The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-06 00:00:00

cially to Easter, because it is the particular holi-
day season that is at hand, and of which we hofie
that they who' are overburthened with excessive
toil, and oppressed by too close confinement, will be
enabled, more or less, to avail themselves. But
the fact is, that we are mainly, if not wholly,
indebted to Christianity for most of our holiday
occasions. As the term, itself implies, indeed,
they have all, or most of them, had a religious
origin, and were at first invested with a religious
.as well' as a recreative character. Holy-clay was
doubtless the primitive name ; days devoted
primarily to holy objects—to Christian celebra-
tions, and: other religious purposes. It is the
remark of the good and learned JOHN SELDEN,
that not our holidays only, but " our meats and
our .sports (much of. them) have relation to
Church, works. The coffin of our Christmas pies,
in shape long, 'is in imitation of the cratch ; our
choosing kingS and queens on the Twelfth-night
hath reference' to the Three Kings. So likewise
our eating of fritters, whipping of tops, roasting
of herrings, jack of lents, etc., they were all in
imitation 'of Church works, emblems of martyr-
dom. Our tansies at Easter have reference to
the bitter herbs; though at the same time 'twa*.
always the fashion for a man to hate'° gammon
of bacon; to show
.himself 'to be no Jew." We
owe more, therefore, to Christianity even for our
diversions, our recreations, and our pleasures,
than the world at this time of day ever cares to
take note of.

. We speak of holidays here, however, of course'
not in a religious, but a secular sense. Our toil-
ing masses' require not only all that have come
Gown to them as immemorial national customs,
but a great ',many more than " the spirit of the .
age," as it is called—which is too much that of
Mammon—appears now inclined te allow them.
We have Eidvo:sated the early closing movement
upon the smile principle that .we commend, .and,
would"encourage more frequent holidays. It is'
at present a too immitigably busy, . bustling,
work-day .world. '..The . proverb is as true now,
we may depend upon it, as it ever was, that " all
work and no play Make JACK a dull boy,'.--ancl
not a dull boy merely, but too often a barbarous
and a besotted one. What we want, then, is to
alter the present proportions, somewhat, of the
two -elements..of. social life—work and, play—so
as to establish a wholesome and better balance of
mental and physical interests and influences:
For as the . debilitating tendencies of bodily
pleasure require to be counteracted by the invi-
gorating exercises of bodily labour, so does bodily
labour need to be relieved by bodily pleasure, to
avoid converting the body into a mere machine,
and brutifying the soul. And so deeply impressed
was the philosophic BURTON with the necessity.of
such relief, as to have declared in his great meta-
physical work, " Let the world, I say, have their
games, wakes,
.whitsunales'f their • dancings and
concerts; their puppet-shows; hobby horses, tabors,
bagpipes, balls, barley-breaks, and whatever sports.
and recreations please them best; provided they
be follawed with discretion."

We might add something to such remarks as
these—on -sucli-a day as this more especially—as
the duty, at the same time, of -endeavouring to
observe sacred seasons like the present, not only
as a holiday, but as& a holy day time. No holy
day in the whole course 'of our Christian seasons
has less of a mere holiday character about it than
this,—the day on which there was

'"The darkest hour,
' That ever dawn'd on sinful earth."
It would be travelling too _much out of our legiti-
mate province, however, 4o go at large into so
solemn a subject as this. But we may, perhaps,
be permitted te express our regret at not only the
too common disregard, but the often popular
desecration of our sacred seasons, as such. They
are institutions, as it has been well observed,
which "have descended to our day replete with
hallowed associations, and the observance of them
is commended by the assent of every discerning
and unprejudiced mind, is sustained by the very
constitution of our nature, which loves to preserve
the annual memory of important events, and is in
the highest degree reasonable, delightful, profi-
table, and devout.'•'• • - •

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