in 556, and died about the year 610.-See a fuller account of him in T.T. for 1815, p. 174.

27.-VENERABLE BEDE.

Bede was born at Yarrow in Northumberland, in 673. His grand work is the Ecclesiastical History of the Saxons. Bede has obtained the title of Venerable, for his profound learning and unaffected piety, and not on account of any celebrity for miraculous and angelic operations.

*28. 1808.-BISHOP HURD DIED, ÆT. 88.

As a writer, his taste, learning, and genius, have been universally acknowledged; and although a full acquiescence has not been given in all his opinions, he must be allowed to be everywhere shrewd, ingenious, and original. Even in his sermons and charges, while he is sound in the doctrines of the church, his arguments and elucidations have many features of novelty, and are conveyed in that simple, yet elegant style, which renders them easily intelligible to common capacities. His private character was in all respects amiable. With his friends and connexions he obtained the best eulogium, their constant and warm attachment; and with the world in general a kind of veneration, which could neither be acquired nor preserved, but by the exercise of great virtues.

29.-KING CHARLES II RESTORED.

On the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II was proclaimed in London and Westminster, and afterwards throughout his dominions, with great joy and universal acclamations. In some parts of England it is customary for the common people to wear oak leaves, covered with leaf-gold, in their hats, in commemoration of the concealment of Charles II in an oak tree, after the battle of Worcester. An account of the king's escape to France, extracted from his own Narrative, will be found in T.T. for 1815, p. 176.

30.-WHIT-SUNDAY.

On Whit-Sunday, or White-Sunday, the catechumens, who were then baptized, as well as those who had been baptized before at Easter, appeared, in the antient church, in white garments. The Greeks, for the same reason, call it Bright Sunday; on account of the number of bright white garments which were then worn. The name of this Sunday, in the old Latin church, was Dominica in Albis, as was the Sunday next after Easter, on the same occasion. On this day the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles and other Christians, in the visible appearance of fiery tongues. The celebration of divine service in St. Peter's church at Rome, on Whitsunday, is described in T.T. for 1815, p. 165.

31.-WHIT-MONDAY.

This day and Whit-Tuesday are observed as festivals, for the same reason as Monday and Tuesday in Easter. Their religious character, however, is almost obsolete, and they are now kept as holidays, in which the lower classes still pursue their favourite diversions. For an account of the Eton Montem, see T.T. for 1815, p. 168. The Whitsun Ales and other customs formerly observed at this season, are noticed in T.T. for 1814, pp. 119-120. Astronomical Occurrences

In MAY 1819.

THE Sun enters Gemini at 25 m. after 11 in the evening of this month, and he will rise and set as in the following table during the same period.

TABLE

Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day. May 1st, Sun rises 38 m. after 4. Sets 22 m. past 7

6th,

29

31

7

Equation of Time.

When it is wished to regulate a clock by means of a good sun-dial, the numbers in the following table must be subtracted from the time as indicated by the dial, and the remainder will be the time which should be shown by the clock at the same instant the dial was observed.

May 1st, from the time by the dial subtract 2 58

6th, 11th,

Sunday,

16th,

Friday,

Wednesday,

26th,

Monday,

31st,

3 32

6

past midnight.

17

after 4 afternoon.

2 after 1 morning.

Moon's Passage over the first Meridian.

2 48

The Moon will pass the meridian of the Royal Observatory at the following times during this month; which will be convenient for observation, if the weather be favourable; viz.

There will be only one eclipse of the first satellite

and one of the second visible at the Royal Observatory this month, which will happen as follows:

IMMERSIONS.

1st Satellite, 10th day, at 17 m. after 3 morning.

Mercury will be in his inferior opposition at 4 in the morning of the 3d of this month, stationary on the 17th, and attain his greatest elongation on the 31st. Jupiter will be in quadrature at 45 m. past 6 in the morning of the 7th. Mars and Venus will be in conjunction with each other at 8m. after 8 in the morning of the 2d, when Mars will be 45' south of Venus. The Moon will be in conjunction with a in Scorpio at 29 m. after 7 in the morning of the 11th; with Saturn at 46 m. after 2 in the morning of the 19th; with Venus at 15 m. after 8 in the morning of the 20th; with Mercury at 4 m. past 9 in the evening of the 20th; with 3 in Taurus at 20 m. after 1 in the afternoon of the 25th; and with Pollux at 27 m. past 1 in the morning of the 28th.

On TIME and its APPLICATION.

[Continued from p. 107.]

From the simple exposition of the subject already given, it may readily be conceived, that in virtue of the obliquity of the ecliptic combined with the inequality in the motion of the Sun, the equation of time becomes nothing four times in the course of the year; viz. once between the winter solstice and the perigee of the Sun, twice between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, and again between the apogee and the autumnal equinox. These epochs, however, are not fixed, but vary with the position of the major axis of the solar orbit. They are at present about the 25th of December, the 16th of April, the 16th of June, and the 1st of September. The progressive change in the position of the major axis of

the apparent solar orbit ought also to produce a gradual and small corresponding variation in the absolute value of the equation of time. The causes, however, which make the equation of time vanish at certain intervals, ought still to produce their effect, notwithstanding the trifling variations which the effects of nutation may occasion; for as these variations never exceed a few seconds, they can only produce a small change in the four epochs in each year when the equation of time becomes nothing, but they can neither destroy it altogether, nor cause it to deviate from the limits above assigned to it.

If the inclination of the ecliptic to the plane of the equator were to become nothing, or the planes of the two circles to coincide with each other, that part of the equation of time which depends upon this inclination would also become nothing. Then the mean and real motions would only differ from each other by the effects produced by the inequalities of the latter motion, and which the French astronomers express by the equation of the centre. The real and the mean Sun would then meet only at the perigee and apogee, and apparent time would coincide with mean time only twice a year, when the Sun was in the line of his apsides.

From this explanation, it is easy to conceive that the instant of apparent noon, as marked by the shadow on the dial, will generally differ from that of mean noon. But as the equation of time is known for each day at this time, the direction and limit of the shadow may be marked on the dial at the instant of mean noon; and there will thus be obtained a series of points on both sides of the apparent meridian, which will mark the positions of the mean meridians at these successive instants. The curve described through all these points ought evidently to meet the meridian in four points, answering to the four times in the year in which the equation of time becomes nothing. This curve ought also to return in