XVI. SPRING BEGAN.

I MEET with two etymologies of bonfires. Some deduce it from fires made of bones, relating it to the burning of martyrs, first fashionable in England in the reign of King Henry the Fourth. But others derive the word (more truly in my mind) from boon, that is, good, and fires; whether good be taken here for great, or for merry and cheerful, such fires being always made on welcome occasions.

Such an occasion happened at London last February, 1659. I confess the 11th of March is generally beheld as the first day of the spring, but hereafter London (and in it all England) may date its vernal heat (after a long winter of woes and war) from the 11th of February.

On which day so many boon-fires (the best new lights I ever saw in that city) were made; 202although I believe the fagots themselves knew as much as some who laid them on for what purpose those fires were made.

The best is, such fires were rather prophetical than historical, not so much telling as foretelling the condition of that city and our nation, which, by God’s gracious goodness, is daily bettered and improved.

But O the excellent boon-fire which the converted Ephesians made, Acts xix. 19: Many also of them which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

What was a pint of ashes worth, according to that proportion. But oh! in the imitation of the Ephesians, let us Englishmen labor to find out our bosom sin, and burn it (how dear soever unto us) in the flames of holy anger and indignation. Such boon-fires would be most profitable to us, and acceptable to God, inviting him to perfect and complete the good which he had begun to our nation.