It is now complete winter. The vapourish and cloudy atmosphere wraps us about with dimness and chilliness; the reptiles and other creatures that sleep or hide during the cold weather, have all retired to their winter quarters; the farmer does little or nothing out of doors; the fields are too damp and miry to pass, except in sudden frosts, which begin to occur at the end of the month; and the trees look but like skeletons of what they were Bare ruined choirs in which the sweet birds sang. Shakspeare. The evergreen trees with their beautiful cones, such as firs and pines, are now particularly observed and valued. In the warmer countries, where shade is more desirable, their worth and beauty are more regularly appreciated. Virgil talks of the pine as being handsomest in gardens; and it is a great favourite with Theocritus, especially for the fine sound of the air under its kind of vaulted roof. But we have flowers as well as leaves in winter-time; besides a few of last month, there are the aconite and hellebore, two names of very different celebrity; and in addition to some of the flourishing shrubs, there is the Glastonbury thorn, which puts forth its beauty at Christmas. It is so called, we believe, because the abbots of the famous monastery at that place first had it in their garden from abroad, and turned its seasonable efflorescence into a miracle. The evergreens and winter flowers are like real friends, who, whatever be their peculiar disposition, whether serious or gay, will never forsake us. Even roses, with which we are so apt to associate summer weather, flourish from May to December inclusive; and during the winter months will live and prosper in apartments. We need never be without them from the first day of the year to the last; and thus, to the numerous comparisons made between roses and the fair sex, may be added this new one, as complimentary to their friendship as it is true. We have anticipated our general observations on winter-time in our remarks at the beginning of the year. December is in general too early a month: for the fine manly exercise of skating, which indeed can be taken but rarely, on account of our changeful weather and the short continuance of frost. Like swimming, all the difficulty of it is in the commencement, at least for the purposes of enjoyment. The graces of outside strokes, and spread eagles, are the work of time and ambition. But December has one circumstance in it, which turns it into the merriest month of which, for obvious reasons, may be said the year, Christmas. This is the holiday, to have survived all the others; but stili it is not kept with any thing like the vigour, perseverance, and elegance of our ancestors. They not only ran Christmasday, new-year's-day, and twelfth-night, all into one, but kept the wassail-bowl floating the whole time, and earned their right to enjoy it by all sorts of active pastimes. The wassail-bowl, (as some of our readers may know by experience, for it has been a little revived of late,) is a composition of spiced wine or ale, with roasted apples put into it, and sometimes eggs. They also adorned their houses with green boughs, which it appears, from Herrick, was a practice with many throughout the year,-box succeeding at Candlemas to the holly, bay, rosemary, and misletoe of Christmas,-yew at Easter to box,--birch and flowers at Whitsuntide to yew,-and then bents and oaken boughs. The whole nation were in as happy a ferment at Christmas, with the warmth of exercise and their firesides, as they were in May with the new sunshine. The peasants wrestled and sported on the town-green, and told tales of an evening; the gentry feasted then, or had music and other elegant pastimes; the court had the poetical and princely entertainment of masques; and all sung, danced, revelled, and enjoyed themselves, and so welcomed the new year like happy and grateful subjects of nature. This is the way to turn winter to summer, and make the world what heaven has enabled it to be; but as people in general manage it, they might as well turn summer itself to winter. Hear what a poet says, who carries his own sunshine about with him : As for those chilly orbs, on the verge of creation Oh, think what a world we should have of it here, Nor is it only on holidays that nature tells us to enjoy ourselves. If we were wise, we should earn a reasonable portion of leisure and enjoyment day by day, instead of resolving to do it some day or other, and seldom doing it at all. Company is not necessary for it, at intervals, except that best and most necessary company of one's family-partners in life, or some one or two especial friends, truly so called, who are friends for every sort of weather, winter as well as summer. A warm car Moore. pet and curtains, a sparkling fire, a book, Lawrence, of virtuous father, virtuous son, The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire December 1. St. Eligius, or Eloy, Bp. of Noyon. A. D. 659. THE SEASON. It is observed by Dr. Forster in the "Perennial Calendar," that the weather at this time is usually mild, and wet, with fogs; we have an occasional interchange of frosts. On some occasions a kind o. weather occurs now which occasionally happens during all the winter months. The air becomes perfectly calm, the sky clouded and dark, without much mist below, the ground gets dry, and not a leaf stirs on the trees, and the sounds of distant bells, and other sounds and noises are heard at a great distance, just as they are on other occasions before rain. The thermometer is often from 45° to 52'. The barometer rises to "set fair" and remains steady, and the current of smoke from the chimnies either goes straight upright into Milton. the air in a vertical