Empires
break; industrial conditions change; the suburbs will not last for ever. What
will remain? I will tell you. The Catholic Saint will remain."
~ GK Chesterton
from the Facebook page GK Chesterton
from the Facebook page GK Chesterton
"WHO talked of such folly?" asked MacIan disdainfully.
"Do you suppose that the Catholic Church ever held that Christians were
the only good men? Why, the Catholics of the Catholic Middle Ages talked about
the virtues of all the virtuous Pagans until humanity was sick of the subject.
No, if you really want to know what we mean when we say
that Christianity has a special power of virtue, I will tell you. The Church is
the only thing on earth that can perpetuate a type of virtue and make it
something more than a fashion. The thing is so plain and historical that I
hardly think you will ever deny it. You cannot deny that it is perfectly
possible that tomorrow morning, in Ireland or in Italy, there might appear a man
not only as good but good in exactly the same way as St. Francis of Assisi.
Very well, now take the other types of human virtue; many of them splendid. The English gentleman of Elizabeth was chivalrous and idealistic. But can you stand still here in this meadow and be an English gentleman of Elizabeth? The austere republican of the eighteenth century, with his stern patriotism and his simple life, was a fine fellow. But have you ever seen him? have you ever seen an austere republican? Only a hundred years have passed and that volcano of revolutionary truth and valour is as cold as the mountains of the moon. And so it is and so it will be with the ethics which are buzzing down Fleet Street at this instant as I speak.
What phrase would inspire the London clerk or workman just now? Perhaps that he is a son of the British Empire on which the sun never sets; perhaps that he is a prop of his Trades Union, or a class-conscious proletarian something or other; perhaps merely that he is a gentleman when he obviously is not. Those names and notions are all honourable; but how long will they last? Empires break; industrial conditions change; the suburbs will not last for ever. What will remain? I will tell you. The Catholic Saint will remain."
~G.K. Chesterton: from "The Ball and the Cross," Chap. VIII.─An Interlude of Argument.
Artwork: St. Francis in Ecstasy, by Caravaggio. Oil on canvas, c. 1595; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.
Very well, now take the other types of human virtue; many of them splendid. The English gentleman of Elizabeth was chivalrous and idealistic. But can you stand still here in this meadow and be an English gentleman of Elizabeth? The austere republican of the eighteenth century, with his stern patriotism and his simple life, was a fine fellow. But have you ever seen him? have you ever seen an austere republican? Only a hundred years have passed and that volcano of revolutionary truth and valour is as cold as the mountains of the moon. And so it is and so it will be with the ethics which are buzzing down Fleet Street at this instant as I speak.
What phrase would inspire the London clerk or workman just now? Perhaps that he is a son of the British Empire on which the sun never sets; perhaps that he is a prop of his Trades Union, or a class-conscious proletarian something or other; perhaps merely that he is a gentleman when he obviously is not. Those names and notions are all honourable; but how long will they last? Empires break; industrial conditions change; the suburbs will not last for ever. What will remain? I will tell you. The Catholic Saint will remain."
~G.K. Chesterton: from "The Ball and the Cross," Chap. VIII.─An Interlude of Argument.
Artwork: St. Francis in Ecstasy, by Caravaggio. Oil on canvas, c. 1595; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.
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