sitively sinister in its working. But managed with the
sympathetic imagination which is infallibly produced by real faith in
goodwill, its efficacy may approach the miraculous.

* * * * *

The Christmas ceremony of good-wishing by word of mouth has never been
in any danger of falling into insincerity. Such is the power of
tradition and virtue of a festival, and such the instinctive
brotherliness of men, that on this day the mere sight of an
acquaintance will soften the voice and warm the heart of the most
superior sceptic and curmudgeon that the age of disillusion has
produced. In spite of himself, faith flickers up in him again, be it
only for a moment. And, during that moment, he is almost like those
whose bright faith the age has never tarnished, like the great and like
the simple, to whom it is quite unnecessary to offer a defence and
explanation of Christmas or to suggest the basis of a new faith therein.

FIVE

DEFENCE OF FEASTING

And now I can hear the superior sceptic disdainfully questioning: "Yes,
but what about the orgy of Christmas? What about all the eating and
drinking?" To which I can only answer that faith causes effervescence,
expansion, joy, and that joy has always, for excellent reasons, been
connected with feasting. The very words 'feast' and 'festival' are
etymologically inseparable. The meal is the most regular and the least
dispensable of daily events; it happens also to be an event which is in
itself almost invariably a source of pleasure, or, at worst, of
satisfaction: and it will continue to have this precious quality so long
as our souls are encased in bodies. What could be more natural,
therefore, than that it should be employed, with due enlargement and
ornamentation, as the kernel of the festival? What more logical than
that the meal should be elevated into a feast?

"But," exclaims the superior sceptic, "this idea involves the idea of
excess!" What if it does? I would not deny it! Assuredly, a feast means
more than enough, and more than enough means excess. It is only because
a feast means excess that it assists in the bringing about of expansion
and joy. Such is human nature, and it is the case of human nature that
we are discussing. Of course, excess usually exacts its toll, within
twenty-four hours, especially from the weak. But the benefit is worth
its price. The body pays no more than the debt which the soul has
incurred. An occasiona