scientific knowledge, I cannot say, and I do not seriously care.





FOUR

THE APPOSITENESS OF CHRISTMAS


"Yes," you say, "I am quite at one with you as to the immense importance
of goodwill in social existence, and I have the same faith in it as you
have. But why a festival? Why eating and drinking and ceremonies? Surely
one can have faith without festivals?"

* * * * *

The answer is that one cannot; or at least that in practice, one never
does. A disinclination for festivals, a morbid self-conscious fear of
letting oneself go, is a sure sign of lack of faith. If you have not
enough enthusiasm for the cult of goodwill to make you positively
desire to celebrate the cult, then your faith is insufficient and needs
fostering by study and meditation. Why, if you decide to found a
sailing-club up your creek, your very first thought is to signalise your
faith in the sailing of those particular waters by a dinner and a
jollity, and you take care that the event shall be an annual one! * * *
You have faith in your wife, and in your affection for her. Surely you
don't need a festival to remind you of that faith, you so superior to
human weaknesses? But you do! You insist on having it. And, if the