NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 39·70.
February 2.
Purification, or Candlemas. 1826.—Holiday at the Public Offices.
This day, the festival of “the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” is sometimes called Christ’s Presentation, the Holiday of St. Simeon, and The Wives’ Feast. An account of its origin and celebration is in vol. i. p. 199. A beautiful composition in honour of the Virgin is added as a grace to these columns.
Portuguese Hymn.
TO THE VIRGIN MARY.
By John Leyden.
Star of the wide and pathless sea,
Who lov’st on mariners to shine,
These votive garments wet to thee,
We hang within thy holy shrine.
When o’er us flushed the surging brine,
Amid the warring waters tost,
We called no other name but thine,
And hoped, when other hope was lost,
Ave Maris Stella!
Star of the vast and howling main,
When dark and lone is all the sky,
And mountain-waves o’er ocean’s plain
Erect their stormy heads on high;
When virgins for their true loves sigh,
And raise their weeping eyes to thee,
The star of Ocean heeds their cry,
And saves the foundering bark at sea.
Ave Maris Stella!
Star of the dark and stormy sea,
When wrecking tempests round us rave,
Thy gentle virgin form we see
Bright rising o’er the hoary wave.
The howling storms that seem to crave
Their victims, sink in music sweet,
The surging seas recede to pave
The path beneath thy glistening feet,
Ave Maris Stella!