February 26.

St. Alexander. St. Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza, A.D. 420. St. Victor, or Vittre, 7th Cent.

St. Alexander.

This is the patriarch of Alexandria so famous in ecclesiastical history for his opposition to Arius whom, with St. Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra, as his especial colleagues, he resisted at the council of Nice, till Arius was banished, his books ordered to be burnt, and an edict issued denouncing death to any who secreted them. On the death of St. Alexander in 420, St. Athanasius succeeded to his patriarchal chair.

FOGS.

The fogs of England have been at all times the complaint of foreigners. Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, when some one who was going to Spain waited on him to ask whether he had any commands, replied, "Only my compliments to the sun, whom I have not seen since I came to England."—Carraccioli, the Neapolitan minister here, a man of a good deal of conversation and wit, used to say, that the only ripe fruit he had seen in England were roasted apples! and in a conversation with George II. he took the liberty of preferring the moon of Naples to the sun of England.

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On seeing a LADY walking in the SNOW.

I saw fair JULIA walk alone,
When feather'd rain came softly down,
'Twas JOVE descending from his tower,
To court her in a silver shower,
A wanton flake flew on her breast,
As happy dove into its nest,
But rivall'd by the whiteness there,
For grief dissolv'd into a tear,
And falling to her garment's hem,
To deck her waist, froze to a gem.

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FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Lesser Periwinkle. Vinca minor.
Dedicated to St. Victor.