Fancies Versus FadsChesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
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Fancies Versus Fads
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
English essays -- 20th century
The truth involved here has had many names; that man is the image of
God; that he is the microcosm; that he is the measure of all things. He
is the microcosm in the sense that he is the mirror, the only crystal we
know in which the fantasy and fear in things are, in the double and real
sense, things of reflection. In the presence of this mysterious
monopoly the differences of men are like dust. That is what the equality
of men means to me; and that is the only intelligible thing it ever
meant to anybody. The common things of men infinitely outclass all
classes. For a man to disagree with this it is necessary that he should
understand it; Mr. Moore may really disagree with it; but the ordinary
modern anti-egalitarian does not understand it, or apparently anything
else. If a man says he had some transcendental dogma of his own, as Mr.
Moore may possibly have, which mixes man with nature or claims to see
other values in men, I shall say no more than that my religion is
different from his, and I am uncommonly glad of it. But if he simply
says that men cannot be equal because some of them are clever and some
of them are stupid--why then I shall merely agree (not without tears)
that some of them are very stupid.
The Sentimentalism of Divorce
Divorce is a thing which the newspapers now not only advertise, but
advocate, almost as if it were a pleasure in itself. It may be, indeed,
that all the flowers and festivities will now be transferred from the
fashionable wedding to the fashionable divorce. A superb iced and
frosted divorce-cake will be provided for the feast, and in military
circles will be cut with the co-respondent’s sword. A dazzling display
of divorce presents will be laid out for the inspection of the company,
watched by a detective dressed as an ordinary divorce guest. Perhaps the
old divorce breakfast will be revived; anyhow, toasts will be drunk, the
guests will assemble on the doorstep to see the husband and wife go off
in opposite directions; and all will go merry as a divorce-court bell.
All this, though to some it might seem a little fanciful, would really
be far less fantastic than the sort of things that are really said on
the subject. I am not going to discuss the depth and substance of that
subject. I myself hold a mystical view of marriage; but I am not going
to debate it here. But merely in the interests of light and logic I
would protest against the way in which it is frequently debated. The
process cannot rationally be called a debate at all. It is a sort of
chorus of sentimentalists in the sensational newspapers, perpetually
intoning some such formula as this: “We respect marriage, we reverence
marriage, holy, sacred, ineffably exquisite and ideal marriage. True
marriage is love, and when love alters, marriage alters, and when love
stops or begins again, marriage does the same; wonderful, beautiful,
beatific marriage.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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