Understanding, a work which has immortalized his name, and is still esteemed as a standard of profound wisdom. This work had been completed in Holland. The same year he vindicated the principles of the Revolution in two Treatises on Government. The high character of Mr. Locke rendered him an object of King William's immediate notice. He was offered various public employments, but being unambitious, and disposed to retirement, he accepted only a place worth 2001. per annum; and, though he was prevailed on in 1695 to become a Member of the Board of Trade, the duties of which he discharged with great ability, he resigned his commission into the King's own hand in 1700, being resolved to retain no office which his health would not permit him to execute conscientiously.

As he was now freed from public cares, his friend Sir Francis Masham of Oates in Essex, who had married the daughter of the celebrated Cudworth, persuaded him to reside permanently with him, for the benefit of country air, which greatly improved his health; and here he employed his pen in the completion of several other works of great value. He had already published his Treatise "On the Reasonableness of Christianity, as delivered in the Scriptures," a work which involved him in a controversy with the learned Bishop Stillingfleet; it is much to be regretted that this dispute was productive of considerable asperity between the friends of these two great men, who were both warmed with a hearty desire to promote the honour of Christianity, however they might differ upon a few points of slight importance.

Mr. Locke devoted the whole of his latter years to the study of the Scriptures. On being applied to by a young gentleman to show him the shortest and surest way to attain a true knowledge of Christianity, he replied," Let him study the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter." His health gradually declined, and he foresaw his end with calm composure. On the day before he died, he said he had lived long enough, and was thankful he had enjoyed a happy life but that after all he looked upon this life to be nothing but vanity. That night he had no rest, and begged in the morning to be carried into his study, where, being placed in an easy chair, his friend Lady Masham read to him, at his request, several of the Psalms, to which he listened earnestly, and presently after expired, on the 28th October, 1704, in the 73d year of his age.

This excellent lady, a few days after his decease, gave the following account of his last moments in a letter to Mr. Ellis, which is preserved in the British Museum: "You will not dislike to learn that the last scene of Mr. Locke's life was no less admirable than

any thing else in him. All the faculties of his mind were perfect to the last; but his weakness, of which only he died, made such gradual and visible advances, that few people, I think, do so sensibly see death approach them as he did. During all which time no one could observe the least alteration in his humour; always cheerful, civil, conversible to the last day; thoughtful of all the concerns of his friends, and omitting no fit occasion of giving Christian advice to all about him. In short, his death was, like his life, truly pious, yet natural, easy, and unaffected; nor can time, I think, ever produce a more eminent example of reason and religion than he was, living and dying."

EDITOR-L.

LIBERTY.

(From Addison's Letter from Italy.)

[Joseph Addison, the celebrated Author of the principal papers in "The
Spectator," was less distinguished as a Poet than as a Moralist. His
Essays are amongst the most admired productions of that class of
Literature, for their elegance, simplicity, and purity. They are adapted
to the improvement of every understanding, and will be read with
delight in every age. This beautiful writer was born in 1672, and died
in 1719.]

"O LIBERTY, thou goddess heavenly bright,
Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight!
Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign,
And smiling Plenty leads thy wanton train;
Eas'd of her load, Subjection grows more light,
And Poverty looks cheerful in thy sight;
Thou mak'st the gloomy face of Nature gay,
Giv'st beauty to the Sun, and pleasure to the day.
Thee, goddess, thee, Britannia's isle adores ;
How has she oft exhausted all her stores,
How oft in fields of death thy presence sought,
Nor thinks the mighty prize too dearly bought!
On foreign mountains may the Sun refine
The grape's soft juice, and mellow it to wine,
With citron groves adorn a distant soil,
And the fat olive swell with floods of oil:
We envy not the warmer clime, that lies

In ten degrees of more indulgent skies,

Nor at the coarseness of our Heaven repine.

Though o'er our heads the frozen Pleiads shine:

'Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia's isle,

And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile."

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THE FIRESIDE COMPANION.

NO. XVI1.

Explanation of the Calendar.

No. V.-MAY.

MAY was the fifth month in the calendar instituted by Numa Pompilius, second King of Rome, which station it has always held.

1. May-Day. From the earliest periods of antiquity it appears to have been a universal custom in all countries, and among persons of every persuasion, to celebrate, with marked demonstrations of festivity, the return of the joyous and enlivening season of Spring. The customs of this day chiefly took their rise from the Romans, mixed with the superstitions of their Pagan belief. To the practices of the Romans may be traced most of the festivities of May. These were once general in this country. Even the priests, joining with the people, used to go in procession to some adjoining wood on the May morning, and return in triumph with the much-prized pole, adorned with boughs, flowers, and other tokens of the spring season. And our monarchs themselves, bending to the usages of the times, used to make parties of pleasure called Mayings, even to so late a period of our history as Henry the Eighth, who assembled his whole court upon one of these festive occasions at Shooter's Hill. The May Lady, Maulkin, Jack in the Green, &c., all had their origin from the same source, and are merely variations in the mode of representing the goddess Flora; while the holiday made by the chimney-sweepers, who in modern times are the principal persons engaged or interested in May sports, can perhaps be attributed to no other origin than that, by the commencement of Summer, and the consequent deprivation of the major part of their occupation, the poverty incident to their profession was aggravated, and they naturally sought to avail themselves of the customary liberality of festive meetings to alleviate their necessities.

