Our festivals come rather too near together, since we have so few of
them;--Thanksgiving, Christmas-day, New-Years'-day, and then none
again till July. We know not but these four, with the addition of a
"day set apart for fasting and prayer," might answer the purposes of
rest and edification as well as a calendar full of saints' days, if
they were observed in a better spirit. But, Thanksgiving is devoted to
good dinners; Christmas and New-Years' days to making presents and
compliments; Fast-day to playing at cricket and other games, and the
Fourth of July to boasting of the past, rather than to plans how to
deserve its benefits and secure its fruits.
We value means of marking time by appointed days, because man, on one
side of his nature so ardent and aspiring, is on the other so indolent
and slippery a being, that he needs incessant admonitions to redeem
the time. Time flows on steadily, whether _he_ regards it or not;
yet, unless _he keep time_, there is no music in that flow. The
sands drop with inevitable speed; yet each waits long enough to
receive, if it be ready, the intellectual touch that should turn it to
a sand of gold.
Time, says the Grecian fable, is the parent of Power, Power is the
father of Genius and Wisdom.
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