Excerpt from The Christmas Motto: And the Old Prophetic Presages of a Coming Golden Era of Peace My aim in the present work is to set in the light of critical inquiry the famous Christmas legend, "Peace on Earth, Good-will among Men," with the other half of the subject, as presented in the title, "The Old Prophetic Presages of a coming Golden Era of Peace." This legend carries an overwhelming significance to human society. In theory it is inestimable. But as yet it is a theory only; charming, captivating, effective in sense and expression, but yet a theory, waiting to be put into action. Tho same is tho case with those prophetic forecasts of a glorious future of peace. They have thus far remained unfulfilled. They shared in the fate of all exalted and surpassing expectations for the future, which shine as castles with brightest hues along the horizon, but defy tho human grasp. And the nearer to them people at times believe that they are, the farther they will in sober and thoughtful houre really find themselves to be. The happy and magnificent goal prognosticated in those olden prophets was never reached, however anxiously the friends of peace and kindly humanitarians were pining for it. Their ardent hope would never bring them nearer to it, nor bring it nearer to them. Were they thus disappointed? Certainly they must have been. But the repeated failure of their fond outlook did not wean and dispirit them enough to give it up in despair. This is, too, quite in the mature of hope. "It builds," as Pope says, "as fast as knowledge can destroy." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.