~January 16.~
_St Marcellus_, Pope. _St. Macarius the elder_, of Egypt. _St.
Honoratus._ _St. Fursey._ _St. Henry_, Hermit, &c.
_St. Marcellus_, Pope.
According to Butler, he was so strict in penance, that the Christians
disliked him; he was banished by Maxentius, “for his severity against a
certain apostate;” and died pope in 310.
WINTER RAINBOW _in Ireland_.
In the first of the “Letters from the Irish Islands,” in 1823, the
writer addresses to his friend, a description of the rainbow on the
hills at this season of the year. He says, “I could wish (provided I
could ensure you one fine day in the course of the week) that you were
here, to enjoy, in rapid succession, and, with all its wild
magnificence, the whirlwind, the tempest, the ocean’s swell, and, as
Burns beautifully expresses it,
Some gleams of sunshine, ’mid renewing storms.
To-day there have been fine bright intervals, and, while returning from
a hasty ride, I have been greatly delighted with the appearance of a
rainbow, gradually advancing before the lowering clouds, sweeping with
majestic stride across the troubled ocean, then, as it gained the beach,
and seemed almost within my grasp, vanishing amid the storm, of which it
had been the lovely, but treacherous, forerunner. It is, I suppose, a
consequence of our situation, and the close connection between sea and
mountain, that the rainbows here are so frequent, and so peculiarly
beautiful. Of an amazing breadth, and with colours vivid beyond
description, I know not whether most to admire this aerial phenomenon,
when, suspended in the western sky, one end of the bow sinks behind the
island of Boffin, while, at the distance of several leagues, the other
rests upon the misty hills of Ennis Turc; or when, at a later hour of
the day, it has appeared stretched across the ample sides of Mülbrea,
penetrating far into the deep blue waters that flow at its base. With
feelings of grateful recollection too, we may hail the repeated visits
of this heavenly messenger, occasionally, as often as five or six times
in the course of the same day, in a country exposed to such
astonishing, and, at times, almost incessant floods of rain.”
Behold yon bright, ethereal bow,
With evanescent beauties glow;
The spacious arch streams through the sky,
Deck’d with each tint of nature’s dye,
Refracted sunbeams, through the shower,
A humid radiance from it pour;
Whilst colour into colour fades,
With blended lights and softening shades.