s, have always, when they
succeeded, adopted an ancient festival, with all or most of its forms,
and been content to breathe into it a new spirit to replace the old
spirit which had vanished or was vanishing. Anybody who, persuaded that
Christmas is not what it was, feels that a festival must nevertheless be
preserved, will do well to follow this example. To be content with the
old forms and to vitalize them: that is the problem. Solve it, and the
forms will soon begin to adapt themselves to the process of
vitalization. All history is a witness in proof.

SIX

TO REVITALIZE THE FESTIVAL

It being agreed, then, that the Christmas festival has lost a great deal
of its old vitality, and that, to many people, it is a source of tedium
and the cause of insincerity; and it being further agreed that the
difficulty cannot be got over by simply abolishing the festival, as no
one really wants it to be abolished; the question remains--what should
be done to vitalize it? The former spirit of faith, the spirit which
made the great Christmas of the golden days, has been weakened; but one
element of it--that which is founded on the conviction that goodwill
among men is a prime necessity of reasonable living--survives with a
certain vigour, though even it has not escaped the general scepticism of
the age. This element unites in agreement all the pugnacious sectaries
who join battle over the other elements of the former faith. This
element has no enemies. None will deny its lasting virtue. Obviously,
therefore, the right course is to concentrate on the cultivation of
goodwill. If goodwill can be consciously increased, the festival of
Christmas will cease to be perfunctory. It will acquire a fresh and more
genuine significance, which, however, will not in any way inconvenience
those who have never let go of the older significance. No tradition will
be overthrown, no shock administered, and nobody will be able to croak
about iconoclasm and new-fangled notions and the sudden end of the
world, and so on.

* * * * *

The fancy of some people will at once run to the formation of a grand
international Society for the revivifying of Christmas by the
cultivation of goodwill, with branches in all the chief cities of Europe
and America, and headquarters--of course at the Hague; and committees
and subcommittees, and presidents and vice-presidents; and honorary
secretaries and secretaries paid; and quart