1. St. Philip, and St. James, Apostles.-The Church on this day commemorates the sufferings of St. Philip, and also of St. James the Less, or, as his eminent virtues caused him more generally to be called, St. James the Just. St. Philip was the first

person whom our Saviour called to the Apostolate. In the distribution made by the Apostles of the several provinces in which they were appointed to promulgate the Gospel, Upper Asia is reckoned, by the best ecclesiastical writers, to have been consigned to Philip; where, as we are taught, he executed his pious office with great success; converting many infidels to the true faith. Towards the latter part of his life he travelled into Phrygia, and arrived at Hieropolis, where he so exasperated the magistrates by having destroyed the dragon which they worshipped, that, being first publicly scourged, he was afterwards put to death in the year 52, either by crucifixion, as is generally believed, or by being suspended by the neck to a pillar.

St. James was the son of Joseph, the reputed father of our Saviour, by a former wife; for which reason he is styled the brother of our Lord, as the Virgin Mary was called his mother. After the great event of the ascension, and that the Apostles had each taken separate provinces wherein to exert their pious endeavours for the conversion of mankind, St. James, on account of his near affinity to our Saviour, was elected bishop, or superintendent, of the metropolitan church of Jerusalem, where he constantly resided, and strenuously, diligently, and ably, discharged the duties of his high office. In the year 62, during the interval between the death of one Roman governor, and the arrival of his successor, the rulers of the Jews summoned St. James, with several others, before the Sanhedrim, when they endeavoured, with great subtilty, to engage him to renounce his belief in the Son of God: taking him to one of the battlements of the Temple, they asked him " what they ought to think concerning Jesus?" to which he firmly and audibly replied, " Behold! he sits enthroned in heaven, at the right hand of Divine Majesty, as the Son of God, and shall come again in the clouds of the sky." Immediately loud cries arose from the surrounding and converted populace, of" Hosannah to the Son of David ;" which so enraged the Scribes and Pharisees, that they declared "Justus was seduced," and cast him headlong from the eminence. Greatly bruised, the venerable sufferer, then 94 years of age, contrived to rise upon his knees, in which attitude, and while offering up prayers for the forgiveness of his assailants, he was struck on the head with a club or pole, by a miscreant named Simon, a Rechabite, by trade a fuller, and instantly deprived of existence.

3. Invention of the Cross.-The word invention sometimes signifies the finding of a thing which was hidden. The Romish Church celebrates a feast on the 3d of May, under the title of Invention of the Holy Cross."

66

6. St. John Evan. Ante Port. Lat.-The words ante port. lat. signify before the gate, called Porta Latina, or Port Latin. This

day was anciently dedicated to the memory of St. John the Evangelist's miraculous deliverance from martyrdom, by com-. mand of the Emperor Domitian.

19. St. Dunstan, who was descended from a noble family in Wessex, was born A.D. 924, being the year before Athelstan, to whom he was related, ascended the throne. By King Edgar Dunstan was promoted first to the see of Worcester, soon after to that of London, and afterwards to the archbishopric of Canterbury; which elevated situation he filled 27 years, and died on the 19th May, A.D. 988.

26. Austin [not Augustin], the first Archbishop of Canterbury, was originally a monk at Rome. About the year 596, he was sent by Gregory I., at the head of forty other monks, to convert the English to Christianity. Among others, King Ethelbert himself became a convert. He died May 26, 607.

27. Rogation Sunday.-Rogation Sunday received, and retains its title from the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, immediately following it, which are called Rogation days, derived from the Latin rogare, to beseech; the earliest Christians having appropriated extraordinary prayers and supplications for those three days, as a preparation for the devout observance of our Saviour's ascension, on the day next succeeding to them, denominated Holy Thursday, or Ascension-day. The whole week in which these days happen is styled Rogation Week; and in some parts it is still known by the other names of Cross Week, Grass Week, and Gang, or Procession Week. The perambulations of Parishes are made in this week.

27. Venerable Bede.-This eminent man is one of our most ancient historians. He was born in 672, in the neighbourhood of Weremouth, in the bishopric of Durham. In the year 731 he published his Ecclesiastical History, a work of great merit, notwithstanding the legendary tales it contains. He died in the year 735. Bede was a singular phenomenon in an ignorant and illiterate age. His learning was extensive, his application incredible, his piety exemplary, and his modesty excessive.

29. King Charles the Second's Restoration. By an Act of Parliament made in the 12th, and confirmed in the 13th year of the reign of this monarch, it was enacted that the 29th of May should be for ever kept holy; and a Form of Prayer, with thanksgivings for that purpose, have been established throughout the Church. Since then, until the present time, Divine Service has been performed, and the people have regarded this day as one of festivity; though it is to be observed, that the service at present used differs very essentially from the one originally settled at the Restoration. The common people to this day persevere in the old practice of wearing Oak Leaves and Apples in their hats,