British Museum, was written by Edwin Sandys, Bp. of Worcester, to Sir W. Cecill (afterwards Lord Burghley), on the occasion of presenting him with a curious clock, which formerly belonged to King Edward VI:

"What way I may declare any part of my bounden Deutie towardes you, for the manifold benefitte received, certanlie I wote not. For as ye haue bene the meane to bringe me into the place of honestie, from malice, whiche mynded to Impeache yt, which benefitt of all others I esteame the most, and can no otherwise recompense, but onlie by bearing of good will, which when seasonable tymes will make bud forth and yelde fruyt, ye may of right clame the same as youre owne. Suche ys the barrennes of this contric that yt bringith nothing forth fitt to remember you withall, and therfor I am bold to present you with an olde clock, in the stead of a New Yeares Gift. Which I trust ye will the rather accept because yt was yor olde Masters of happy memorie, K. Edwards, and afterwards yor lovinge and learned brothers Mr. Cheekes, and synes hys who thinkith him self in many respectes most bounden unto you; whois prayer ye shall euer haue, whois seruice ye may euer vse: as knowith the Almightie; who grant you many happie yeares with much increase in the knowledge of Christ vnto whois mercifull governance I commend you, from my house at Hartillbury, this 28 of December, 1563.

Yor in Christ most bounde,
ED. WIGORN.'

As a contrast to the above fragment of antiquity, we present our readers with the following elegant effusion by Miss M. J. Jewsbury, 'sent with an hourglass to a lady on New Year's Day: it first appeared in the Leeds Intelligencer, and has been reprinted by Mr. Watts, in his amusing and judiciously selected Poetical Album,' lately published.

YES, all things fade away

That the soul cherishes and seeks on earth;
Fair flowers! that do but bloom their summer's day,
And are forgot-their being and their birth.

Youth hath its favoured hour

Of fancies, and high hopes, and dazzling dreams;
It flies-and with it all the glittering dower

That to young bosoms the securest seems!

And Manhood's hour comes next,

Fevered and filled with the world's active thought;
Schemes and ambitions; till the spirit, vexed,
Finds that its hour hath fled—and left it nought!
Shortest and last is thine,

Wasted in vain regrets and memories-Age!
For while thy retrospects too brightly shine,
The sand ebbs out-so doth thy pilgrimage!
Thus pleasure hath its hour-

And grief, and pain, and peril have no more;
Hatred, and love, but the same transient power,
Time but remains-ruling as heretofore!
On-conquerer of the earth!

And fold not yet thy world-destroying wing!
Still reign-while scattering man's work and worth,
Omnipotent, o'er each created thing!

Thy end will come, Oh Time!

When thou, a conqueror, shalt conquered be;
Thyself, thy victories, and thy power sublime,
No more remembered-in Eternity!

The New Year in China.

The Chinese make their new year commence on the new moon nearest to the time when the sun's place is in the 15th degree of Aquarius. It is the greatest festival observed in the empire. Both the government and the people, rich and poor, take a longer or shorter respite from their cares and their labours at the new year. The last day of the old year is an anxious time to all debtors and creditors, for it is the great pay-day, and those who cannot pay are abused and insulted, and often have all the furniture of their house broken to pieces by their desperate creditors. On the 20th of the twelfth moon, by an order from court, all the seals of office, throughout

the empire, are locked up, and not opened till the 20th of the first moon. By this arrangement there are thirty days of rest from the ordinary official business of government; they attend, however, to extraordinary cases. During the last few days of the old year, the people perform various domestic rites. On one evening they sweep clean the furnace and the hearth, and worship the god of their domestic fires.

