Star, which was the symbol of heat to us, was the symbol of cold to our antipodes, so it must necessarily follow that heat came from the sun and not from the star.*

ST. SWITHIN'S DAY, JULY 15.-This day has retained its place in our calendar, or at least in the popular memory, from a notion that if it rains now, it will continue to rain for forty days afterwards. The vulgar notion, however, is not quite so absurd as it may at first sight appear to be, for as this happens to be in general a wet season of the year with us the time indeed of the solstitial rains,-it may be pretty fairly inferred that, if rain once begins, it will continue, not exactly perhaps at the same place, but with some little latitude as to locality. This belief is said to have originated in one of the old Roman Catholic fables respecting Saint Swithin, Bishop of Winchester. Before his death, which took place in 868, he had desired "that he might be buried in the open churchyard, and not in the chancel of the minster, as was usual with other bishops, and his request was complied with; but the monks, on his being canonized, considering it disgraceful for the saint to lie in a public cemetery, resolved to remove his body into the choir, which was to have been done with solemn procession on the 15th of July; it rained, however, so violently for forty days together at this season, that the design was abandoned."t

"Alterum est, hujusmodi signa non esse omnibus regionibus eadem ; sed Canem, qui caloris signum nobis est, esse antipodibus signum frigoris; argumento sanè, quòd æstus, aut frigus, a Cane non sit, sed ab uno sole, nobis per præsentiam, illis per absentiam ; alioquin enim Canis cum situm non mutet, quemadmodum sol, deberet uniformem effectum sortiri," GASSENDI IN LAERTIUM ANIMADVERSIONES, p. 918, tom. ii. De Præsignificationibus Siderum-folio, Lugduni, 1649.

Forster's Perennial Calendar, p. 344--July.

St. Swithin-in the Saxon, Swithum-was of noble birth, and received his tonsure on assuming the clerical habit in the old monastery of Winchester. He was a great favourite with the priesthood; and no wonder, since, "by his counsel and advice King Ethelwolf in a Mycel synod, or great council of the nation in 854, enacted a new law, by which he gave the tythes, or tenth part of his land throughout the kingdom, to the Church, exempt and free from all taxations and burthens with an obligation of prayers in all churches for ever, for his own soul on every Wednesday. This charter, to give it a more sacred sanction, he offered on the altar at St. Peter at Rome in the pilgrimage which he made to that city in 855. He likewise procured it to be confirmed by the Pope."*

It was the singular good fortune of Saint Swithin to be equally a favourite with two monarchs, father and son; for Egbert, as the Golden Legend tells us, " made him his chaunceler, and chyef of hys couseyll, and sette Ethulf, his sone and heier under his rule and guiding." He was also a great miracle-worker, as appears from the same unimpeachable authority, and one instance of the Saint's handywork is too amusing to be passed over unnoticed. It seems that "he dyd do make wythout the weste gate of the town a fayr brydge of stone at hys proper cost. And on a tyme there came a woman over the brydge wyth her lappe full of eggs; and a rechelles felow stroglyd and werstelyd wyth her, and brake all her egges. And it happed that this holy bysshop came that waye the same time and bad the woman lete him see her egges. And anone he lyfte his honde and blessyd the egges, and they were made hool and sounde everychon by the merytes

* Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. vii. p. 204, 8vo. Dublin, 1780.

+ Golden Legend, fol. 173. Folio, 1512-Caxton.

of this holy bysshop." ""* But admirable as this miracle unquestionably is, it is perhaps even surpassed by the following. "Thise two bysshops, Dunston and Ethelwold, were warned by our Lorde to see that thyse ij holy saintes, Swythyne and Edward, sholde be worshypfully shryned; and so they were wythin a short tyme after; and an holy man warned Ethewold, whyles he lay seke to helpe that thyse two holy bodyes myght be shryned; and thene he sholde parfyghtly hool and so endure to hys lyves' ende; and the token is, that ye shall fynde on Saynt Swythynes grave two rynges of yron nayled fast thereon; and as sone as he sette honde on the ringes, thei come of of the stone, and no token was seen in the stone where they were fastened in. And whan they had taken up the stone fro the grave, they sette the rynges to the stone agayn, and anone they fastened to it by themself. And thene this holy bysshop gof lowdt and praysing to our lord for this miracle."‡

JULY THE 27TH.-This day is celebrated in the Romish calendar as being dedicated to the Seven Sleepers, a popular story even in our own time, but which like most tales of the kind has not always been told with uniform consistency. According to one version there is somewhere in Norway upon the sea-shore a cave, in which seven men have slept for an unknown length of time, their garments and bodies being alike untouched by decay. From the appearance of the former it is evident they are Romans, and it seems to be rather unsafe to meddle with them, for when a curious visitor attempted to strip one

* Golden Legend, fol. 173. Folio, 1572-Caxton. ti.e. gave laud, or thanksgivings.

