greater has been the benefit of its stimulating powers upon the policy of the general government toward scientific ends. FOOTNOTES [H] “One trait,” remarks Professor Gray, “may not be wholly omitted from the biography of one who has well been called ‘the model of a Christian gentleman,’ and who is also our best example of a physical philosopher. His life was the practical harmony of the two characters. His entire freedom from the doubts which disturb some minds is shown in that last letter which he dictated, in which he touches the grounds of faith, both in natural and revealed religion; also in his sententious declaration upon some earlier occasions, that the person who thought there could be any real conflict between science and religion must be either very young in science or very ignorant of religion.” GEOGRAPHY OF THE HEAVENS FOR FEBRUARY. BY PROF. M. B. GOFF, Western University of Pennsylvania. THE SUN. “Now when the cheerless empire of the sky To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields, And fierce Aquarius stains the inverted year; Hung o’er the farthest verge of heaven, the SUN Scarce spreads o’er ether the dejected day. Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot His struggling rays in horizontal lines, Through the thick air; as clothed in cloudy storm, Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky; And, soon descending, to the long dark night, Wide-shading all, the prostrate world resigns.” But as the days go by, his rays no longer struggle “through the thick air” in “horizontal lines,” nor does he so closely “skirt the southern sky,” but higher mounting pierces with penetrating power the dark shadows, lessening “the long, dark night,” driving “the dusky shades away.” So rapidly do these changes occur that in four weeks our daylight increases one hour and seven minutes, or our length of days from ten hours and nine minutes on the 1st to eleven hours sixteen minutes on the 28th. On the 1st, 16th and 28th the sun rises at 7:09, 6:52 and 6:34 a. m., and on the same days sets at 5:18, 5:36 and 5:50 p. m. respectively. THE MOON Presents us with great regularity her changes: Last quarter on the 6th at 5:29 p. m.; new, on the 14th, at 9:13 p. m.; first quarter, on the 22d, at 5:23 a. m.; and full on the 28th, at 10:52 p. m. In apogee (farthest from earth) on the 9th, at 7:24 p. m.; in perigee (nearest the earth) on the 25th, at 6:24 p. m. Least elevation, 10th, amounting to 30° 9´; greatest elevation, 24th, equal to 66° 45´. MERCURY,