Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-09-27
BOOK NOTICES.

1 Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede Nbero
Pulvanda telus; Saliaribus
\ Ornare PULLMAN deor
n Tempus erat dapibus, sodales
Can there be any thing provocative Of the veer
sSliiss than the pleasing title Christmas with the Poets!
ameng the tuneul cadences of the warbng that
we find embamed in bssful immortality the fullest record Of
ceremonies in days Of yore the jubilee Of united Chris
tendon. The celebration Of Christmas among the primitive
Christians marked by blandness and sanctiy Of tone
emnenty adapted the occasion yet in the lapse Of
these pous obseances mainly suppaned by the wild
est outburss Of boiserous hilay, with which the annual
recurrence Of the festive Yule' hailed BY the yeomanry
and nobility Of England for successive years during the Saxon
and Norman periods But in the days of the commonwealth
this unbrded curbed and suppressed under the
austere rule Of Puransm, degree that ELECTED violent
strains Of abuse and complaint from the sturdy adheens Of
the old regime
"Al the liberty and harmless sports the merry gambo
dances, and scos with which the tolng pIoughman and
once wont to be recreated and their spirits
and hopes revived for whole twevemonth extinct
and put out Of use in such fashion they had been
Thus the merry lords Of bad rule at Westminster nay
their madness hath extended itself the very vegeta
bless the senseless trees herb and weeds in pofane
estimation amongst them holly, ivy, misietoe, rosemary,
bays accounted ungody branches Of superstition for your
entertainment And roast srloin of beef touch
collar Of Drawn, to take pie to put plum in the poage
pot to burn great candle, lay block the in
be suspected and taken for Christian, for which be
shall be apprehended for committing high Parliament
son" &c.
But the stern mandates Of fanacsm failed in their piou
attempts effect total eradication and despite their rigor
each anniversary of the sacred Yue hailed in many
quiet hamlet with the exubeant mirth formerly
when persecution had reared her fiery The Christ
festivities Of the eighteenth aud nineteenth centuries
though preserving many primitive features for
wholly dvested Of their original gossness and
overwrought ovaly, bearing the unmistakabe impress of
refinement and an advanced civilization.
sChristmas with the Poets is one Of the exquisite
gbooks have seen. The typography elegant snd the
illustrations strikngy beautiful and Of genuine artistic
cellence. W. A. M
.Yule is the Anglo-Saxon for Christmas.
TaE EPocH OF CRKArroS The Scripture doctrine contrast
ed ,Uith the geoogcalfheory; by ELxAzAR LoRD. New
York, Charles Scribner; Washington, Robert Farnham
We have here serious solemn protest ag ains the infer
Of geologs for the prs-antquy and animal nhab
fancy of the earh before the period igned, popularity
thought be assigned in the book Of Genesis The author
skles might and main for receiving the Mosaic account in
its utmost oldfashoned iteraly. He demands that the
days" of the Mosaic record be not extended before the
twenty hours that is to say not beyond the time
pied in single revolution Of the earth its axis He there.
manded Of making these days into periods Of very pro-
acted duration, amounting according TO some, of millions
Of years EACH In like manner the author infeenay de-
mands US to defer the ancient notion that above the fir
amen the region Of the clouds and atmosphere resides
repository Of water, answering to the below but
universally expansive. The be considered being
not so much the Of for thespecia
service earh and have been brought into being
quen,y thereto The stars also instead Of being worlds Of
size and majesty ncompsraby superior to our own planet
he would have considered simply set in the armament Of
the heavens give light upon the earth, though myrads Of
them distant only be detected by powerful tee
scopes-nevsr visible TO the naked eye at all.
FInHs TaK WooDs-A short time since published
an account extensive fires which raging the woods
in the part Of Maine. The latest accounts from that
region represent that the fires spreading Arrivals at
Bangor from the report dense sm, ks the in
the negbbohood of those fires, much render nav
cation dangerous The Bangor Mercury Of Friday says:
"We enveloped in thick SMOKE caused BY fires which
prevailing all around and doing dea' Of damage
Last evening the sky Illuminated in the direction of
vvhnv he 6va. - vaIv ~