What does she hide in the clouds that mantle her?
Is it the storm or the sunshine?
Just now it rains, and I feel my mind as gloomy as the sky.

I have a holiday today; but what can one do on a rainy day?
I walk up and down my attic out of temper, and I determine to light my fire.
Unfortunately the matches are bad, the chimney smokes, the wood goes out! I throw down my bellows in disgust, and sink into my old armchair.
In truth, why should I rejoice to see the birth of a new year?
All those who are already in the streets, with holiday looks and smiling faces--do they understand what makes them so gay?
Do they even know what is the meaning of this holiday, or whence comes the custom of New-Year's gifts?
Here my mind pauses to prove to itself its superiority over that of the vulgar.

I make a parenthesis in my ill-temper in favor of my vanity, and I bring together all the evidence which my knowledge can produce.
(The old Romans divided the year into ten months only; it was Numa Pompilius who added January and February.

The former took its name from Janus, to whom it was dedicated.

As it opened the new year, they surrounded its beginning with good omens, and thence came the custom of visits between neighbors, of wishing happiness, and of New-Year's gifts.
The presents given by the Romans were symbolic.