On The Origin And Observance Of Christmas.

that clandestine or anonymous gifts are great favourites throughout Fatherland . To return from this digression , and to take up Bede ' s derivation of yide from " Avheel , " will require in the reader some practise in the use of a strong gutteral intonation ; for quickly pronounced and strongly gutturalizedboth words

, are identical in sound , Avith a . strong presumption therefore of identity of meaning . It is a case in point that the present learned head of , I believe , Trinity College , Cambridge , Dr . Whewell , has his name pronounced in a manner that may stand either for yule or " Avheel : in fact , in all three the only , letter of distinct enunciation is the final

liquid I . All tho other vowels or semivowels are of such infinite niceties of sound as to be undistinguishable to the ear in their numerous intonations . But Ave have other reasons to believe in the agreement of both " yah" and " wheel" besides their verbal assonances . The orbit of the sun , taken as a circle , was fitly and

best represented by a wheel or ring ; and in this view Ave have the best derivation of the Latin annus , tho year , the sun ' s rotation ; when Ave refer to its diminutive annulus , the little ring ; so that we may pretty safely conclude that the original word had primarily the same meaning . Virgil brings the adjective anmm-n pretty nearly to this sense . ( Mi . v . 46 . )

"Anmms exactis completur men . sibns orbis . " To complete these conformities of the denominations of the sun ' s annual orbit with a wheel , our year offers some jioints of contact . It is . identical Avith the German Jahr , which Adelvmg well derives from the Swedish CEr , the harvest or recurrence of seedtime bmereldropping the

; y y initial semivoAvel y Ave gain ear , which it is well knoAvn , Avhen taken as a noun participle , " earing , " means the harvest . Shakespeare uses it in this sense ( Antony and Cleoptatrai . 2 . ) " 0 then we brimr forth weeds

" When our quick minds lie still ; and our ills told us Is as our carnaj- " But the same sense is more clearly expressed in Gen xiA . 6 , of the authorised A-orsion : — "For these two years there hath been famine in the laud ; and there are yet five years in thc which there shall be neither caring harvest

nor . " To those for whom verbal agreements are not satisfactory , Ave can , however , adduce the strong evidence of wheels used as symbols of the Yule feast , both at home and in other countries . In north Germany in particularit is customary at

Christ-, mas to take a common cart Avheel , and to bind it round the spokes and felloes , as AVCII as the nave , Arith straw bands , so that no portion of the wood is visible ; the straAv is then set fire to , and the wheel from an eminence rolled down into the , plain or river , as is done into the Moselle at Konz , a small place in the vicinity of Trier , Avhose

Roman origin is evidenced by tho remains of a Roman imperial palace of Avhich a considerable extent AVUS visible in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ( see "Panorama von Trier , " p . 214 ) , though the . idea there expressed , that it Avas built b y Constantiiie , Avho certainly resided some time in Trier , has no other . foundation than the place ' s name , Avhich seems more

probably to have arisen from the confluence and junction of Sarre and Moselle , like the con'lttentia ( Coblonz ) of Moselle and Rhine , and another Coblenz at the flowing of the Swiss Aar into the Rhine , with many others . ( Grimm ' s ' - ' . Deutsche Mythologie , " p . /> S 7 . ) Sometimes the celebration by this symbolic wheel is transferred to

the secondary solstice at the feast of St . John Baptist , and is thus described by Naogeorgus in Barnaby Googo ' s translation : — ' Sonic others get a rotten wheel all worn and cast aside , Winch round about with straw and tow they closely hide ; And carried to aome mountain top being ail with fire a light , ' ! hey hurlc it down with violence when dark appears the night ,

Resembling much the sun that from the heavens down should fall , A strange and monstrous sight itseemes and fearful to them all , But they suppose their mischiefs are likewise thrown into hell , And that from harmes and dangers now in safetie here they dwell . "

However comfortable it might be in later times for the exhibitors of this burning wheel to look upon it as a scapegoat of their sins , that certainly was not the original intention . But the Romish priesthood would naturally look upon this heathen token with dislike , and in their Ruustocks , or early calendars , against those days that wore reputed

ominous or ill fated , they sot the mark of a Avheel , allegorically to express them . In the Beaufoy coins of the London municipality , No . 1009 is one Avith the legend " Tho . Aldridge at the Catorn Wheel in West Smithfield , " where is the usual symbol of St . Catharine ' s martyrdom , a Avheel armed with scythe blades ( see A . Durev ' s beautiful folio

Avoodcut ) ; but it is a question whether this Romish legend of St . Catharine , whose name in Greek signifies merely " pure , cleansed " ( mdapog ) may not have arisen from the common wheel symbols of the British or Celtic coins . On this subject Ave have a learned treatise by Levezow , in the transactions of the Berlin Academy for 1833 , p . 189 , From it Ave find that small wheels of silver and bronze had been

dug up in France , and one of terra cotta with four spokes had been found in the neighbourhood and preserved in the National Museum at Berlin , being evidently amulets suitable to the circumstances of different Avearers . The stories of fiction were less bound to circumstances , and therefore in the old lay of Wigolais , the hero makes

himself a Avheel of gold , which he afterwards wears as a crest , from which he got the name of the Knight of the Wheel , Avhom even Gildas , the monk of Bangor , denominates Mika Quadriga' . The use of the wheel at the summer solstice has also an early testimony in Durand ( Rationale Div . Offs \ 'ii . 14 . ) "In

qui-, , busdam locis in festo Johannis Baptiste rotam volvunt qua revolutione indicant quod sol in festo Johannis in . Zodiaco ad summum gradinn jam pervenerit et discedere per diem inciperetur , " & c . Among the Harleian MSS . in the British Museum , ( 2340 , art . 100 ) , is an account in Avhich the rites on St . John the

Baptist ' s CA'e are enumerated , and in them the wheel is cons ] 3 iciioiia He gives three kinds : "In vigilia beati Johannis colligunt pueri in quibusdam regionibus ossa et quasdam alia iuiniunda ( bonefircs ) ot in simnl cremant et exindo producitur f ' umus in acre . Cremant etiain braiidas ( sen fasces ) et circular ) t arva cum brandis . Tertium , de Rota quam faciunt A'olvi . "

As this MS . is believed to describe the customs round Winoh . oom . be , in Gloucestershire , it brings these practices home to ourselves and a comparatively recent date , Avhich eAreu a Arery modern usage follows , as in the newest nc- > counts of Gloucester Folk-lore AVC find that with something like a respect for the excellent produce of their daries , a cheese is substituted for the Avheel , and rolled down theirhills on the Baptist ' s anniversary , still retaining the round , form and thc rofcj-ry motion .

ITALIAN' Paoviimis . —Says Cluicoiavtlini , " Do all you can to seem good , ami the better shall it be for yon . " In another place , speaking' of gratitude in return for favours received , lie says , " Look for assistance only to tho . se who are so situated that they must needs serve you , and not to such as you have served , " & c . How infinitely higher and uobk-r is "Gianni ' s" standard of moral worth when lie says , "Goodness takes up no room ; " and bettor still" Whoso doeth good , hath goods ; " or ,

, with honest trust in his fellow creatures' gratitude , " Service kindles love "— "He that gives discreetly sells dear "— "Almsgiving never made any man poor "— " . Helpfulness never comes home without hiswages , "