Note 12 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
According to the Vulgate, the good tidings of great joy offered peace only 'to men of good-will,'—pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis,—which, whether the translation be right or wrong, undoubtedly destroys the sublimity of the conception, by narrowing down the benevolence of the deity, and deprives of the blessing of peace that majority of men, who, not being men of good-will, have the greatest need of it.