Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1884-12-26

Charles Lamb devotes two of the essays OF
Ella to the new year They are in very dif
ferent keys, but both are charming Ole il
wholly meditative and sober the other is one
Of the most delightful freaks Of fancy
Lambs "Rejoicings upon the New Years
Coming Of Age" has but one companion piece
in the same vein, and that is Hawthorne's "a
Select Party" They are both very charac-
terstic Hawthornes has certain sombre
tone, with all its delicacy and grace Of TOUCH
while Lambs trips along with light and airy
gayety. He marshals all the noted days in
the year-the holidays, and occasional days,
and ecclesiastical days-and with infinite fe.
licity Of allusion and suggestion, he whirls
them before the mind OF the reader Ia rollick-
ing confusion.
the guests and wild work he made Of 1t. Ash
Wednesday, got wedged in (as was concerted)
betwixt Christmas and LORD Mayors days
Lord, how he laid about him Nothing but
barons Of beef and turkeys would go down
with him, to the great greasing aud detriment
Of his new sackcOth bib and tucker" The
quips and cranks of Ella are endless, aud
the whole essay orackles and flashes with
puns and sly illusions. IAN the while VAL
eHtine's Day kept courting pretty Mdy who
sat beside him, slipping amorous billets dOuX
under the table, till the Dog Days (who are
Jealous, and to bark and rage exceedingly"
And at last, Day being ended, the Days call
ed for their coaks aud great coats, and took
their leaves. LOrd Mayors Day went of in
a mist ~ usual, Shortest Day in deep black
fog that wrapped the little gentleman all
round like a hedgehog. Two Vigils so
watchmen are called in heaven saw Christ
mas Day safe home-they had been used to
the business before Longest Day set of
westward in beautiful crimson and gold the
rest, some 10 one fashion, some in another.
But Valentine and pretty May took their de-
parture together in one of the prettiest silvery
twilights a Lovers Day could wish to set in"
Nothing could be more delicate than this
pretty play OF fancy It was one of the last
of the essays Of Ella, aud appeared 10 the
London Magazine for January, 1928. The
earlier and graver essay, New Years Eve"
was Que of the Fila papers which led Southey
to depore in the Quarterly the want of a
souuder religious feeling in Ella. This essay
also melted poetic remonstrance FROM an
anonymous author, whom Lamb supposed to
be James Montgomery. But both Southey
and the anonymous poet curiously miscon-
ceived the humoristic touch of Lamb. The
passing bells OF the dying year, he says, af-
feet him painfully Their sound is the most
solemn and touching of all sounds II is an
awful leave-takng." Then his peculiar ge-
MUS begins TO awaken. He is shy of novel
ties, he says-new books, new fances, new
years. He delights to revert. He lives over
again old joys and griefs, He does not gladly
anticipate, and the sweet familiar life of every
day, and Of so long succession of days, is
peasanter to his mind than the unimaginsble
future. As time passes time is more prec.
ious to him Even as a child the ringing out
of the old year filed his mind with pensive
emotion. But as he grows older he begins
ruefuly to count the probability of his dura-
tion, and would fain lay his Intellectual finger
upon the spoke of the great wheel. 81 am
not content to pass away like weaver's shut.
tie. Those metaphors solace me not, nor
swt eten the unpalatable draught Of mortality"
He soberly urges the humorous plea. He
would set up his tabernacle here. Can ghost
joke and laugh Can he take with him his
folios, his midnight darlngs2 Can he know
the sweet society of friends In winter be is
conscious of an intolerable disinclnation to
dying. But in summer in a genial August
noon, beneath a swetering sky, death ID al
most problemaiic. what satisfaction hath
a man that he shall lie down with kings and
emperors in death, who in his lifetime never
| greatly coveted the society of such bedfel
| lows?" The vein s unmistakable. It is a
fond assertion of the joy of living among fa-
miliar scenes and sounds 1t is the humoris-
| tic, ratner tnan ine humorous or comic, eX-
| preston of a common feeling.
As the bells ring out the old year. marking
and emphasizing another series of days that
are no more, the mind falls readily into the
mood which Ella expresses with pathetic hu-
NOR and tender grace. Surely there is no
| son in which the familiar life seems more at
tractive aud delightful than that of Christmas
and the new year-the very time in the
twelve month which is especially consecrated
to home and the domestic affections, and to
the celebration by outward signs of gifts and
gayety Of the happiness Of this world. The
lean anchorits is not surer of Immortality
than the healthful. hearted man who finds in
the innocent happiness of the life that he
knows, assurance of all beyond it that his
heart Graves and his mind anticipates.
Charles Lamb ends his essay with some
Hora,ian verses by hearty, cheerful Mr. CO.
teon." But of higher heartiness and of lof-
tier cheer are the familiar lines of a greater
poet, which, 30 long as the English language
lasts, will be the refrain of the new years
| bells:
| 'Ring out old shapes Of foul disease;
| Ring out the narrowing lust Of gold;
| Ring out the thousand wars Of old;
Ring in the thousand years Of peace.
"Ring in the valiant man and free,
Tue larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness Of the land
Ring in the Christ that is to be-"
-EditoT's Easy Chair, January Hdrper's.