Excerpt from The Redwood, 1925, Vol. 24 The first chapter, on the stable at Bethlehem, is a case directly in point. Papini has the knack of making vivid discoveries about what he describes, simply by being perfectly accurate; as when, having fol lowed the scythed grass from the hillside and sun into the manger, he is able to see the animals take it slowly with their great black lips. And he makes the place intensely realistic this earthly pig-sty, where no dec orations or perfumes can hide the odor of filth. They' say the chapter is more striking in the Italian, which enforces ugliness with the spiteful sibilant. No doubt it is very strong. Still, Papini might have. Spared us the ugly things, having a good example for the omission. It is only St. Luke, of the four evangelists, who mentions the circumstance of the stable at all, . And then he mentions it quietly, in one sentence' 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.