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Show What Dickens Thought About Christmas Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling feel-ing is not aroused in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened by the recurrence of Christmas. Who can be insensible to the outpourings out-pourings of good feeling, and the honest interchange of affectionate attachment which abound at this season of the year? A Christmas family party! We know nothing in nature more delightful! There seems a magic in the very name of Christmas. Christ-mas. Petty jealousies and discords are forgotten; social feelings are awakened in bosoms to which they have long been strangers; father and son, or brother and sister, who have met and passed with averted gaze, or a look of cold recognition, for months before, proffer and return the cordial embrace, and bury their past animosities in their present happiness. Kindly hearts that have yearned toward each other, but have been withheld by false notions of pride . and self-dignity, are again reunited, and all is kindness and benevolence! Would that Christmas lasted the whole year through (as it ought), and that the prejudices and passions which deform our better nature were never called into action among those to whom they should ever be strangers! CHARLES DICKENS |