How delightfully the imagination, when wrought upon by these moral influences, turns everything to melody and beauty:  The very crowing of the cock, who is sometimes heard in the profound repose of the country, “telling the night-watches to his feathery dames,” was thought by the common people to announce the approach of this sacred festival: 

     “Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes
     Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
     This bird of dawning singeth all night long: 
     And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
     The nights are wholesome—­then no planets strike,
     No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm,
     So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.”

Amidst the general call to happiness, the bustle of the spirits, and stir of the affections, which prevail at this period, what bosom can remain insensible?  It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling—­the season for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart.

The scene of early love again rises green to memory beyond the sterile waste of years; and the idea of home, fraught with the fragrance of home-dwelling joys, reanimates the drooping spirit,—­as the Arabian breeze will sometimes waft the freshness of the distant fields to the weary pilgrim of the desert.

Stranger and sojourner as I am in the land,—­though for me no social hearth may blaze, no hospitable roof throw open its doors, nor the warm grasp of friendship welcome me at the threshold,—­yet I feel the influence of the season beaming into my soul from the happy looks of those around me.  Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven; and every countenance, bright with smiles, and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever shining benevolence.  He who can turn churlishly away from contemplating the felicity of his fellow beings, and sit down darkling and repining in his loneliness when all around is joyful, may have his moments of strong excitement and selfish gratification, but he wants the genial and social sympathies which constitute the charm of a merry Christmas.

The Stage-coach

Omne bene
Sine poena
Tempus est ludendi;
Venit hora,
Absque mora
Libros deponendi.

—­Old Holiday School Song.

In the preceding paper I have made some general observations on the Christmas festivities of England, and am tempted to illustrate them by some anecdotes of a Christmas passed in the country; in perusing which, I would most courteously invite my reader to lay aside the austerity of wisdom, and to put on that genuine holiday spirit which is tolerant of folly, and anxious only for amusement.