the crude condensed rays of dreary winter; and as he advances in his declination, the ambient becomes nourishing, stimulant, productive, and vital.

-But who can paint

Like nature? can imagination boast,
Amid it's gay creation, hues like hers?

Or can it mix them with that matchless skill,
And lose them in each other, as appears

In every bud that blows? If fancy then
Unequal fails beneath the pleasing task,

Ah, what shall language do? ah, where find words
Ting'd with so many colours; and whose power,
To life approaching, may perfume my lays

With that fine oil, those aromatic gales

That inexhaustive flow continual round?

THOMSON.

SUMMER.

"From brightening fields of ether fair disclos'd,
Child of the Sun, refulgent summer comes,

In pride of youth, and felt through nature's depth."

The Sun having reached our zenith, the Earth soon manifests his glorious arrival,, n, m, constitute this quarN, ter; this splendid period of rejoicing nature;-creation smiles with universal delight-not a tree, not a plant, not a flower, not even the meanest insect, but feels the influence of his cherishing and enlivening presence.

"Tis beauty all, and grateful song around,
Joined to the low of kine and numerous bleat
Of flocks, thick nibbling through the clover'd vale.
And shall the hymn be marr'd by thankless man
Most favour'd; who with voice articulate,
Should lead the chorus of this lower world?

Shall he, so soon forgetful of the hand,
That hush'd the thunder, and serenes the sky,
Extinguish'd, feel the spark the tempest wak'd?
That sense of powers exceeding far his own,
Ere yet his feebled heart has lost its fears?

THOMSON.

AUTUMN.

"Crowned with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf,

See Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain,

Comes jovial on.”

The signs that constitute the autumnal quarter, are ±, m, . The Sun now repasses the equinoctial line, and changes the atmosphere into a cool and drying temperature; bringing to maturity and perfection the latter fruits of the Earth, and dispensing in abundance on the joyful husbandman, the generative produce of nature, as a due reward of anxious and deserving industry.

All is the gift of industry; whate'er
Exalts, embellishes, and renders life
Delightful. Pensive Winter cheer'd by him,
Sits at the social fire, and happy hears
The excluded tempest idly rave along;

His harden'd fingers deck the gaudy Spring;
Without him Summer were an arid waste :
Nor to the autumnal months could thus transmit
Those full, mature, immeasurable stores.

THOMSON.

WINTER.

"See Winter comes to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad, with all his rising train,

Vapours, and clouds, and storms."

The Sun now entering Capricorn, arrives at his greatest southern declination; and now being opposite to our vertical point, his rays are feeble and less effective. The signs that constitute the winter quarter, are V,, . It is now that we behold nature in a varied form; the verdant landscape hid in snow, the ice-thatched cottage, the leafless and silent grove, and the white glossy plain, with many a drifted heap, formed by the furious blast.

:

'Tis done dread Winter spreads his latest glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.

How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!

How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends

His desolate domain ! behold, foud man!

See here thy pictur'd life: pass some few years,

Thy flowering Spring, thy Summer's ardent pride;
Thy sober Autumn, fading into age;

And pale-concluding Winter comes at last,
Aud shuts the scene!

THOMSON.

OF THE TWELVE SIGNS.

THESE are constituted of four particular denominations, viz. some are called tropical, others equinoctial, others fixed, and others bicorporeal.

Why these signs are so called, may be proper in this place to state; and, perhaps, that will be best done separately and particularly, not generally and promiscuously; to the end, that the subject of this divine contemplation of the starry heavens may be rendered clear and explicit. The tropical signs, therefore, shall be considered in the first place, the others following in order.

OF THE TROPICS.

THE Tropics are two, and W, and are so called because, when the Sun enters, he is at his greatest elevation, and dispenses his influence with the greatest energy and ardour. On the contrary, when he touches the first point of W, he opposes our vertical point, and is consequently at his greatest distance; he communicates his genial heat feebly, and with little effect.

OF THE EQUINOCTIAL SIGNS.

THE Equinoctial Signs are

and; which are so called, as before stated, because, when the Sun enters either of them, the days and nights become of equal length; and, as the two Tropics, and, form two quarters, summer and winter, so the Equinoctial Signs, † and ±, constitute two other quarters, viz. r the spring and the autumn.

OF THE FIXED SIGNS.

THESE are four in number, and follow the tropical and equinoctial. They are Ŏ, n, m, and, and are termed Fixed; because, when the Sun is passing through them, the cold or heat, the dryness or moisture, of the season, which commenced at his entrance into the equinoctial or tropical signs, more sensibly and permanently affects us. This arises from the impression of such changes being longer felt, and not because the inherent condition of the signs is naturally so impressive.

OF THE BICORPOREAL, OR DOUBLE-BODIED SIGNS.

THESE are four in number, and are called II, m, t, and ; the reason why they are called Double-bodied is, because they partake of the nature of both constitutions, by being placed between the Fixed and the Tropics.

Of the Masculine and Feminine Signs, and first,

OF THE MASCULINE.

N,

MASCULINE Signs are r, II, 2, ^, ↑, and TM, which are so called because the masculine virtue precedes

the feminine, or the active is before the passive, which is agreeable to the order of nature: hence, Aries being antecedent to Taurus, is masculine; and for the same reasons, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, preceding, in regular succession, the signs Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricornus, Pisces, are termed masculine. In addition to this, the sign Aries is the exaltation and glory of the Sun, as Taurus is the exaltation of the Moon; therefore it seems rational to so define, fix, and designate the masculine and feminine property, or the active and passive principle; and to arrange and determine the rest in harmony and order.—

When the gay Sun from Aries spreads his light,
All nature cheer'd, feels vigour and delight;
Man, beast, bird, fish, the genial influence hail,
And health diffusive fills the vernal gale.

OF THE FEMININE SIGNS.

THE feminine signs follow the masculine; and are endued with a cold and moist quality, contrary to the masculine virtue, and are named Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricornus, and Pisces.

OF THE QUADRUPEDIAN OR FOUR-FOOTED

SIGNS.

THESE are called Aries, Taurus, Leo, Sagittarius, and Capricornus. These appellations have been given by the ancients from analogy; and, it must be acknowledged, not without some shadow of reason.

It may not be here irrelevant to observe, that in nativities, directions falling in these signs, if of an evil nature, in general prolong the calamity; and, if of a benefic tendency, the felicitous effects appear tardy and dilatory.

E