Apologetics; Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), 1874-1936; Christianity -- Essence, genius, nature
we really hope for is one particular management and proposition of these
two things; a certain amount of restraint and respect, a certain amount
of energy and mastery. If our life is ever really as beautiful as a
fairy-tale, we shall have to remember that all the beauty of a
fairy-tale lies in this: that the prince has a wonder which just stops
short of being fear. If he is afraid of the giant, there is an end of
him; but also if he is not astonished at the giant, there is an end of
the fairy-tale. The whole point depends upon his being at once humble
enough to wonder, and haughty enough to defy. So our attitude to the
giant of the world must not merely be increasing delicacy or increasing
contempt: it must be one particular proportion of the two--which is
exactly right. We must have in us enough reverence for all things
outside us to make us tread fearfully on the grass. We must also have
enough disdain for all things outside us, to make us, on due occasion,
spit at the stars. Yet these two things (if we are to be good or happy)
must be combined, not in any combination, but in one particular
combination. The perfect happiness of men on the earth (if it ever
comes) will not be a flat and solid thing, like the satisfaction of
animals. It will be an exact and perilous balance; like that of a
desperate romance. Man must have just enough faith in himself to have
adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.
This, then, is our second requirement for the ideal of progress. First,
it must be fixed; second, it must be composite. It must not (if it is to
satisfy our souls) be the mere victory of some one thing swallowing up
everything else, love or pride or peace or adventure; it must be a
definite picture composed of these elements in their best proportion and
relation. I am not concerned at this moment to deny that some such good
culmination may be, by the constitution of things, reserved for the
human race. I only point out that if this composite happiness is fixed
for us it must be fixed by some mind; for only a mind can place the
exact proportions of a composite happiness. If the beatification of the
world is a mere work of nature, then it must be as simple as the
freezing of the world, or the burning up of the world. But if the
beatification of the world is not a work of nature but a work of art,
then it involves an artist. And here again my contemplation was cloven
by the ancient voice which said, "I could have told you all this a long
time ago. If there is any certain progress it can only be my kind of
progress, the progress towards a complete city of virtues and
dominations where righteousness and peace contrive to kiss each other.
An impersonal force might be leading you to a wilderness of perfect
flatness or a peak of perfect height. But only a personal God can
possibly be leading you (if, indeed, you are being led) to a city with
just streets and architectural proportions, a city in which each of you
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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