Chapter 1: Page 6: Line 7

 Hammers and Saws have fallen still, bricks lie in snow-cover'd Heaps, City-Sparrows, in speckl'd Outbursts, hop in and out of what Shelter there may be,— the nightward Sky, Clouds blown to Chalk-smears, stretches above the Northern Liberties, Spring Garden and Germantown, its early moon pale as the Snow-Drifts,— smoke ascends from Chimney-Pots, Sledging-Parties adjourn indoors, Taverns bustle,— freshly infus'd Coffee flows ev'ryplace, borne about thro' Rooms front and back, whilst Madeira, which has ever fuel'd Association in these Parts, is deploy'd nowadays like an ancient Elixir upon the seething Pot of Politics,— for the Times are as impossible to calculate, this Advent, as the Distance to a Star.

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Line 7 Vulgarized:
Snowfall has put a halt to construction (as well as the darkness of a night with a slight moon, I suppose) while birds search for food and shelter. A slight snow-colored moon hangs in a sky with slight cloud cover above the districts of Northern Liberties, Spring Garden, and Germantown. Smoke rises in the sky from chimneys, groups of people out sledding now head indoors filling up the taverns to warm themselves with loads and loads of coffee rather than wine which is, nowadays, held for occasions of political talk to calm temperaments exacerbated by the volatility of the times this December, as impossible to predict as distances in space!

Subtext:
Everybody is trying to build a brand new country but, for the moment, they've put down their tools to celebrate Christmas. Arguments over a new Constitution can wait until next year! The conclusion about predicting politics this Advent mentions time and the distance to stars, two variables that Mason and Dixon will need to use in their work. Well, maybe not the distance to stars. The line is accurate in that "this Advent" it's impossible to measure the distance to the stars. That won't be possible for another fifty years or so when Friedrich Bessel becomes the first scientist to measure the distance to a star (with an error of about 10% which seems sort of terrible but, even now, if I tried to figure out the distance to a star, I'd probably be off by a four or five digit percentage! Because I'd just be guessing!). But Mason and Dixon do need to measure astronomical activity to accurately map and measure the Earth as well as needing clocks capable of great precision. So while it seems like the Times are impossible to calculate, Mankind will definitely try with all the tools at their disposal and probably come within a fairly small percentage error of success. So that sort of explains America and our Constitution, I think. It was a good try with the tools of the time but it definitely has at least an error of 10%. It probably should be reworked with modern thought and modern tools, you know? All of these people who worship it so strongly don't seem to understand how civilization improves. Dumb dumbs probably still think throwing virgins in volcanos is a good idea.
    Imagine if people still threw virgins in volcanos to appease Gods? You'd never be able to get a full table of nerds together to run a Dungeons & Dragons campaign!