On new-year's eve they perfume hot water with the leaves of Wongpe and Pumelo trees, and bathe in it. At midnight they arise, and dress in the best clothes and caps they can procure; then looking to heaven kneel down, and perform the great imperial ceremony of knocking the forehead on the ground thrice three times. Next they illuminate as splendidly as they can, and pray for felicity towards some domestic idol. Then they visit all the gods in the various surrounding temples, burn candles, incense, gilt paper, make bows, and pray prostrate. These services to the gods being finished, they sally forth, about daylight, in all directions, to visit friends and neighbours, leaving a red paper card at each house. Some stay at home to receive visiters. In the house, sons and daughters, servants and slaves, all dress, and appear before the heads of the family, to congratulate them on the new year. After new year's day, drinking and carousing, visiting and feasting, idleness and dissipation, continue for weeks. All shops are shut, and workmen are idle, for a longer or shorter period, according to the necessities or the habits of the several parties. It is, in Canton, generally a month before the business of life returns to its ordinary channel,

t

TIME: a Hint for the New Year.

[By Mrs. Hannah More.]

When will our thoughtless race grow wise,
Nor spurn the very thing they prize?
Look where we will, we still shall find

How inconsistent is mankind.

A 2

With sense our conduct is at strife;
Why lavish Time, yet cling to life?
The rich material throw away,
Yet dread to shorten life one day?
Since no repentance can restore
The hours we squander o'er and o'er,
O seize the evanescent NOW-

No more may heaven and death allow !
The soul to endless woes consigned
Mourns not the goods she left behind;
She mourns, with grief's acutest powers,
Her wasted days, her murdered hours!
With zeal, with energy sublime,
Mark how the SAVIOUR valued time!
The work of centuries appears
Crowded within His three short years!
His great SALVATION while you view
O look at his example too!

On the first day of the New Year it was formerly the custom for the Druids to offer sacrifice in the forest of Dreux, in France; and we know that they made no sacrifice without having the branches or leaves of the mistletoe, as related by Pliny. The word aigiloneuf, which is still used at Dreux to signify etrennes or New Year's Gifts, is no doubt derived from the cries which the Gauls made on the first day of the year, when they went to the ceremony of the mistletoe, the Celtic name for the oak being gue or guy. In reference to this circumstance the following lines are still repeated, on New Year's Day, in several parts of France:

Aguilaneuf de céans

On le voit a sa fenêtre,
Avec son petit bonnet blanc,
Il dit qu'il sera le Mâitre,

Mettera le pot au feu;

Donnez nous ma bonne Dame

Donnez nous Aguilaneuf.

Some pleasing stanzas on New Year's Day, by the Rev. T. Dale, entitled the 'Anniversary,' and which we copy from the Amulet for 1828,' will appropriately close our account of this interesting festival.

A year hath lingered through its round
Since thou wert with the dead,
And yet my bosom's cureless wound
Still bleeds as then it bled.

All now without is cold and calm,
Yet o'er my heart its healing balm
Oblivion will not shed ;-

If day beguiles my fond regret,
Night comes--and how can I forget?

For mute are then the sounds of mirth
I loathe, yet cannot flee;
And thoughts in solitude have birth
That lead me back to thee.
By day, amidst the busy herd,
My soul is like the captive bird
That struggles to be free;

It longs to leave a world unblest→
To flee away and be at rest.

Rest! how, alas! should mortal dare

Of rest on earth to dream?—

The heritage of ceaseless care
May better far beseem

The child of sin-the heir of woe.

And what if mutual love may throw

A joy-imparting beam

O'er life's wide waste?-'tis quickly gone,

And we must wander on alone.

It was no charm of face or mien
That linked my heart to thee;
For many fairer I have seen,

And fairer yet may see:

It was a strong though nameless spell Which seemed with thee alone to dwell,

And this remains to me,

And will remain ;-thy form is fled,

But this can ev'n recall the dead.

Thine image is before me now,
All angel as thou art;

Thy gentle eye and guileless brow

Are graven on my heart;

And when on living charms I gaze,

Memory the one loved form portrays-
Ah! would it ne'er depart!

And they alone are fair to me

Who wake a livelier thought of thee.