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HISTORY OF PRINTING.

The following verse of a carol for Christmas, is literallv translated from a Welsh book en- titled Lffyr Carolan, or the Book of Carols. The poem was written by Hugh Morris, a celebrated song-writer during the commonwealth, and until the early part of Vie reign of William III.

To a aalnt let us not pray, to a pope let lu not kneel; Qo Jem let us depend, and let na discreetly watch To preaerre am aoola from Satan with his snares j Let ns sot In a morning invoke any one else.

The following extract is from a carol, called Dires and Lazartu : —

As it fell out, upon a day.

Rich DItcs sicken'd and died. There came two serpents ont of bell.

His soul therein to guide.

Rise up, rise np, brother Dives,

And oome along with me. For you've a place provided in hell.

To sit upon a Krpmt's Imee.*

On the continent the custom of carolling at Christmas is almost universal. During the last days of Advent, Calabrian minstrels enter Rome, and are to be seen in every street saluting the shrines of the Virgin mother with their wild music, under the traditional notion of charming her labour-pains on the approaching Christmas.-f Lady Morgan observe^hem frequently stopping at the shop of a corpeiAer. In reply to questions concerning this, the wtirkmen who stood at the door said, that it was done out of respect to St. Joseph.

Gilbert Davies, Esq. published eight ancient Christmas carols, with the tunes to which they were formerly sung in the West of England. This is a laudable and successful effort to rescue from oblivion some carol melodies, which in a few years will be no more heard. Mr. Davis says, that on Christmas-day these carols took the place of psalms in all the churches, especially at afternoon service, the whole congregation join- ing : and at the end it was usual for the parish clerk, to declare in a loud voice, his wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

To Christians, Christmas-day is truly interest- ing. On it we celebrate the birth of Christ, the Messiah, sent by God to fulfil the promise that had been announced by the prophets, that man should be redeemed from the penalty of death for his transgressions; and that light and life should be made manifest by the gospel. The strict observance of this day was enjoined by the Catholic church about the year 500; and, with just reason, it continues to be kept holy by all denominations of Christians, however they may

to the potVt mind by old wood cut representations of lAza- ms seated in Abnliam's lap. More anciently, Abraham was frequently drawn holding him up by the sides, to be seen by Dives In hell. In a work entitled PotHlla OtaUermi, 4to. Basil, ligi, they are so represented, with the addition of a devil blowing the lire under Dives with a pair of bellows.
 * The idea of sitting on the knee was, perhaps, conveyed

t In several parts of England a number of musicians, known by the name of waitt, go aboat by night some time before Christmas > and never fail to visit the inhabi- tants for Chilstmas.boxC8.

differ in other matters of faith. The name of the day is derived from ChrUti Mtui or the Mats of Christ; and is of Roman origin. But while we keep this day in solemn remembrance of our great spiritual delivery, we are not bound to fall in with the superstitions that ignorance has attached to its institution. At the birth of Christ there were some singular coincidences: the Temple of Janus was shut, peace being esta- blished all over the world;* the Oracle of Del- phosf ceased to speak, and was consulted no more. At this time Augustus Cssar was em- peror of the Romans, and Judsa was committed to the government of Herod.

The pastimes and recreations indulged in at this festive season are strikingly like those of the ancient Saturnalia. The custom of ornamenting our churches and houses with sprigs of evergreen plants is as old as the Anglo-Saxons, they having a great veneration for such embellishments, par- ticularly the misletoe, of which a like regard seems to continue at the present day. It has been supposed that when Alfred expelled the bar- barous Danes, the churches which they had pol- luted being recovered and purified, green boughs were stuck up in those temples as symbols of consecration and purity; as well as to show the everlasting continuance of the Christian religion, and its never-iading virtues. The rude gambols and mimicry of old times begin to wear away, and are now principally confined to the lower ranks of society. They are, however, still con- tinued in the northern counties. Some feasting and liberality yet continues among the more opulent, and, in the words of Thomson,

" Hie smoMag sirloin stretched immense From side to side, in which with dea^iente knife They deep incision make, and talk the while Of England's glory ne'er to be defkced. Nor wanting be the brown October drawn Mature and perfect from his dark retreat Of thirty years."

Henry VII., in the third year of his reign, kept his Christmas at Greenwich: onthetweuth night, after high mass, the king went to the hall and kept his estate at the table; in the middle sat the dean, and those of the king's chapel, who, immediately after the king's first course, sang a carall. Grainger innocently observes, that they that fill the highest and lowest classes of human life, seem, in many respects, to be more nearly allied than even themselves imagine. A skilful anatomist would find little or no difference in dissecting the body of a king, and that of the meanest of his subjects; and a judicious philo- sopher would discover a surprising conformity in discussing the nature ana qualities of tneir mind.

is represented with two faces; the one looking backwarti, the other forvari. He is fabled to have taught the Italians to plant vines, ftc. Uo is by some considered to have been Noah.
 * The Temple of Janus was shnt in times of peace. He

t llie Oracle of Apollo waa consulted by the Greeks ixi all matters of importence. It stood on Mount Parnaasna, near the city of Delphos, which they fancied to be the middle of the world.

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