Golden Legend, fol. 173. Folio, 1572.-Caxton. From all this it is plain that St. Swithin must have been a highly popular character in his day, and yet he is not included in Ribadeneira's list of the saintly host.

of them, his arms instantly withered up, as a warning to others who might be troubled with the same fancy.*

Olaus Magnus tells the same story ;† Possevinus confounds these Northern sleepers with those of Ephesus; and Gregory of Tours has a version altogether different. §

"In extremis circium versus Germaniæ finibus, in ipso oceani littore, antrum sub eminenti rupe conspicitur, ubi septem viri (incertum ex quo tempore) longo sopiti sopore quiescunt, ita inlæsis non solum corporibus, sed etiam vestimentis, ut ex hoc ipso quod sine ullo per tot annorum curricula corruptione perdurant, apud indociles easdem et barbaras nationes venerationi habeantur. Hi denique, quantum ad habitum spectat, Romani esse cernuntur. E quibus dum unum quidam, cupiditate stimulatus, vellet exuere, mox ejus, ut dicitur, brachia aruerunt, pænaque sua cæteros proterruit ne quis eos ulterius contingere auderet." P. Warnefridus De Gestis Langebordum, Lib. i. cap. 10.-The geography of this passage is exceedingly vague, not to say contradictory. A cave somewhere on the seashore, toward the North, is far from being a plain direction; and besides, circius can only mean the North-West, while in the Acta Sanctorum, the commentators on this passage tell us that by Germania we are to understand Norway, p. 375, tom. vi.-July.

+ OLAI MAGNI HISTORIA.-De Ritu Gent. Septen. cap. iii. lib. 1. But indeed he only quotes from Warnefrid.

POSSEVINUS Gonzaga. Lib. i. p. 4, Folio, Mantuæ, 1628.

§ I may here observe that this is one only of three accounts, given, or said to be given, by Gregory of Tours in regard to the Seven Sleepers. It is not to be found, as far as I know, in any edition of the bishop's works, but occurs in the ACTA Sanctorum (p. 389, tom. vi.—July.) where it is stated to be taken from a MS. in the church of St. Audomar. No doubt they are all equally authentic; and therefore, relying upon the learned editors of the ACTA, I have chosen that which seemed to me the most interesting, but abridging it considerably, and being more careful to retain the peculiar quaint character of the original than to give any thing like a close translation. The second of the tales alluded to (S. Gregorii Episc. Turon. DE GLORIA MARTYRUM, Lib. 1, cap. 95, p. 826,) agrees with this in substance, though not altogether in detail, and it is much more brief. The third, as the reader will perceive from the following analysis, seems to be only another version of the Northern Sleepers, and I should observe that it is somewhat doubtful whether it was really written by the Bishop, for, having

This it is: At a time when the persecution of the Christians was general throughout the world, there were seven men in the royal palace of noble birth, by name Achillidis, Diomedis, Diogenis, Probatus, Stephanus, Sambucius, and Quiriacus. Beholding the horrid crimes of the Emperor, and that deaf and dumb idols were worshipped in place of the Eternal, they were divinely impelled to fly to the grace of baptism, when they received at the regenerating font the name of Maximianus, Malchus, Martinianus, Constantinus, Dionysius, Joannes, Serapion. Now Decius, coming to the city of Ephesus, ordered strict enquiry to be made after the Christians, that the very name of their religion might, if possible, be extinguished. The altars were prepared, and threats and persuasions alike used to in

given one version of the legend in his MARTYROLOGY, he would hardly have sent forth another to the world in this letter to Sulpicius Bituvicensis, without some allusion to what he had already published. The story, however, is briefly this. There were seven brothers, by name Clemens, Primus, Laetus, Theodorus, Gaudens, Quiriacus, and Innocentius, cousins of Martin of Tours, who were received by him in the convent of Marmoutier (Majus-Monasterium) a Benedictine abbey, on the banks of the river Loire, nearly opposite to Tours. Here they led so holy a life, that Martin was frequently in the habit after his own decease of visiting them in dreams to comfort them, and eventually he was so kind as to come in the middle of the night and warn them of their approaching death, saying, "To-morrow you will die; so call the abbot Ricardus to you, relate your life, confess your sins, and tell him to say a mass in honour of the Holy Trinity, not forgetting to commemorate myself. This being done and having received the viaticum, you will go the way of all flesh, but without pain, and your bodies will remain free from corruption."-Even as the Saint had said, so it happened, and the place was immediately filled with so sweet an odour for seven days together, that all the sick who came thither were healed whatever might be their malady. At the end of that time we may infer, though it is not set down, that the sweetness had ceased, for the abbot then caused them to be buried in their clothes.