Since that period, many salutary laws have been passed for the more strict observance of Sunday which from a remote period of Christianity, has at all times been directed to be kept with reverence. Such indeed, is the respect in which the day is held by the Constitution of England, that no legal procedure can be had, or any civil process executed on Sunday. The execution of the law is wholly suspended on this day except in criminal cases, which by affecting society at large, are supposed to admit of no delay.

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Could example produce that devout and rational observance of Sunday, which it has so long been the object of our Legislature to enforce the strict attention of our excellent, and beloved Sovereign, to the religious obligations of this day, might supersede the necessity of prohibitory laws. By the conduct of the illustrious, the powerful, and the wealthy- that of the inferior classes of society, has been governed to a certain extent, in every age and nation. What then must be the importance of an example, so conspicuous for the practice of every religious and moral duty, as that placed before the eyes of a loyal and affectionate people, by the illustrious Monarch of this kingdom?

From the dedication of this day to the Sun, it was called by the ROMANS, Dies Solis. Hence, the Saxon name Sunnan Dæg, or Sun's day. The emblematical representation of the Saxon idol of the Sun, was

"Like a halfe-naked man set upon a pillar, his face as it were brightened with gleames of fire, and holding, with both his armes stretched out, a burning wheele upon his breast; the

-wheele being to signify the course which he runneth about the world, and the fiery gleames and brightness the light and heat wherewith he warmeth and comførteth the things that live and grow,"

Of the many errors of superstition, that of the adoration of the Sun by mankind, is probably the most antient, and has been the most universally prevalent. Nor can it be deemed unnatural, that to the untutored mind of man in the rude ages of ignorance the splendour of that glorious orb, should have induced the erroneous opinion, of his being the Supernal power presiding over nature.

The idea of the nimbus, or rays-vulgarly called a Glory-which generally surround the Heads of Christ, the Virgin, and other sacred personages in pictures, was probably derived from the brilliant rays emanating from the body of the sun and visible at the rising and setting of that luminary.

Antiently, every Sunday throughout the year had its particular title, taken from the Mass of the day; and we still retain those of Reminiscere, Oculi, Lature, and Judica in Lent. In the Romish Church they are divided into two classes, in the first of which are Palm, Easter, Advent, Quasimodo, Quadragesima, and Whitsunday. The second class consists of the ordinary Sundays of the year.

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Monday.

This day the second of the week was dedicated by our Saxon ancestors to the adoration of the Moon, from which circumstance it was called MOON-DAY, MOONE-DAY, or MONAN DEG.)

The form of the idol by which this day was personified, is described by an antient writer

"6 as very strange and ridiculous, for being made for a woman shee hath a short coat like a man; but more strange it is to see her hood with such tuio long eares. The holding of a moon before her breast may seem to have been to expresse what she is; but the reason of her chapron with long eares, as also of her short coat and pyked shoes, I doe not finde."

Monday was also dedicated to the Moon by the Romans, who called it Dies Lunæ, feria secunda.

In all the Northern Languages, as well as in several of those of ASIA, the Moon is invariably of the masculine gender: while the Sun is so absolutely femenine, that they make that orb the wife of TUISCO.

Our English poets, SHAKSPEARE, MILTON, &c. have reversed the genders of the sun, and moon, as Mr Horne Tooke conceives

"by a familiar prosopopæia, because from their classical reading they adopted the Southern not the Northern mythology, and followed the pattern of their Greek and Roman masters."

With the Romans the sun, according to their mythology, was the husband of the MOON, and in the reign of ANTONINUS, a general festival was held throughout the Roman empire to celebrate their union.

The Earth, and the Moon, are reciprocal planets, alternately illumining each other by reflection. When the moon appears at the full, we shew towards her a phase, such as a new moon appears to us. The appearance of the earth is vice versa, a perfectly illumined disk to the moon, when to us she appears to be entering her first quarter.

The distance by which these planets are separated, is calculated at 240,000 miles. This though to our conceptions, an immense space, is absolutely insignificant when compared with the distance of the other planets and with reference to the fired stars, scarcely within the limits of human calculation.

Although direct adoration of the sun, and moon, has now ceased in every part of Europe, we have yet remaining in this island, some faint traces of those antient superstitions. In many parts of England, it is still customary to ejaculate a blessing to the new moon; and in Scotland they superadd to the benediction a courtsy, which the women drop at the moment of utterance, as is customary in our Churches at the mention of Jesus Christ. Superstition in antient times, ascribed great influence to the moon. slaughter of hogs, was invariably deferred until she was on the increase; and our forefathers cautiously awaited the arrival of that auspicious period, 'ere they ventured to shave down a corn, or pare the nails!

The

Tuesday.

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By the Romans, this day-the third of the week was dedicated to MARS, and thence called Dies Martis, feria tertia. Of the real etymology of Tuesday, considerable doubts have been suggested. According to JOHNSON, it is derived from TUESDÆG, Saxon and that word from Tuv, the Saxon word for MARS.) But the figure of the Saxon idol is not warlike; and many eminent authorities contend, that there is a much stronger analogy between the appearance and attributes of this idol, and the Roman MERCURY, than between those of MARS and TUISCO. Next to the sun, and moon, TUISCO was the most antient, and important deity, of the Germans. He was represented as clothed in a garment of skins, according to the ancient garb of that country. If reliance may be placed on the following passage in VERSTEGAN, it should seem that the modern word Dutch is immediately derived from Tuisco.

"Tuysco or Tuyscon (says that author) was the father and conductor of the Germans, who, after his name, even to this day, doe in their own tongue call themselves Tuytsh, and their country of Germany Tuytshland, and the Netherlanders using herein the D for the T doe make it Duytsh and Duytshland."

Wednesday.

Of the etymology of this word there is no doubt, it being obviously a contraction of WoDEN'S DAY, or ODIN'S DAY, WODNES-DAG,