North Riding Of York Infirmary.

second , Bro . Dr . Harcourt A . G . D . C . was also present and took his due part in assisting Bro . Woods , the G . D . C ., in arranging the Masonic jiroceedings of the day . As the North Eiding of York Infirmary has been auspiciously commenced , so we hope it may be successfully completed , for the benefit of the district , there

being no description of charitable institutions more valuable than those which minister to the " various ills that flesh is heir to , " and give to the humbler classes the benefits of such medical and surgical assistance in the hour of affliction—either from disease or accidentwhich , from their own means , it would be impossible for them to obtain .

Classical Theology.—Xxx.

CLASSICAL THEOLOGY . —XXX .

IX . —MAJTA AK " B "SfOATGMBEI .. TBITOIKIIS and Tergemina were names given to Diana , because , as Cicero says ( De Hat . iii . ) , she is not three goddesses , but one goddess thrice named in accordance with her threefold offices . Thus , in the heavens , where she enlightens the night , she is rightly called

Luna ; on earth , where she is the chief protection ofthe chase , ( for with her bow , whose arrows are her rays , she rules over all wild beasts , ) she is j > roperlynamed Diana ; and in hell , where , under the power and authority of her dominion , she keeps in subjection the ghosts , and governs all the spirits , she is styled Hecate . On

the other hand , although these several names are commonly ascribed to the same goddess , we cannot but agree ivith Hesiod , ( Orpheus in Art / on . ) , who attributes them to three distinct feminine deities ; to ivhich again are also assigned other names and titles . Artemiclorus and Porphyrins say she has three headsone of a horse

, , the second of a dog , and the other of a woman , and is therefore by some termed "three headed , " or "threefaced . " Others , also after this manner , ascribe to her the appearance of a- bull , a dog , and a lion . . Neither have the poets Clandian and Virgil left unnoticed her three-formed countenances .

"Eccc procul tornis , Hocato , variata fignris . " Bo Bapta Froserp ., ii . "Behold far off tlio goddess Hecate In threefold shape advances . " "Tria virgiui .. era Dianai . "—JEx . "NihtErebus and Chaosshe proclaims

g , , . And threefold Hw . v . ' . io , with hor hundred names , Ancl throe Dianas . " It is most probable that ihe fabulous Diana , allegorical ] y representing the moon , derived her descriptive title of Triformis , from the three positive phases of the moon , whose first ageor babhoodis arched with a circle of

, y , light ; whose second age , or maidenhood , forms a semicircle of brightness ; and whose third age , or womanhood , fills a whole circle- with the fulness of its lustre . The phenomena of the sun and moon are very similar in some respects ; they are observed to move iu a circle from west to east round tiie earth everyday , though not

an exact circle parallel ivith the equator , because the moon altars its places of rising and setting so sensibly that its difference is as great in twenty-four hours as that ofthe sun in nearly u > urtccii days . In the horizon and meridian , there are limits beyond which neither the moon nor the sun ever prices . The moon advances about thirteen degrees and a half once every day , in a circle which cuts the ceiijitie and deviates from it ' about five degrees on each side , so that it accomplishes its

circuit in about twenty-seven days , or its periodical month . Its synodical month consists of tiventy-nine days and twelve hours ; that is , the time it is in the same degree of the zodiac with the sun , to the time it meets it again in another degree . The meeting of the sun and moon in the same degree is called the conjunction of the moonor the new moon . At this time the moon

, can scarcely be seen , but , one or tivo days after , it becomes visible to the eye ; when its horns ( for it is then called horned ) are always turned towards that direction of the heavens which is opposite the sun . The moon is in quadrature when the sun and moon are separated ninety degrees from each other ; and when a

hundred and eighty degrees distant from one another the moon is in its opposition or full moon . The circle in which the moon is said to move from west to east is far from being the same ; it is observed to describe a new one every month , and at different points successively crosses the ecliptic from east to west . When the

moon passes from the south to the north , that intersection of its circle is called the ascending node or dragon ' s head , and the other intersection of the earth ' s orbit is called the descending node or dragon ' s tail . So , observing the dragon in one point it will , be about nineteen years before the moon is seen again in that point , and although it may be observed to pass betwixt the earth

and some of the stars , no star has ever been seen to pass between it and us . To these phenomena might be added various others , among which we find that natural philosophers have long since discovered , that after the moon is in conjunction , not only are the horns visible , but all the rest of its surfacewhen towards us

, , appears of chalky or ashen colour . It is thought that neither the moon or any planet in its heaven has any clouds ; and , if this be the fact , they cannot be in bod y " the same as our earth . It may be added , hoivever , that the dark spots observed on the sun ' s disc have sometimes been taken to be clouds .

Ptolemy concurred in opinion with Thales of Miletus , that the moon is a spherical substance clejienclent on the sun for its light . It is evident that the moon ' s size is much less than that of the earth , and that it appears dark because when it passes through the middle of the earth ' s shadow its eclipse continues for two or three hours : no shadow can bo reflected on lihtconsequentl

g , y the moon , like the earth , must be illuminous and unpellucid . When the moon is in opposition to the sun , so as totally to be eclipsed , it is in the dragon ' s head or tail , or ycry near to ono or the other of them , the earth then revolving betwixt these other two greatplanets excludes the refraction ofthe sun ' s li ght upon it ,

but at mean times it can only be partial if the moon is so far distant from the nodes as not to be completely obscured by the earth ' s shadow or rather by the earth itself . A . t the time the moon enters into , or comes out of its eclipse , that part which is darkened ahvays appears circular ; it therefore follows , from the shape of its shadowthat the earth is round .

Either because it has been thought that one side of the moon is dark or dull and the other side brio-lit or luminous , or because she shines by a borrowed h ' o-h t , the ehiuiot of Diana is represented as drawn with a white and black horse ; or , significantly of her horns , with two oxen ; to ivhich sometimes , ( says Eestus ) , was added a mule as expressive of her barrennessor

unat-, tainable poiver of self-creative light . But let us examine her more exactly by her names . She was denominated Luna from the glorious sheen she sets forth from on high in the night time—and as some say , Lv . nce—more perlnrps with reference to ! her two faces than ivith the