same faith. As soon, however, as this tale was known, both he and Justina were accused before the Heathen governor, who, to make them renounce Christianity, condemned them to be fried together in a large pan, with pitch and fat. After their tortures, they were beheaded, and their bodies thrown. away unburied, until a kind mariner took them up and conveyed them to Rome, where their remains were deposited in the church of Constantine. They suffered in the year 272. 29.- Saint Michael was an archangel who presided over the Jewish nation, and had an army of angels under his command and conduct; he fought also with the Dragon or Satan, and his angels; and, contending with the Devil, he disputed about the body of Moses. See Rev. xii, 7; Jude 9. This festival has been kept with great solemnity ever since the sixth century. It was enacted in the ecclesiastical laws. of King Ethelred in England, in the year 1014, That every Christian who is of age fast three days on bread and water, and raw herbs, before the feast of St. Michael, and let every man go to confession and to church barefoot-let every priest with his people go in procession three days barefoot, and let every one's commons for three days be prepared without any thing of flesh, as if they themselves were to eat it, both in meat and drink, and let all this be distributed to the poor. Let every servant be excused from labour these three days, that he may the better perform his fast, or let him work what he will for himself. These are the three days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, next before the feast of St. Michael. If any servant break his fast, let him make satisfaction with his hide (bodily stripes); let the poor freeman pay thirty pence, the king's thane a hundred and thirty shillings; and let the. money be divided to the poor.' There is an old custom, still in use, of having a roast goose for dinner on Michaelmas day; and it is a popular saying, that, if you eat goose on Michaelmas day, you will never want money all the year round.' In the 'British Apollo' the proverb is thus discussed: Q. Supposing now Apollo's sons Just rose from picking of goose bones, Know when and how t' improve their land. About this time of the year, it has been, and still continues, the custom to elect the governors of towns and cities. The following ceremonies are observed by the SHERIFFS OF LONDON, when they take their oaths at Westminster. On the day after Michaelmas day, or, if that day fall on Sunday, on the Monday following, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen proceed from Guildhall, and the two Sheriffs, with their respective companies, from their particular hall; and, having embarked on the Thames, his lordship in the city barge, and the sheriffs in the company's barge, they go, in aquatic state, to Palace Yard. They then proceed to the Court of Exchequer; where, after the usual salutations to the bench (the cursitor baron presiding), the recorder presents the two sheriffs; the several writs are then read, and the sheriffs and the senior under-sheriff take the usual oaths. The ceremony on this occasion, in the Court of Exchequer, which vulgar error supposes to be an unmeaning farce, is solemn and impressive; nor have the new sheriffs the least connexion either with chopping of sticks, or counting of hobnails. The tenants of a manor in Shropshire are directed to come forth to do their suit and service: on which the senior alderman below the chair steps forward, and chops a single stick, in token. of its having been customary for the tenants of that manor to supply their lord with fuel. The owners of a forge in the parish of St. Clement (which formerly belonged to the city, and stood in the high road from the Temple to Westminster, but now no longer exists) are then called forth to do their suit and service; when an officer of the court, in the presence of the senior alder man, produces 6 horse shoes and 61 hobnails, which he counts over in form before the cursitor baron, who, on this particular occasion, is the immediate representatue of the sovereign. The whole of the numerous company then embark in their barges, and return to Blackfriars' Bridge, where the state carriages are in waiting. Hence they proceed to the company's hall, and partake of an elegant dinner.-(See Gent. Mag., vol. lxxiv, p. 965.) On the election of a bailiff at Kidderminster, the inhabitants assemble in the principal streets to throw cabbage stalks at each other. The town-house bell gives signal for the affray. This is called lawless hour. This done (for it lasts an hour), the bailiff elect and corporation in their robes, preceded by drums and fifes (for they have no waits), visit the old and new bailiff, constables, &c. &c. attended by the mob. In the mean time, the most respectable families in the neighbourhood are invited to meet and fling apples at them on their entrance. More than forty pots of apples have been expended at one house. (Gent. Mag. for 1790, vol. Ïx, part 2, p, 119.) 30.-SAINT JEROME. Jerome was born in a town called Stridon, on the confines of Pannonia and Dalmatia. His father's name was Eusebius. Being a youth of good abilities, he was sent to Rome, where he studied rhetoric, &c. under Donatus and Victorinus, two celebrated Latin critics; and was employed as secretary to Pope Camasus, and afterwards baptized. He now de ap voted his time to the study of divinity, with those celebrated theologists, Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius, and Didymus. To complete his studies, he plied himself very closely to the Hebrew language, in which he was instructed by the celebrated Barraban, a Jewish Rabbi, and spent most of his time afterwards in a monastery at Bethlehem. In this solitary retirement he translated the Old Testament into Latin; the same version now styled the Vulgate, and the only one used or allowed by the Romish church. He died in the eightieth year of his age, A.D.422. Astronomical Occurrences. On the Nature and Position of the fixed Stars.. WE shall, in this paper, detail some of the theories of Mr. Michell and Dr. Herschel concerning the nature and position of the fixed stars. The great number of stars,' says Mr. Michell, that have been discovered to be double, triple, &c. by Mr. (now Dr.) Herschel, if we apply the doctrine of chances, as ĺ have heretofore done, in my inquiry into the probable parallax, &c. of the fixed stars, published in the Philosophical Transactions for the Year 1767, cannot leave a doubt, with any one who is properly acquainted with the force of these arguments, that by far the greatest part, if not all of them, are systems of stars so near each other, as probably to be liable to be affected sensibly by their mutual gravitation; and it is therefore not unlikely that the periods of the revolutions of some of these about their principal, the smaller ones being, upon this hypothesis, to be considered as satellites to the other, may some time or other be discovered.' Having then shown in what manner the magnitude of a fixed star, if its density were known, would affect the velocity of its light, he concludes, that if the semidiameter of a sphere of the same density with the Sun were to exceed his in the proportion of 500 to 1, a body falling from an infinite height towards it, or moving in a parabolic curve at its surface, would have acquired a greater velocity than that of light; and consequently, supposing light to be attracted by the same force, in proportion to its vis inertia with other bodies, all light emitted from such a body would be made to return towards it by its own proper gravity. But if the semidiameter of a sphere of the same density with the Sun was of any other size less than 497 times that of the Sun, though the velocity of light emitted by such a body would never be wholly destroyed, yet it would always suffer some diminution, more or less, according to the magnitude of the sphere. After proceeding farther in his calculations, in order to find the diameter and distance of any star, he proceeds: According to M. Bouguer, the brightness of the Sun exceeds that of a wax candle in no less proportion than that of 8000 to 1. If, therefore, the brightness of any of the fixed stars should not exceed that of our common candles, which, as being less luminous than wax, we will suppose to be, only Tobooth part as bright as the Sun, such a star would not be visible at more than th part of the distance at which it would be seen if it were as bright as the Sun. Now because the Sun would still, I apprehend, appear as bright and luminous as the star Sirius, if removed 400,000 times his present distance, such a body, if no brighter than our common candles, would appear equally luminous with that star at 400 times the distance of the Sun; and we ought then to be able, with the best telescopes, to distinguish some sensible apparent diameter of it: but the apparent diameters of the stars of lesser magnitudes would still be too small to be distinguishable even with our best telescopes, unless they were a good deal less luminous, which, however, may possibly be the case with some of them: for though we have, indeed, very slight grounds to go on with regard to the specific brightness of the fixed stars, compared with that of the Sun at present, and can, therefore, only |