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Speaker 1: Christmas. There is nothing in England that exercises a more

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delightful spell over my imagination than the lingerings of the

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holiday customs and rural games of former times. They recall

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the pictures my fancy used to draw in the May

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morning of life, when as yet I only knew the

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world through books and believed it to be all that

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poets had painted it. And they bring with them the

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flavor of those honest days of yore, in which, perhaps

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with equal fallacy, I am apt to think the world

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was more home bred, social and joyous than at present.

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I regret to say that they are daily growing more

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and more faint, being gradually worn away by time, but

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still more obliterated by modern fashion. They resemble those picturesque

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morsels of Gothic architecture which we see crumbling in various

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parts of the country, partly dilapidated by the waste of

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ages and partly lost in the additions and alterations of

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latter days. Poetry, however, clings with cherishing fondness about the

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rural game and holiday revel from which it has derived

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so many of its themes. As the Ivy winds its

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rich foliage about the Gothic arch and moldering tower, gratefully

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repaying their support by clasping together their tottering remains, and,

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as it were, embalming them in verdure. Of all the

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old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and

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most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and

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sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality and lifts the

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spirit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment. The

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services of the Church about this season are extremely tender

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and inspiring. They dwell on the beautiful story of the

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origin of our faith in the pastoral scenes that accompanied

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its announcement. They gradually increase in fervor and pathos during

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the season of Advent, until they break forth in full

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jubilee on the morning that brought peace and good will

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to men. I do not know a grander effect of

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music on the moral feelings than to hear the full

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choir in the appealing organ performing a Christmas anthem in

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a cathedral and filling every part of the vast pile

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with triumphant harmony. It is a beautiful arrangement, also derived

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from days of yore, that this festival, which commemorates the

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announcement of the religion of Peace and Love has been

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made the season for gathering together of family connections and

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drawing closer again those bands of kindred hearts which the

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cares and pleasures and sorrows of the world are tinually

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operating to cast loose, of calling back the children of

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a family, who have launched forth in life and wandered

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widely asunder once more to assemble about the paternal hearth,

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that rallying place of the affections, there to grow young

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and loving again among the endearing mementoes of childhood. There

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is something in the very season of the year that

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gives a charm to the festivity of Christmas. At other

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times we derive a great portion of our pleasures from

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the mere beauties of nature. Our feelings sally forth and

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dissipate themselves over the sunny landscape, and we live abroad

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and everywhere. The song of the bird, the murmur of

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the stream, the breathing fragrance of spring, the soft voluptuousness

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of summer, the golden pomp of autumn, Earth with its

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mantil of refreshing green, and heaven with its deep, delicious blue,

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and as cloudy magnificence all fill us with mute but

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exquisite delight, and we revel in the luxury of mere sensation.

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But in the depth of winter, when nature lies despoiled

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of every charm, and wrapped in her shroud if she

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did snow, we turn for our gratifications to moral sources.

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The dreariness and desolation of the landscape, the short, gloomy

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days and darksome nights, while they circumscribe our wanderings, should

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in our feelings also from rambling abroad, and make us

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more keenly disposed for the pleasures of the social circle.

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Our thoughts are more concentrated, our friendly sympathies more aroused.

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We feel more sensibly the charm of each other's society,

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and are brought more closely together by dependence on each

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other for enjoyment. Heart calleth unto heart, and we draw

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our pleasures from the deep wells of living kindness, which

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lie in the quiet recesses of our bosoms, and which,

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when resorted to furnish forth the pure element of domestic felicity.

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The pitchy gloom without makes the heart dilate on entering

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the room filled with the glow and warmth of the

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evening fire. The ruddy blaze diffuses and artificial summer and

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sunshine through the room and lights up each countenance into

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a kindlier welcome. Where does the honest face of hospitality

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expand into a broader and more cordial smile. Where is

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the shy glance of love more sweetly eloquent than by

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the winter fire side. And as the hollow blast of

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wintry wind rushes through the hall, claps the distant door,

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whistles about the casement, and rumbles down the chimney, what

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can be more grateful than that feeling of sober and

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sheltered security with which we look around upon the comfortable

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chamber and the scene of domestic hilarity. The English, from

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the great prevalence of rural habits throughout every class of society,

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have always been fond of those festivals and holidays which

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agreeably interrupt the stillness of country life, and they were

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in former days particularly observant of the religious and social

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rites of Christmas. Is inspiring to read even the dry

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details which some antiquarians have given of the quaint humors,

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the burlesque pageants, the complete abandonments to mirth and good

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fellowship with which this festival was celebrated. It seemed to

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throw open every door, resounded with the harp and the

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Christmas carol, and their ample boards grown under the weight

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of hospitality. Even the poorest cottage welcomed the festive season

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with green decorations of bay and holly. The cheerful fire

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glanced its rage through the lattice, inviting the passenger to

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raise the latch and join the gossip knot huddled round

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the hearth, beguiling the long evening the legendary jokes and

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oft told Christmas tales. One of the least pleasing effects

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of modern refinement is the havoc it has made among

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the hearty old holiday customs. It has completely taken off

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the sharp touchings and spirited reliefs of these embellishments of life.

