Like loathsome reptiles from their crankling holes,
From foul, neglected corners of our souls,

Are these less vital than the wave or wind,

Or snow that melts and leaves no trace behind?
Oh! let them perish all, or pass away,

And let our spirits feel a New-year's day.

A New-year's day-'t is but a term of art,

An arbitrary line upon the chart

Of Time's unbounded sea-fond fancy's creature,

To reason alien, and unknown to nature.

Nay-'tis a joyful day, a day of hope!

Bound, merry dancer, like an antelope;
And as that lovely creature, far from man,
Gleams through the spicy groves of Hindostan,
Flash through the labyrinth of the mazy dance,
With foot as nimble, and as keen a glance—

And we, whom many New-years' days have told
The sober truth, that we are growing old--
For this one night-aye, and for many more—
Will be as jocund as we were of yore,

Kind hearts can make December blithe as May,
And in each morrow find a New-year's day.

This collection of Poems, pertaining to the Christmas season, which comprehends the entire range of English literature, from its earliest dawn to the end of the first half of the nineteenth century, cannot have a more appropriate close than the following poem, which is extracted from Tennyson's "In Memoriam," one of the most noble and divine works this later age has given birth to. And, in the hope that all who peruse it may respond to the Christian and prophetic spirit which pervades every line, the Editor of this collection here concludes his pleasant labours.

RING out wild bells to the wild sky,

The flying cloud, the frosty light :
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,

And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,

The faithless coldness of the times:

Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,

But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,

The civic slander and the spite;

Ring in the love of truth and right,

Ring in the common love of good.

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,

The larger heart, the kindlier hand;

Ring out the darkness of the land,

Ring in the Christ that is to be.