OCTOBER. WEINMONAT. VINOSUS. October 1. St. Remigius Bishop and Confessor. St. Bavo Anchoret. St. Piat Martyr. St. Wasnul Confessor Patron of Conde. St. Fidharleus Abbot of Ireland. Orises at vI. 11'. and sets at v. 49'. The FESTIVAL OF THE ROSARY takes place today if it fall on a Sunday, but if it do not, then the feast is deferred till the first Sunday afterwards. This festival was instituted to implore divine mercy in favour of the church, and to thank the Almighty for the protection of the faithful against infidels; particularly in the signal instance of the miraculous victory of Lepanto in 1571. "The Rosary," says Butler, "is a practice of devotion, in which, by fifteen Our Fathers, and one hundred and fifty Hail Marys, the faithful are taught to honour our divine Redeemer in the fifteen principal mysteries of his Holy Life, and of his Holy Mother." The word Miriam or Mary, adds Butler, is expounded by St. Jerome to signify, in Hebrew, a Star of the Sea, or Better Sea; and, in Chaldaic, a Lady. Both the names, Lady and Seastar, admirably agree to her who is the glorious queen of heaven, and our Star and Patroness in the stormy Sea of this World."-Butler's Lives, x. 26. St. Remigius, an apostle of the French, was born in the year 439, and was chosen Archbishop of Rheims, when he was only twentytwo years of age. Clovis, the founder of the French monarchy, was converted to the Christian faith by Remigius; and from this circumstance it is supposed that the French monarchs assumed the titles of "Most Christian King and Eldest Son of the Church." This saint was remarkable for his extraordinary learning and sanctity, and was the idol of the people. He is said to have caused many hundreds of people to be punished with death for witchcraft. He died in his ninetysixth year, and was interred with solemn pomp in the church dedicated to St. Christopher. His remains were translated in 1049, by order of Leo IX., to the Benedictine abbey in the city of Rheims ; and, in consequence of this removal, his festival was directed to be kept on the 1st of October. This saint is called Remy by abbreviation. KALENDAE OCTOBRIS.-Martis tutela.-Rom. Cal. CHRONOLOGY.-Henry III. was born at Winchester in 1207. DIANA.-Pheasant shooting begins today, agreeably to an almost universal custom in Great Britain. The Pointer and the Spaniel are now in universal requisition, as every sort of game may be now legally killed till the end of February. Sommerville describes the value and habits of the Setter, in some verses beginning When Autumn smiles, all beauteous in decay, And paints each chequered grove with varied hues, See Bewick's Quadrupeds, 2d edit. p. 325. Hare hunting is now commonly resorted to as an amusement in places where those animals abound. It is thus described by Thomson : Poor is the triumph o'er the timid Hare! Scared from the Corn, and now to some lone seat Stretched o'er the stony heath; the stubble chapt; The pack full opening various; the shrill horn Sommerville thus describes the different sorts of Hounds, and proposes some precautions, which may be of use to the inexperienced Sportsman : A different hound for every different chase, On blood and spoil. O blast their hopes, just Heaven! With disappointment and severe remorse. But above all take heed, nor mix thy hounds Of different kinds; discordant sounds shall grate Of babbling curs disgrace thy broken pack. Delight thy ravished ears; the deepflewed hound And shake the forests; the bold Talbot kind It was formerly the custom to begin hunting at daybreak, instead of the late hour now adopted. Thus Milton, in l'Allegro : Oft listning how the Hounds and Horn, To the wild woods echoing shrill. Those who are curious about the breed and qualities of Dogs, may consult a curious memoir by M. Cuvier of Paris, on the varieties of the Dog; also Bewick's Quadrupeds, Bingley's Animal Biography, Daniel's Rural Sports, and a very interesting little book on the sagacity of Dogs illustrated by numerous authentic Stories, published by Taylor, and called Anecdotes of the Sagacity of the Dog. The business of decoying wildfowl is, by Act of Parliament, appointed to begin today in the Fen Countries. The flight of aquatic wildfowl is very remarkable, particularly that of Geese, who fly in figures so much resembling some of the letters of the alphabet, that they are vulgarly said to imitate them. Mr. White of Selborne has some excellent observations on the flight of different fowls, in his Natural History of his native place. October 2. A GUARDIAN ANGELS. St. Thomas Bp. St. Leodegarius Bp. and Martyr. "Among the adorable dispensations of divine mercy," says Butler, "it is not the least that he has established a communion of spiritual commerce between us on earth and his Holy Angels, whose companions we hope to be in the kingdom of his glory." The Christians entertained the doctrine of Guardian Angels at a very early period; and it seems to have been a modification of the still more ancient M M doctrine of Tutelary Genii held by the Oriental nations, by the Greeks, and by the Romans. This doctrine both pagan and Christian was also accompanied by the belief of Evil Spirits, and was entangled in various strange