16 months, disappeared. On the 13th of August 1596, David Fabricius observed a new star in the neck of the Whale, and it disappeared after October in the same year, but was supposed to be again discovered in the year 1637. In the year 1600, William Jansenus discovered a changeable star in the neck of the Swan. It was seen by Kepler, who wrote a treatise upon it, and determined its place to be 16° 18 , and 55° 30′ or 32′ north latitude. Ricciolus saw it in 1616, 1621, and 1624. Cassini saw it again in 1655; it increased till 1660; then decreased, and, at the end of 1661, it disappeared. In November

In .

1665, it appeared again, and disappeared in 1681. 1715 it appeared, as it does at present, and is of the sixth magnitude. In 1686, Kircher observed x in the Swan to be a changeable star in the neck of that constellation; and, from 20 years' observations, the period of the return of the same phases was found to be 405 days. In 1604, Kepler discovered a new star near the heel of Serpentarius, so very brilliant that it exceeded every fixed star, and even Jupiter, in apparent magnitude.

Montanari discovered two stars in the ship marked ẞ and by Bayer to be wanting: he saw them in 1664, but lost them in 1668. Mr. Goodricke has discovered the periodical variations of Algol, or 8, in Medusa's head to be about 2 d. 22 h. Its greatest brightness is of the second magnitude, and least of

the fourth.

The meridian height of the Sun begins now to decline; of course the day will become shorter, and the Sun's rising and setting will be later in the one case and earlier in the other.

Friday, 1st, Sun rises 45 m. after 3.

Monday, 11th,
Thursday, 21st,
Sunday, 31st,

Sun sets 15 m. after 8

Equation of Time.-The following table will show what is to be added to the apparent time as exhibited on the dial, in order to set the chronometer to equal or true time, for each fifth day of the month :

Friday,
Wednesday,
Monday, - 11th,

m. s.

1st, to the time shown on the dial ADD 3 16

6th,

Saturday,

16th,

5 33

The Sun will enter the sign Leo on the 23d day of

July, at 57 m. after 1 o'clock at noon.

The Moon will be at the full on the 2d day, at 34 m. T

after 4 in the afternoon; it enters its last quarter on the 10th, at 54 m. past 2 in the afternoon: the new Moon, or change, occurs at 26 m. past 6 in the morning of the 17th, and it enters its first quarter at 3 m. past 4 in the morning of the 24th.

The time of the Moon's rising for the first five days after it is full is as follows, viz.

There will be a solar eclipse on the 17th at the time of new Moon or change, but it will be invisible in these parts.

On the 8th, Venus will eclipse the star marked & 8 the star being 23 m. south of the planet's centre; and on the 16th it will eclipse the star 18, this star being 43' north of the planet's centre. On the 30th, the same planet will eclipse; and on the 31st, ¤; and in both cases the stars will be 22 m. north of the planet's centre. Mercury is stationary on the 27th, and its greatest elongation will be on the 12th. Saturn will be in opposition to the Sun at 10 o'clock on the 20th. There will be no visible eclipse of any of Jupiter's satellites this month.

VIEW OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

Of the Moon.

past

Next to the Sun, the most conspicuous of all the heavenly bodies is the Moon. The changes which it undergoes are more striking and more frequent than those of the Sun, and its apparent motions much more rapid hence they were attended to, even before those of the Sun were known; a fact which explains why the first inhabitants of the earth reckoned their time by the Moon's motions, and of course followed the lunar instead of the solar year.