5 Five Senses, (like Five Kings) maintain In every Man a several reign. 6 Six days to labour, is not wrong, For God himself did work so long. 7 Seven Liberal Arts hath God sent down, With Divine skill Man's Soul to crown. 8 Eight in Noah's Ark alive were found, When (in a word) the World lay drowned. 9 Nine Muses (like the heaven's Nine Spheres) With sacred Tunes entice our ears. 10 Ten Statutes God to Moses gave, Which kept or broke, do spill or save. 11 Eleven with Christ in Heaven do dwell, The Twelfth for ever burns in Hell. 12 Twelve are attending on God's Son, Twelve make our Creed. The Dial's done. Count one the first hour of thy Birth, The hours that follow, lead to Earth; Count Twelve, thy doleful striking knell, And then thy Dial shall go well. 1 MAN'S DUTY; OR, MEDITATION FOR THE TWELVE HOURS [THE following Carol is selected as a specimen from several others. It will remind the reader of the well-known German Watchman's Song, which I am satisfied would be a great favourite with the peasantry if it once got into the hawkers' broad-sheets.] NE God there is of wisdom, glory, might, One faith there is to guide our souls aright, One truth there is for man to practise in, One baptism to cleanse our souls from sin. Two Testaments there are, the Old and New, Three persons in the glorious Trinity Make one true God in perfect unity, The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, those three Four most divine and righteous holy men They did the life of our Redeemer pen, They were Mathew, Mark, and Luke, and John likewise, Whose righteous truth let every Christian prize. Five senses do in every man maintain A governing power, rule and reign; The hearing, seeing, tasting, feeling, smelling, Which at thy death will leave thee and thy dwelling. Six days, O man, thou hast to labour in, Seven liberal arts, by a divine decree, Eight persons in the ark of Noah were Nine Muses their harmonious voices raise There are commandments ten we should obey, As if we did not care what God could do. Eleven disciples did with Jesus pray When Judas did our Saviour Christ betray, Twelve tribes there were amongst our fathers old, Twelve articles our Christian faith does hold, Twelve gates in New Jerusalem there be, Unto which city Christ bring you and me. PART IV. CAROLS IN PRAISE OF THE HOLLY AND IVY. HOLLY AND IVY MADE A GREAT PARTY. [THE custom of decking houses and churches with evergreens, towards the close of the year, appears to be of very ancient date; it being, in fact, one of those remnants of Paganism, which, although forbidden by the councils of the early Christian Church, had obtained too strong a hold on the prejudices of the people to be readily relinquished, as its transmission down to the present day serves to prove. I am indebted to Mr. Wright's MS. for the following.] OLLY and Ivy made a great party, In lands where they go. Then spake Holly, "I am fierce and jolly, I will have the mastery In lands where we go." |