column, or inclines so little with the breath of air as to indicate sometimes one wind and sometimes another. At this time the crowing of the cocks, the noise of busy rooks and daws, which feed in flocks in the meadows, and fly at morning and eventide in flocks to and from their nests, the music of distant singing, and the strokes of the church clocks and chimes are heard for miles, as if carried along under the apparent sounding board of the clouds above. Even the voices of persons are heard at a vast distance, all being hushed around. London Mechanics' Institution was formed, and on the anniversary of the day, in 1824, the first stone of its theatre for the delivery of the lectures, in Southampton Buildings, Chancery-lane, was laid by Dr. Birkbeck. In a cavity of the stone was placed a bottle, wherein were sealed up a book of the laws of the institutionthe tenth number of the "Mechanics' Magazine," which contained an account of the first meeting of the members-a vellum roll,on which was inscribed the names of the officers of the institution, and a portrait of Dr. Birkbeck, the president. The bottle having been deposited, the president proceeded to lay the stone, which bears the following inscription, with the names of all the officers of the institution : This Stone, the first of the Lecture Room, was laid on the 2d of December, 1824, Being the First Anniversary of the Establishment of the LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION, by GEORGE BIRKBECK, M. D PRESIDENT, John Borthwick Gilchrist, LL. D. After the stone was laid, Dr. Birkbeck addressed the meeting in nearly the folJowing words :-" Now have we founded our edifice for the diffusion and advancement of human knowledge. Now have we begun to erect a temple, wherein man shall extend his acquaintance with the universe of mind, and shall acquire the means of enlarging his dominion over the universe of matter. In this spot, hereafter, the charms of literature shall be displayed, and the powers of science shall be unfolded to the most humble inquirers; for to the feast of reason' which will be here prepared, the invitation shall be as unbounded as the region of intellect. For an undertaking so vast in its design, and so magnificent in its objects (nothing short, indeed, of the moral and intellectual amelioration and aggrandizement of the human race), the blessing of heaven, I humbly trust, will not be implored in vain. If, in this institution, we seek to obey the mandate which has gone forth, that knowledge shall be increased; if we act in obedience to the injunction, that in all our gettings we should get understanding; if we succeed in proving, that for the existence of the mental wilderness, the continuance of which we all deeply deplore, we ought to blame the culture, not the soil;' if by rendering man more percipient of the order, harmony, and benevolence, which pervade the universe, we more effectually assert eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to man;' and if thus we shall be the happy means of rendering it palpable, that the immortal essence within us, when freed from the deformity of ignorance and vice, has been created in the express image of God-then may we confidently hope that Omniscience will favourably behold our rising structure; and that in its future progress, Omnipotence, without whose assistance all human endeavours are vain, will confer upon us a portion of his powers. Whilst I remind you that the illustrious Bacon, long ago, maintained that 'knowledge is power,' I may apprize you that it has, since his time, been established that knowledge is wealth-is comfort-is security-is enjoyment-is happiness. It has been found so completely to mingle with human affairs, that it renders social life more endearing; has given to morality more sprightliness; and, politically, has produced more consistent obedience-it takes from adversity some of its bitterness, and enlarges the sphere, as well as augments the sweetness of every laudable gratification; and lastly, unquestionably one of its brightest influ ences, it becomes at once an avenue and a guide to that 'temple which is not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'" FLORAL DIRECTORY. Lemon Geodorum. Geodorum citrinum, Dedicated to St. Bibiania. December 3. St. St. Francis Xavier, A. D. 1552. Royal Dance of Torches. growth of onions in the chimney-corner, and that they ascertained the temper of the good man, from the straitness or crookedness of a faggot-stick drawn from a woodstack. Advent seems likewise to have been a time wherein the young ones went about and levied contributions. Three weekes before the day whereon And on the Thursday boyes and girles ech man gives willinglee, Wherein they are afrayde of sprites, And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might. Doe search to know the names of them that shall their husbands bee. Foure onyons, five, or eight, they take Thus neere the chimney them they set, That first doth sproute, doth surely beare and while they there do stande A gentle husband then they thinke and knottie here and theare, Because they neyther do the ende, Then up with the banner, let forest winds fan her, At the glance of her crescents he paus'd and withdrew A stripling's weak hand to our revel has borne her, We forget each contention of civil dissension, And hail, like our brethren, Home, Douglas, and Car; Then strip lads, and to it, though sharp be the weather, Then up with the banner, &c. And when it is over, we'll drink a blythe measure To each laird and each lady that witness'd our fun, Then up May the forest still flourish, both borough and landward Then up with the banner, &c. QUOTH THE SHERIFF OF THE FOREST Abbotsford, Dec. 1, 1815. |