A crime is like any other work of art. Don't look surprised; crimes are by no means the only works of art that come from an infernal workshop. But every work of art, divine or diabolic, has one indispensable mark--I mean that the centre of it is simple, however the entourage may be complicated. _'The Innocence of Father Brown.'_ DECEMBER 21st _ST. THOMAS'S DAY_ It was Huxley and Herbert Spencer and Bradlaugh who brought me back to orthodox theology. They sowed in my mind my first wild doubts of doubt. Our grandmothers were quite right when they said that Tom Paine and the Freethinkers unsettled the mind. They do. They unsettled mine horribly. The rationalists made me question whether reason was of any use whatever; and when I had finished Herbert Spencer I had got as far as doubting (for the first time) whether evolution had occurred at all. As I laid down the last of Colonel Ingersoll's atheistic lectures, the dreadful thought broke into my mind, 'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.' _'Orthodoxy.'_ DECEMBER 22nd Pure and exalted atheists talk themselves into believing that the working classes are turning with indignant scorn from the churches. The working classes are not indignant against the churches in the least. The things the working classes really are indignant against are the hospitals. The people has no definite disbelief in the temples of theology. The people has a very fiery and practical disbelief in the temples of physical science. _'Charles Dickens.'_ DECEMBER 23rd A turkey is more occult and awful than all the angels and archangels. In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, He has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished. _'All Things Considered.'_ DECEMBER 24th _CHRISTMAS EVE_ THE TRUCE OF CHRISTMAS Passionate peace is in the sky-- And in the snow in silver sealed The beasts are perfect in the field, And men seem men so suddenly-- (But take ten swords and ten times ten And blow the bugle in praising men; For we are for all men under the sun, And they are against us every one; And misers haggle and madmen clutch And there is peril in praising much, And we have the terrible tongues uncurled That praise the world to the sons of the world).