"There are many things from which I might have derived
good, by which I have not profited, I dare say, Christmas
among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of
Christmas time, when it has come round, -- apart from the
veneration due to its sacred origin, if anything belonging
to it call be apart from that, -- as a good time; a kind,
forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know
of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women
seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely,
and to think of people below them as if they really were
fellow-travellers to the grave, and not another race of
creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle,
though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my
pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me
good; and I say, God bless it!"
From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1868
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