lowed, and especially by those holding ostensible situations in society! To the conduct of the great, the attention of the grand mass of the population is principally directed: how essential therefore must it be for the religious and civil interests of the country, that the conduct of our SUPERIORS be such as that it may not only court observation, but command respect, and induce imitation! The performance of this duty is easy, simple, and calculated in an eminent degree to promote an humble submission to the trials incident to our state of probation; while the cessation from worldly concerns for one day, relieves and strengthens the faculties, gives a fresh impulse to energy, and, what must be considered important with reference to its civil influence, prepares and fits the human frame for a renewal of labour.

The glorious and luminous body which gives title to our day of rest and devotion, was in the infancy of Astronomy reckoned among the planets, or stars that change their situation; but it is now numbered among the fixed stars, and universally recognized as the centre of what is called' the solar system. The SUN is calculated to be about a million times larger than our earth, from which it is about 95 millions of miles distant; and yet, astonishing as such space appears, how trifling does it seem when put in comparison with the Georgium Sidus, Herschel, or Uranius (as it has been variously named), a planet of modern discovery, and which is calculated as revolving round

the Sun at the prodigious distance of 1800 millions of miles! while that vast extent of separation dwindles into insignificance when placed in comparison with the illimitable distance of the fixed stars or centres of other systems, the nearest of which is 400,000 times further from the Earth than the Sun from that planet. And yet more insignificant does even that immense distance appear when we strive to lift our thoughts to bound less and incomprehensible space!

When the OMNIPOTENT GOD,who we are taught to believe vouchsafed a direct communication with the first race of mankind, no longer continued to bless the world with the infallible oracles of the divine dispensation, and wholly withdrew his personal interference or manifestation of his presence; it is presumed, by some of our best writers, that a mistaken conception of the Deity led the timid and uninformed mind of man to seek for some visible appearance of the heavenly Director, such as their forefathers had been accustomed to behold; and the Almighty having appeared as a shining light or glory, the Sun from that cause might the more excuseably have become the object of worship, as the type at least, if not considered actually to have been, the superintending and governing power, presiding over Nature. Hence the adoration, that has been paid to the Sun, has not only been the most prevalent of all the errors of superstition; but was perhaps not inconsistently founded upon the pre

eminent splendour of that luminary, which of itself would naturally excite reverential awe and admiration. From the earliest periods of history, mankind in every age and nation appear to have acknowledged some transcendant power by which the universe was governed; nor has man yet been in any instance discovered totally destitute of some object of worship, although, from ignorance of the true God, the imagination has frequently been found to be influenced, by such visible objects as appeared most calculated to command respect. It is thus, and thus only, that we can account for the worship paid by unenlightened nations, not only to the Sun, but to the Moon and other planets; as well as to Fire, Water, &c.

To the shining light or Glory in which the Deity manifested his presence, may 'perhaps be ascribed the custom, generally adopted by painters, of placing round the head of our Saviour, the Virgin, the Apostles, and even, in the superstitious ages, of the Romish Saints and Martyrs, the nimbus or diverging rays usually termed a glory, to mark them as superior beings; and little justifiable as such practice may be deemed, in these times of purer sentiment, it is far from being the most vain or impious relict, that has been handed down to us, from our weak and bigoted ancestors. In the most antient paintings, the Nimbus was drawn as a solar globe surrounded by rays of light, or flames of fire, and sometimes er, for variety, thus subsequently, as the

fancy of the artist prompted, or as best suited. the rest of the drawing, the rays were reduced thus

, and thus : and it is considered that a misconception of the latter mode of delineating the glory, was the origin of the absurd practice of distinguishing the patriarch MOSES by a huge pair of horns, which the popish Critics contend to be his proper distinguishing emblem! In some of the Anglo-Saxon illuminations of the tenth century the nimbus is described as a plain circle; it is also occasionally yet so drawn, though more frequently in an oval form.

SUNDAYS are divided into two classes in the Romish breviaries, and other Popish offices: those of the first class are, Palm, Easter, Advent, Quasimodo, Quadragesima, and WhitSunday; those of the second, the ordinary Sundays of the year. While it is to be remembered, that every Sunday formerly had its particular appellation, which was taken from the mass of the day Reminiscere, Oculi, Lætare, and Judica, are still retained in Lent.

Monday,

the second day of the week, was by our Saxon ancestors dedicated to the especial adoration of the Moon, whence its name MON-DAY, MOONDAY, MOONE-DAY, Monan-Daeg.

"The form of this doll seemeth very strange and ridiculous, for, being made for a woman, shee hath a short coat like a man: but more strange it is to see her hood with such two long cares. The holding of a Moone before her breast may seem to have been to erpresse what she is, but the reason of her chapron with long eares, as also of her short coat, and pyked shoes, I doe not finde. Verstegan.