14 



KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



must pursue his own occupation ; and there 

 is no doubt that the remembrance of these 

 twelve days carries very many forward with 

 light hearts and willing hands until half the 

 year has gone by, and the hope of the next 

 season of free and general enjoyment takes 

 them up for the remaining half. Perhaps it 

 is in the country where the full enjoyment 

 of this season is felt ; and it is well that 

 such should be, for it is there that the na- 

 tural desolation of winter comes most home 

 to the feelings. It is therefore a very judi- 

 cious decree of the fashionables of this 

 country, that the Christmas festivities should 

 be by them marked in the calendar as the 

 close of the summer ; and that they should 

 invariably be celebrated at the family hall. 

 Nor can we imagine a greater blessing to a 

 neighbourhood than a frank, free, and feel- 

 ing landlord, whose hall of fifty generations 

 shall be thrown open, and whose Christmas 

 festivities shall be tasted and talked of by 

 every individual within his wide horizon. 

 This is the very end and purpose for which a 

 country gentleman, of whatever rank, was 

 ordained ; and if he discharges not this duty, 

 he had better at once become a statue in 

 his own hall, or a dangler at some gaming- 

 table in town, in order that that which he 

 neglects and spoils may get into better 

 management. 



But in our zeal for the Country, in which 

 so much might be done at this season of 

 festivity, we must not altogether forget the 

 Town ; for though there are not the same 

 facilities for hearty glee and renovated en- 

 joyment on the great scale there, and though 

 one man has it not in his power to contri- 

 bute to the happiness of so many — it by no 

 means follows that towns' folk are to be 

 miserable. Their's is more an individual, 

 or, more strictly speaking, a family matter ; 

 but this is the time at which the members 

 of the family are brought more completely 

 together, and consequently it is the time at 

 which they should contribute the most to 

 each other's enjoyment ; and especially 

 when the young should be practically taught 

 those lessons of kind-heartedness and warm 

 feeling which are to make them amiable 

 through life. 



The circumstances of a town, especially 

 one of such magnitude and such multifarious 

 occupations as London, perhaps render it 

 necessary, or at all events custom has so 

 ruled it, that the younger branches of the 

 family are "dispersed" during the greater part 

 of the year ; and it is only at this season that 

 they are brought together. Now it were 

 wise that the feeling of home which is im- 

 pressed upon them at this season, should 

 go a little deeper than pantomime and plum- 

 pudding. To these we have no objection, 

 either in theory or in practice ; but they 



should be always seasoned with something 

 which shall make the school-boy and the 

 piano-devoted " miss " continue firm in their 

 belief, till next Christmas, that papa is the 

 wisest man and mamma the most kind and 

 sensible woman on the face of the whole 

 earth; — that every brother is so "manly 

 and clever," and every sister " the sweetest 

 girl you ever saw." How this is to be done, 

 we pretend not to point out ; and though 

 we have an opinion upon the subject, we 

 shall not obtrude that opinion. We may 

 teach folks how to toil, and every lesson is 

 in some sort a labour ; but if people do not 

 find out. their own enjoyments, their chance 

 of having any is small indeed ! 



But we have forgotten the Cake ! ! This 

 after all is no great matter, as our young 

 friends are sure to remember it. Let them 

 have it and enjoy it ; and while they are 

 sustaining their "characters for the night," 

 let older heads bear in mind that they have 

 also " characters for life ; " and let them 

 take care that these are well chosen and 

 nobly sustained. 



ON GENIUS. 



Genius ! — What a World of imaginations 

 and recollections are wakening at the name ! 

 One sense of ineffable, unenviable glory, the 

 pinnacle of a precipice, which some desire, 

 but all dread : the height to which we climb 

 perhaps in a dream, and slip from, only to 

 perdition ; or, waking, thank our stars that 

 we never tried it in reality. Such is genius 

 in its own proud, solitary, and irrevocable 

 position, from which, like the thoughtless 

 sea-boy who placed his foot on the top-mast 

 head, there is no medium, no descent, but a 

 plunge into the yawning sea. Such was 

 Napoleon's, who conquered all things, even 

 hope ; too great to leave himself the possi- 

 bility of permanence. Such was Scott's, 

 accumulating lands and debts ; such Byron's, 

 dazzling Europe, to die in its obscurest cor- 

 ner ! and such, though in minor degree, the 

 lot of those who can boast nothing of credit 

 but dishonoured bills, and whose sole hope 

 of remembrance rests, not in their own, but 

 their tailors' books, where they stand im- 

 mortalised from generation to generation 

 without a chance of their 

 effaced ! 



But what is Genius ? a spirit that makes 

 all happy but itself and its tradesmen. This 

 is scarcely a sufficient definition — folly itself 

 might rival half this. Does it bring happi- 

 ness to its possessor, in despite of storms ? 

 — goodness alone can do so much ; or does 

 it join with others to make every moment 

 happy ? — assuredly not, by any means — but 

 if the contrary, there is a vast deal of un- 

 suspected genius in the world. 



6 V 



names 



being 



