MAN'S DUTY;

OR, MEDITATION FOR THE TWELVE HOURS

OF THE DAY.

[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,
In which the Law and Gospel thou may'st view;
The one for works and deeds doth precepts give,
The other saith the just by faith shall live.

Three persons in the glorious Trinity

Make one true God in perfect unity,

The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, those three
For ever equal and eternal be.

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,
So merciful and good thy God hath been,
Of seven unto himself he took but one,
O rob him not of that to leave him none.

Seven liberal arts, by a divine decree,
Unto man's knowing soul united be
Rhetoric, grammar, music and geometry,
Arithmetic, logic, and astronomy.

Eight persons in the ark of Noah were
When God he would the world no longer spare ;

Sin did abound, therefore all flesh he drown'd
Which in that ship of safety were not bound.

Nine Muses their harmonious voices raise
To sing our blessed dear Redeemer's praise,
Who is the spring from whence all blessings flow
To us poor living mortals here below.

There are commandments ten we should obey,
And yet how apt we are to go astray,
Leaving them all our folly to pursue,

As if we did not care what God could do.

Eleven disciples did with Jesus pray

When Judas did our Saviour Christ betray,
Though, covetous for greedy gain, he fell
To be perdition's child condemned to hell.

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,
Who should have the mastery

In lands where they go.

Then spake Holly, "I am fierce and jolly,

I will have the mastery

In lands where we go."

Then spake Ivy, "I am loud and proud,

And I will have the mastery

In lands where we go."

Then spake Holly, and bent him down on his knee,