W. H. D. Rouse
speaker
684 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 1 Aug
W. H. D. Rouse’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
but itself this seems a dismal kind of christmas homily but we enjoyed ourself immensely while we were meditating it in our lower birth very likely if it had been an upper birth the result would have been different in any case we take the liberty of wishing our friends who are by this time too inderated to feel surprise or chagrin at anything we may say a merry christmas
we wish for them a cheerful and laborious new year with good books to read and both the time and the inclination to think we even wish for them occasional eccentric seizures such as we feel at the present when we have a dim suspicion that behind the noble and never sufficiently praised comedy of life there lies some simple satisfying answer to many gropings
a simple thing but too terrible and far-reaching ever to be wholly put into practice by puzzled and compromising mankind we mean of course the teachings of christ consider the german generals and military men who lost everything but the german toy makers conquered the world end of part five
part six of a christmas miscellany twenty twenty three by various authors part six the animal's christmas tree by the rev john punnet peters
once upon a time the animals decided to have a christmas tree and this was how it came about the swifts and the swallows in the chimneys in the country houses awakened from their sleep by joy and laughter had stolen down and peeped in upon scenes of happiness the center of which was always an evergreen tree covered with wonderful fruit
bright balls of many colors and sparkling threads of gold and silver lying like beautiful frost-work among the green fir needles a sweet fairy-like figure of a christ-child or an angel rested high among the branches and underneath the tree were dolls and sleds and skates and drums and toys of every sort and furs and gloves and tippets ribbons and handkerchiefs and all the things that boys and girls need and like
and all about this tree were gathered always little children with faces oh so full of wonderment and expectation changing to radiant sparkling merriment as toys and candies were taken off the tree or from underneath its boughs and distributed among them
the swifts and the swallows told their feathered friends all about it and they told others both birds and animals until at last it began to be rumoured through all the animal world that on one day in the year the children of men were made wonderfully happy by means of some sort of a festival which they held about a fir-tree from the forest
now of course the tame animals and the house animals the dogs and the cats and the mice knew something more about this festival but then they did not exchange visits with the wild animals because they felt themselves above them they were always trying to be like men and women you know putting on airs and pretending to know everything
but after all they were animals and could not help making friendships now and then with the wild creatures especially when the men and women were not there and when they were asked about the christmas tree they told still more wonderful stories
than the swifts and swallows from the chimneys had told for some of them had taken part in these festivals and some had even received presents from the tree just like the children they said that the tree was called a christmas tree because that strange fruit
and that wonderful frosting came on it only in the christmas time and that the christmas time was the time when men and women and little children too were always kind and good and loving and gave things to one another and they said moreover that on the christmas tree grew the things which every one wanted and which would make them happy
and that it was so because in the christmas time everyone was trying to make everyone else happy and to think of what other people would like this they said was what they had seen and heard told about the christmas trees
they did not quite understand why it was so but they knew that the christmas tree when rightly made brought the christmas spirit and they had heard men say that the christmas spirit was the great thing and that that was what made everyone happy
well the long and short of it was that the animals talked of it in their dens and on their roosts in the fields and in the forests wild animals and tame alike the cows and horses in their stalls the sheep in their fold the doves in their cots and the poultry in the poultry yard until all agreed that a christmas tree would be a grand thing for wild and tame alike like the men they too would have a tree of their very own
but how to do it then the lion called a meeting of all the creatures wild and tame for you know the lion is king of beasts and when he calls they all must come you know too that before and during and after these animal congresses there is a royal peace
the lamb can come to the meeting and sit down by the wolf and the wolf dare not touch him the dove may perch on the bough between the hawk and the owl and neither will harm him when the great king of beasts has summoned them all together to take counsel
but you know all about the rules of the animals for you have read them in books and you have seen the pictures how the lion sits on his throne with the crown on one side of his head and all the other creatures gather about the elephant the giraffe the hippopotamus the buffalo wolves and tigers and leopards foxes and deer goats and sheep monkeys and orang-outangs
parrots and robins and turkeys and swans and storks and eagles and frogs and lizards and alligators and all the rest besides then when the lion had called the meeting to order the swifts and the swallows told what they had seen and a fat little pug-dog with a ribbon and a silver bell about his neck
wheezed out a story of a christmas tree that he had seen and how a silver bell had grown on that tree for him and a whole box of the best sweets he had ever dreamed of while he lay comfortably snoozing on his cushion before the fire
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