opinions respecting good and evil Stars, Luck, the Fates, and other superstitions. We wish it were in our power to unravel the pages of history so as to conduct the religious inquirer through all these intricate mazes to the very agreeable doctrine of Guardian Angels celebrated by the catholic church today. But we can safely refer to the able illustration of this subject, considered as scriptural, in Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. x. p. 37. More particulars respecting Angels are already recorded by us under the description of Michaelmas Day; see also All Saints' Day. Those who wish to pursue the subject, will find a great deal of learning and argument in Milner's End of Controversy, Part iii. p. 14. HYGEIA. Although the next month has been usually considered as more productive of what is vulgarly termed the vapours or spleen than any other; yet we have known a sort of epidemical hypochondriasis and low spirits occur about this time; and though we closely connect this disease with the autumnal disorders of the bowels, and the suppression of bile which follows them, accompanied by irritation of the liver, with which certain parts of the brain sympathise; nevertheless, the whole train of morbid phenomena alluded to so often occurs in a large number of patients at once, that we cannot help referring it to atmospherical peculiarities. This was remarkably the case in the year 1810, when, about this time of year, innumerable cases of hepatic hypochondriasis occurred in certain districts in England. This disorder consists, as to its bodily symptoms, of a disordered state of the viscera of the abdomen; a peculiar tightness in the epigastric regions; and an inflammatory action of that part of the brain which causes fear in general. Hence the Cerebral parts, sympathising with the Viscera of the Abdomen, produce a train of mental symptoms which are very peculiar. The complaint begins by unusual gloom and a sensation of fear, without the patient's knowing what object he is afraid off; then he fixes his dreads on a thousand imaginary evils, or else seeks to dwell on those which appear to him the most inevitable; as death, disease, or the future punishment of hell, to avoid the continual apprehension of which he sometimes commits suicide. As the disease advances, persons of certain fanciful minds will believe themselves to be made of glass, to be possessed of devils, to have a thousand imaginary complaints: and as the shades between a just and healthy, and a morbid and false view of external things, and their various moral and physical relations, are very fine and ill defined; so in a disease which comprehends every variety of insane imagination, we are often at a loss to say when, or to what extent, the patient is recovered. Hypochondriacal ideas are also apt to return in dreams, after our waking thoughts are restored to a healthy state. One very peculiar circumstance in the slighter cases of this disease, is the very vivid recollections of the scenes of early childhood, and the representation of long forgotten images to the memory. On her tablet, where we had regarded them. as long ago effaced by numberless subsequent impressions, do they return with a force and power over the mind so peculiar that words will not convey it to persons who have no experience on the subject. We seem, when plunged in a reverie of infantine recollections, to exist again as a child, and, by a morbid abstraction from external impressions, we so make the recollected images present, that we startle to find ourselves grown up, and amid a far different and more matured state of things than what we had left in the region of fancy. Of the cause of the thrilling and peculiar pleasures attendant on early images recollected in after life, at any time, physicians and philosophers are professedly ignorant. Phrenologists have referred them to the peculiar motions of the new fibres of the brain when adapting themselves to the reproduction of early chains of thought. All the material fabric of the brain, like the rest of the body, is changed and replaced by secretion: the newly formed atoms conform themselves to the old ones, in order to preserve personal identity, and to reproduce ideas of memory; and when these new atoms are exerted to represent the old ideas, a peculiar sensation is produced. This reasoning, however, appears to us vague and inconclusive; and, while we embrace the doctrine of a distinct mind operating reciprocally on matter through the intervention of living organs, we refrain from offering any hypothetical explanation of phenomena too closely connected with the consciousness of self and of our own existence, to become the subject of demonstration. We detail the facts because they are curious. When these early recollections occur in hypochondriasis, they become often insupportable; but at other times lead to numberless pleasing illusions; and if unaccompanied with disagreeable Visions, terrifying dreams of wild and gigantic imagery, or by unnatural fears, then has such visionary bliss as we have alluded to been lost with regret by the patients when cured. But these are rare instances. Leaving now the metaphysicians to an infinitude |
