ASSUMPTION TIDE. 231 



AUG. 18. St. Helen, empress, a.d. 328. 

 St. Agapetus, martyr. 

 St. Clare of Monte Falco, virgin, 1308. 



Consualia.— Julian Cal. 



Obs. We are assured by the unanimous tradition of onr English historians 

 that this holy empress was a native of our island. Constantius had tlie hap. 

 piness to make her his first ivife, and had by her Constantiue, his eldest son, 

 who, as all agree, bad his first education under her watchful eye. (lonstautine, 

 fluctuating wliat deity to invoke before bis battle with Maxentias, was in- 

 spired to address himself to the true God : he gained the victory, and from 

 that moment protected the Christians with all liis power. He caused his mo- 

 tlier to be proclaimed empress in his armies. It was St. Helen that discovered 

 the Cross on whicli our Saviour died. Slie was kind and affable to all ranks, 

 especially to religious persons. She built a convent for holy virgins at Jeru- 

 salem. After giving her son most excellent instructions, ^he expired in the 

 month of August 328, or, according to some, 326. 



African Marigold Tagetes erecta fullest fl. 



Great Globe Thistle Echinops sphaerocephalus full fl. 



African and French Marigolds, now in full flower, will decorate the garden 

 till cut off by the frost towards AUhallowtide. 



This month of the year is for some reason or other more particularly subject 

 to those aerial corruscations in our atmosphere' called Meteors and Falling 

 Stars. It was on St. Helen's Day in 1783 tliat the great and memorable me- 

 teor happened which was seen all over Europe, and an account of which will 

 be found in the periodical publications of that year. The antient meteorolo- 

 gists seem to liave paid more attention to meteors than we do nowadays, and 

 they have iieen accurately described by their poets, who very justly considered 

 them as being often prognostics of wind. See our account of St. Lawrence's 

 bay, Aug. 10. Pliuy observes, " Si volitare plnres stellae videbiintur, quo 

 fernntur alhcscentes ventos ej; his partibus nunciabunt." And in the second 

 book ; " Fieri videnlur et discursus slellnrum num^uam temcre vl nou ex 6a 

 parte truces veiiti oriantur. £sistiint stellae in man terraqiie." 



Politianus writes : 



Anriotat et coeli facietn ; mim Stella sereno 

 Aethcre Inpsa cadut, rapidi praeimncia Caicri. 



Seneca observes in Hippolytus 



Ocijor ciirsmn rapienteflamma 

 Stella cum veiitis agitata lon/ros 

 Porrigit ignes. 



Horace's " Fratres Helenae lucida sidera," which he invokes for Virgil's 

 bark put to sea, have been supposed to be the two meteors called Castor and 

 Polluj; or Feu de St. Elme, and not the imaginary gods of that name. See 

 Pocket Encyclopaedia, under the word Meteor, &c. 



On the niorning of this day, in 182], Mr. B. M. Forster of Walihamstow 

 observed the remarkable blue colour of the Sun produced by the refraction ol 

 light through a thin cloud. The phenomenon of blue sunlight was noticed at 

 the same time at Yarmouth and other parts of England, which shows that the 

 peculiar state of the aqueous vapour wliicli produced the effect existed over a 

 large space of country. 



