Again, an attempt to improve, or enlighten any of the author's bright sayings, would be as superfluous as to "paint the lily, or gild the fine gold."

That some may be disappointed, perhaps horrified-when this book is received, goes without saying; but nothing of a terrestrial nature can add to, or take away one iota of the pleasure I have had with the Doctors Ames, in collating, reading, quoting and compiling this collection of their humble works.

In some instances I may have exhibited a flippant manner, or treated a serious subject with what might be called levity. Consider, therefore, the age in which our authors lived; reflect upon the fact that for many moons I have lived and breathed in an atmosphere redolent with the language, manners and customs of the time in which these and other similar productions were brought forth. Then for these reasons, of thy charity pray be kind, and "in thy orisons be all my sins remembered."

Faithfully yours,

Entertainment for A Winter's Evening: being A Full and True Account Of a very strange and wonderful sight seen in Boston on the twentyseventh of December at Noon-Day.

The Truth of which can be attested by a great Number of People, who actually saw the same With their own Eyes.

By Me, the Honble B. B. Esq; [Joseph Green].1

Primo progrediuntur anseres, dein vituli, grex asinaria sequitur. Templum aditum est. Hic omnibus vir sanctus prædicavit, multis populis circumstantibus.

Vet. Leg. lib. III. Cap. 14.

Boston: Printed and Sold by G. Rogers, next to the Prison in Queen

street.

TO THE READER.

COURTEOUS AND LOVING READER,

I Thought it necessary to acquaint thee with three things, which thou wilt perhaps, be inquisitive about. First, Why thou hast not had the following Entertainment sooner. Secondly, Why it now appears

'JOSEPH GREEN, born in Boston 1706, graduated at Harvard 1726, became a merchant, had some interest in politics, espoused the Royal cause, was exiled, and died in England in 1780. He had great reputation for wit, particularly in the form of satirical verse. His favorite view of things was the facetious one; he was convivial and hilarious; he loved to mitigate by his waggeries the somber tints of life at the Puritan metropolis; and neither religion nor death, it was believed, could awe him into gravity, as is partly intimated in this epitaph, which one of his friends wrote for his tomb-stone, long before he had need of one:

"Siste, Viator! here lies one,

Whose life was whim, whose soul was pun;

And if you go too near his hearse,

He'll joke you, both in prose and verse,"

Tyler. Hist. Am. Lit. II. 48-49.

abroad without sheltering itself under the Name of some powerful Patron. And Thirdly, Why I have given Myself the Title I have assumed in the Front of it.

As to the first Article, thou must know, that my great distance from the Press, near one hundred miles, at this difficult season of the year, made it impossible for me to convey it there sooner. As to the second, I had fully determined to select a number of sutable Patrons, but was prevented by finding all of them engaged already; not so much as one being left, under whose wings this poor sheet might retire for protection. Thirdly, The title I have taken to myself, sounds I confess, something odly. Nor indeed should I have ventured upon it, had I not been warranted by a Famous Society in an Example which they have lately set me. For though this Society is, perhaps, the only one in the world that ever gave itself those pompous Epithets, yet it is allowed to be the standard of Antiquity and Honour. Of Antiquity, as it can boast an Era many years higher than that of the world. Of Honour, as it invested with that distinguishing Badge, which is, at this day, the glory of the greatest Potentates on earth. And if so, I see no reason why Thou and I should not submit to it, as the Standard of Propriety too. I am, Loving Reader, With the greatest Humility thine,

The Honble B. B. Esq.

ENTERTAINMENT FOR A WINTER'S EVENING.

O muse renown'd for story-telling,
Fair Clio, leave thy airy dwelling.

Now while the streams like marble stand,

Held fast by winter's icy hand;

Now while the hills are cloth'd in snow;

Now while the keen north-west-winds blow;

From the bleak fields and chilling air

Unto the warmer hearth repair:
Where friends in chearful circle met

In social conversation sit.

Come, Goddess, and our ears regale
With a diverting Christmas tale.
O come, and in thy verse declare
Who were the men, and what they were,
And what their names, and what their fame,
And what the cause for which they came
To house of God from house of ale,
And how the parson told his tale:
How they return'd, in manner odd,
To house of ale from house of God.

Free Masons, as the story goes,

Have two saints for their patrons chose;
And both Saint Johns, one the Baptist,
The other the Evangelist.

The Baptist had a Lodge which stood
Whilom by Jordan's ancient flood.
But for what secret cause the other
Has been adopted for a brother,
They cannot, and I will not say,
Nec scire fas est omnia.

The Masons by procession
Having already honour'd one,
(Thou, to perpetuate their glory,
Clio did'st then relate the story.)
To show the world they mean fair play,
And that each saint should have his day,
Now order store of belly-timber
'Gainst twenty-seventh of December.
For that's the day of Saint John's feast
Fix'd by the holy Roman priest,
They then in mood religious chose
Their brother of the roll and rose1
The ceremony to commence:
He from the sacred eminence
Must first explain and then apply
The duties of Free Masonry.

At length, in scarlet apron drest,
Forth rush'd the morning of the feast;
And now the bells in steeple play,
Hark, ding, dong, bell they chime away;
Until, will solemn toll and steady,
The great bell tells-the parson's ready.

Masons at church! strange auditory!
And yet we have as strange in story,
For saints, as history attests,
Have preach'd to fishes, birds and beasts,
Yea stones so hard, tho' strange, 'tis true,
Have sometimes been their hearers too,*

1 Rev. Charles Brockwell, Assistant Rector King's Chapel, Boston, inducted 1747; died Aug. 20, 1755.

"Vide Spec. Exemplor. Cæs. Dial. Lib. IV. cap. 98. Benevent de Vit. S. Franc. cap. 8. Capgr. Nov. legend, Fol. 160. Anton Chron. P. III, tit. 24, c. 2, 85.

So good Saint Francis, man of grace,
Himself preach'd to the braying race;
And further, as the story passes,
Address'd them thus-my brother asses.1
Just so old British Wereburga,
As ecclesiastic writers say,"

Harangued the geese, both far and wide;
Just so the geese were edify'd.

The crowds attending gaze around,
And awful silence reigns profound.

Till from the seat which he'd sat a
Uprose and thus began the parson.

Right Worshipful, at whose command
Obedient I in Rostra stand;

It proper is and fit to show

Unto the crowds that gape below,

Who wonder much, and well they may,

What on th' occasion I can say,

Why in the church are met together,
Especially in such cold weather,

Such folk as never did appear

So overfond of coming there.

告

on

Know then, my friends, without more pother,

That these are Masons, I'm a Brother.

Masons said I?-yes Masons Free;
Their deeds and title both agree.
While other sects fall out and fight
About a trifling mode or rite,
We firm by Love cemented stand,
'Tis Love unites us heart and hand.

Love to a party not confin'd,

A Love embracing all mankind,

Both catholick and protestant,

The Scots and eke New England saint:

Antonio's followers, and those

Who've Crispin' for their patron chose,

And them, who to their idol goose

Oft sacrifice the blood of louse."

1 Fratres Assini, orem vos ut sileatis, nec inturbetis Verbum Dei quod sitienti hinc populo propono. Wadding, Annal. A. 1213, N. 8. We see he too had a thrifty audience. 2 Frat. Cress. Hist. Eccles. Lib. xvii. c. 17.

3Antonio is the Patron of Sailors.

"Crispin the Patron of Shoemakers.

"It is conjectured that the Taylors are here meant.