this time recovered of his burn, and who could no longer endure the absence of his wife, slipt through his prisonwindow, and flew on the wings of love to her assistance. Carefully brushing the fatal sleep from her eyes, he enclosed it again in the box, and waking her with the blunted end of an arrow, said, "Ah Psyche! again has thy curiosity well-nigh destroyed thee. But now arise, and fulfil the hests of my mother, and in the meantime I will provide for the rest." While Pysche, thus encouraged, set out to fulfil her mission, Cupid, who feared the anger of his mother, betook himself to the footstool of Jove, and there pleaded his own cause so well, that the god-king granted all he desired, and immediately summoned a general congress of all the deities under a penalty of a thousand pounds to whomsoever should be absent. A fine so heavy produced immediate obedience, and when they were all assembled Jupiter in an excellent speech, full of morals and fine sentiments, enlarged upon the peccadillos of Cupid, to which he said it was high time to put an end by giving him a wife who would look after him. Then, turning to Venus, he added, "and you, my dear daughter, trouble not yourself about the bride being only a mortal; I will myself take care that the marriage is all right and proper according to the canons of the civil law." Herewith he commanded a splendid banquet to be spread, at which order the countenances of all his guests began visibly to brighten up, and Pysche being fetched to him by Mercury, he held out to her a sparkling goblet of ambrosia, saying at the same time, "Drink and be immortal; may Cupid never fly from your embraces, but may your nuptials last for ever." This short speech was mightily applauded by all the gods and goddesses, who now sate down to the feast in high good humour. Ganymede ministered the cup to roses; Jove; Bacchus served the rest of the company; Vulcan cooked the supper; the Hours crimsoned all around with the Graces scattered perfumes; the Muses sang, while Apollo accompanied them on his harp; Venus, now reconciled to the match, or appearing to be so, danced, as only Venus can dance, to the sweetest music; Satyrus played the flute, and Paniscus * recited verse to the sound of the pipe. Thus was Pysche lawfully married to Cupid, and their first child was Pleasure. According to Pliny (Lib. 35. c. xi.) a certain painter, by name Tauriscus, "pictured a little Pan, whom he called Paniscus, in manner of an antick." Cicero, however, tells us that the Panisci were inferior deities who presided over woods and fields. They were in fact little Pans, and were much the same as the Satyrisci, or little Satyrs. THE MONTHS-MARCH. MARCH the bleak !-March the boisterous!-and what is worse, March who brings that ugly rascal, QUARTER Day, in his train-" post equitem sedet atra Cura,”and of all the forms which CARE puts on, probably that of QUARTER DAY is one of the blackest. But nevertheless March has his good qualities. He is the harbinger of Spring, though a rough one, and his gales, when most furious, are only helping to dry up the excessive moisture of the earth, so that according to the old proverb, “a bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom." This applies particularly to the heavier and more productive lands, which, from their marly nature retain the dew and rains of the preceding months much longer than the lighter soils. In regard to his birth and parentage, he was at one time the year's eldest son, but, somehow January has contrived to snap up his inheritance, although well-nigh the youngest of the family. He was called by the Saxons Rhedmonath, which some have derived from the deity, Rheda, to whom sacrifices were offered in this month; but others maintain that it comes from the Saxon ræd, i.e. council, March being the time when the Goths usually met in council, previous to their wars and expeditions. It had also the name of Klydmonath, from Klyd, meaning "stormy," an epithet which March may seem to have fairly deserved from its high winds. Finally it was known as Lenct-monat. "The month of March," says Verstegan, "they (the Saxons) called Lenct-monat, that is, according to our new orthography, Length-month, because the days did then first begin in length to exceed the nights. And this month being by our ancestors so called when they received Christianity, and consequently therewith the ancient Christian custom of fasting, they called this chief season of fasting, the fast of LENCT, because of the lenct monat, wherein the most part of the time of fasting always fell; and hereof it cometh that we now call it Lent, it being rather the fast of Lent, though the former name of Lent-monat be long since lost, and the name of March borrowed instead thereof." So far Verstegan; and it is only necessary to add that its present name of March is borrowed from the Romans, with whom it was the first month of the year, and who dedicated it therefore to Mars, as being, in their opinion, the father of their founder Romulus. According to Ovid, the god of war was mightily pleased with this proof of family respect and devotion: A te principium Romano ducimus anno; Primus de patrio nomine mensis eat; Vox rata fit, patrioque vocat de nomine mensem; It is thus rudely "Englished by W. S." "With thee will we begin our Romane yeare, His word's made good; this month he thus did call, Ovid's Festivalls, p. 49. By W. S. London, 1639. * P. Ovidii Nas; Fastorum. Lib. iii. v. 75 Without disputing the claim of Mars to stand godfather to this month, or of the Romans, if they liked it, to be his children, there are good astronomical reasons for March being the commencement of the year, while January would seem to have been chosen only from caprice. So thought our ancestors, as well as the Romans, and so too thought the Israelites in obedience to the divine command,* which enjoined that this should be the commencement of their sacred year, as their civil year began in September. The change with us is comparatively speaking of recent date, for prior to the September of 1752, our Civil or Legal Year began on the Day of the Annunciation, i.e. on the 25th of March. Now this was coming much nearer to astronomical truth; but unfortunately the so-called Historical year had for a long time begun on the Day of the Circumcision, i.e., the 1st of January; and to avoid the confusion arising between the two, it was enacted that both should date from the same period. The change, no doubt, removed a cause of some confusion in the calendar, but it was at the expense of much absurdity.† * "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying; This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you." Exodus, chap. xii. v. 1 and 2. It is curious to see how closely the Passover of the Jews agrees with the time when the sun crosses or passes over the equator, an event that could hardly have failed to be celebrated with appropriate rites and ceremonies amongst a people so devoted to astronomy as the Egyptians, who had educated Moses. + The confusion is indeed manifest, almost too much so to need being pointed out. For example; in describing the year between the 1st of January and the 25th of March, civilians called each day within that period one year earlier than historians; while the former wrote-January 7th, 1658. the latter wrote-January 7th, 1659. though both described the 25th of the following March, and all the |