E A S T E 11 N MAGI. — PAST! M E S . 
tiGiij of the atmosphere. As it is calm or boisterous — as the wind 
blows from the south or the north — from the east or the west — they 
prognosticate the nature of the weather till the conclusion of the 
year. The first night of the new year, when the wind blows from the 
W'est, they call J)ar-7ia-coille, the night of the fecundation of the 
trees ; and from this circumstance has been derived the name of that, 
night in the Gaelic language. Their faith in the above signs is 
couched in verse, (thus translated :) ‘The wind of the south will be 
productive of heat and fertility ; the wind of the west, of milk and 
fish ; the wind from the north, of cold and storm ; the w'ind from the 
east, of fruit on the ti^es.’ ” 
Eastern Magi. 
Of these Magi, or sages, (commonly called the three kings of 
Golen,) the first, named Melchior^ an aged man, offered gold : the 
second, t/asper, a beardless youth, offered frankincense : the third, 
Balthazar, a black or Moor, offered myrrh : according to this 
distich : — 
Tres Reges Regi Regum tria dona ferebant 
Myrrham Homitii, Uncto aurum, thura dedere Deo. 
Pastimes. 
I Pastimes of some kind seem to be absolutely necessary, and to 
none more than to the man of study ; for the most vigorous mind 
cannot bear to be always bent. Constant application to one pur- 
suit, if it deeply engage the attention, is apt to unhinge the mind, 
and generate madness ; of which Don Quixote of Cervantes, and the 
Astronomer of Johnson, are two admirably conceived instances; con- 
firmed by too many facts in real life. But though pastime is neces- 
sary to relieve the mind, it indicates great frivolity when made the 
business of life ; and yet the rich and the great, who are not obliged 
to labour for the means of subsistence, too often rove from pastime 
with as constant assiduity as the mechanic toils for his family, or as 
the philosopher devotes himself to science. When those pastimes 
give elasticity to the mind, or strength to the body, such conduct is 
not only allowable, but praise-worthy ; but when they produce effects 
the reverse of these, it is both hurtful and criminal. The gaming- 
table, the masquerade, the midnight assembly of any sort, must of 
necessity enfeeble both the body and the mind ; and yet such are 
the fashionable amusements of the present day, to which many a 
belle and many a beau sacrifice their beauty, their health, their quiet, 
and their virtue. Far different were the pastimes of our wiser ances- 
tors; remote from efi'eminacy, they were innocent, manly, and genC” 
mus exercises. 
i From ancient records, it appears, that the sports, amusements/ 
pleasures, and recreations, of our ancestors, as described by Fitz- 
Stephen, added strength and agility to the wheels of state mechanism, 
while they had a direct tendency tow ards utility. For most of these 
ancient recreations are resolvable into the public defence of the ^tate 
against the attacks of a foreign enemy. The play at ball derived 