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Has worn down society into a more smooth and polished,

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but certainly a less characteristic surface. Many of the games

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and ceremonials of Christmas have entirely disappeared, and, like the

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share sac of old falstaff, are become matters of speculation

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and dispute among commentators. The flourished and times full of

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spirit and lustihood. When men enjoyed life roughly, but heartily

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and vigorously. Times wild and picturesque, which have furnished poetry

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with its richest materials, and the drama with its most

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attractive variety of characters and manners, the world become more worldly,

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who is more dissipation and less of enjoyment. Pleasure has

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expanded into a broader, but a shallower stream has forsaken

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many of those deep and quiet channels where it flows

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sweetly through the calm bosom of domestic life. Society has

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acquired a more enlightened and elegant tone, but it has

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lost many of his strong local peculiarities, his home bred feelings,

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his honest fireside delights. The traditionary customs of golden hearted antiquity,

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its feudal hospitalities, and lordly wasst ailings have passed away

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with the baronial castles and stately manor houses in which

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they were celebrated. They comported with the shadowy hall, the

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great oaken gallery, and the tapestried parlor, but are unfitted

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to the light, showy saloons and gay drawing rooms of

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the modern villa. Shorn however, as it is of its

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ancient and festive eyes. Christmas is still a period of

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delightful excitement in England. Is gratifying to see that home

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feeling completely aroused, which seems to hold so powerful a

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place in every English bosom. The preparations making on every

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side for the social board that is again to unite

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friends and kindred. The presence of good cheer, passing and repassing,

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those tokens of regard and quickeners of kind feelings, the

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evergreens distributed about houses and churches, emblems of peace and gladness.

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All these have the most pleasing effect in producing fond associations,

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enkindling benevolent sympathies. Even the sound of the weights, rude,

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as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the mid watches

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of a winter night, with the effects of perfect harmony.

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As I have been awakened by them in that still

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and solemn hour when deep sleep falleth upon man, I

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have listened with a hushed delight, and connecting them with

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the sacred and joyous occasion, have almost fancied them into

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another celestial choir, announcing peace and good will to mankind.

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How delightfully the imagination, when wrought upon these moral influences

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turns everything to melody and beauty. The very crowing of

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the cock, who is sometimes heard in the profound repose

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of the country, telling the night watches to his feathery Dames,

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was thought by the common people to announce the approach

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of the sacred festival. Some say that, ever against that

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season comes wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, this bird

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of dawning singeth all night long. And then they say,

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no spirit dares stir abroad the knights are wholesome. Then

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no planet strike, no fairy takes no which hath power

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to charm. So hallowed and so gracious is the time,

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amidst the general call to happiness, the bustle of the spirits,

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and stir of the affections which prevail at this period,

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what bosom can remain insensible. It is, indeed the season

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of regenerated feeling, the season for kindling, not merely the

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fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame

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of charity in the heart. The scene of early love

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again rises green to memory, beyond the sterile waste of years,

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and the idea of home fraught with the fragrance of

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home dwelling joys reanimates the drooping spirit, as the Arabian

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breeze will sometimes waft the freshness of the distant fields

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to the weary pilgrim of the desert. Stranger and sojourner,

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as I am in the land. Though for me, no

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social hearth may blaze, no hospitable roof through open its doors,

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nor the warm grasp of friendship welcome me at the threshold,

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Yet I feel the influence of the season beaming into

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my soul from the happy looks of those around me. Surely,

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happiness is reflective, like the light of Heaven, and every countenance,

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bright with smiles and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a

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mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and

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ever shining benevolence. He who can turn cheerleishly away from

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contemplating the felicity of his fellow beings and sit down,

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darkling and repining in his loneliness when all around is joyful,

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may have his moments of strong excitement and selfish gratification.

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But he wants the genial and social sympathies which constitute

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the charm of a merry Christmas, and of Christmas by

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Washington Irving