,a ,,chesterton ,,calendar      ,a      
,chesterton    ,calendar      ,compiled 
from the ,writings of    ',g4,k4,c4'    
,both in ,verse and in    ,prose4 ,with 
a section apart for    the ,moveable    
,feasts4      ,kegan ,paul1 ,trench1    
,trbner  ,co4 ,ltd4      ,dryden ,house1
 ,gerrard ,street1 ,london1 ,w4 #aiaa   
,,prefatory ,,note      ,it will be     
found that almost all ,mr4 ,g4 ,k4      
,chesterton's books have been  utilized 
in the making of this ,calendar4 ,a word
 of acknowledgment is  due to the       
various publishers for their courtesy in
 permitting this3  to ,messrs4 ,grant   
,richards1 ,arthur ,l4 ,humphreys1 ,j4  
,w4 ,arrowsmith1 ,john  ,lane1 ,j4 ,m4  
,dent  ,co41 ,macmillan  ,co41          
,duckworth  ,co41 ,harper  ,co41        
,cassell  ,co41 and ,methuen  ,co4      
,recourse has been had also to the      
files of the ',daily ,news1' the        
',illustrated ,london ,news1' and other 
journals to which ,mr4 ,chesterton has  
been a contributor4 ,the present        

publishers feel they are peculiarly     
indebted to ,mr4 ,chesterton himself    
for his kindness in allowing them to    
include certain verses from poems  which
 have not yet been printed in extenso   
elsewhere4          ,,january      ,mere
 light sophistry is the thing that ,i   
happen to despise most of all  things1  
and it is perhaps a wholesome fact that 
this is the thing of  which ,i am       
generally accused4      ',orthodoxy4'   
,,new ,,year',s ,,day    ,the object of 
a ,new ,year is not that we should have 
a new year4 ,it  is that we should have 
a new soul and a new nose2 new feet1 a  
new  backbone1 new ears1 and new eyes4  
,unless a particular man made ,new ,year
  resolutions1 he would make no         
resolutions4 ,unless a man starts afresh
  about things1 he will certainly do    
nothing effective4 ,unless a man  starts
 on the strange assumption that he has  
never existed before1 it  is quite      
certain that he will never exist        
afterwards4 ,unless a man be  born      

again1 he shall by no means enter into  
the ,kingdom of ,heaven4      ',daily   
,news4'      ,,january #bnd    ,there is
 no such thing as fighting on the       
winning side3 one fights to  find out   
which is the winning side4      ',what's
 ,wrong with the ,world4'      ,,january
 #crd    ,courage is almost a           
contradiction in terms4 ,it means a     
strong desire  to live taking the form  
of a readiness to die4 ',he that will   
lose  his life1 the same shall save it1'
 is not a piece of mysticism for  saints
 and heroes4 ,it is a piece of everyday 
advice for sailors or  mountaineers4 ,it
 might be printed in an ,alpine guide-  
or a drill-book4  ,this paradox is the  
whole principle of courage2 even of     
quite earthly  or quite brutal courage4 
,a man cut off by the sea may save his  
life if  he will risk it on the         
precipice4 ,he can only get away from   
death by  continually stepping within an
 inch of it4 ,a soldier1 surrounded by  
enemies1 if he is to cut his way out1   

needs to combine a strong desire  for   
living with a strange carelessness about
 dying4 ,he must not merely  cling to   
life1 for then he will be a coward1 and 
will not escape4 ,he  must not merely   
wait for death1 for then he will be a   
suicide1 and will  not escape4 ,he must 
seek his life in a spirit of furious    
indifference  to it2 he must desire life
 like water and yet drink death like    
wine4  ,no philosopher1 ,i fancy1 has   
ever expressed this romantic riddle with
  adequate lucidity1 and ,i certainly   
have not done so4 ,but ,christianity    
has done more3 it has marked the limits 
of it in the awful graves of  the       
suicide and the hero1 showing the       
distance between him who dies for  the  
sake of living and him who dies for the 
sake of dying4 ,and it has  held up ever
 since above the ,european lances the   
banner of the mystery  of chivalry3 the 
,christian courage which is a disdain of
 death2 not the  ,chinese courage which 
is a disdain of life4      ',orthodoxy4'

      ,,january #dth    ,the fact is    
that purification and austerity are even
 more necessary for  the appreciation of
 life and laughter than for anything    
else4 ,to let  no bird fly past         
unnoticed1 to spell patiently the stones
 and weeds1  to have the mind a         
storehouse of sunsets1 requires a       
discipline in  pleasure and an education
 in gratitude4      ',twelve ,types4'   
,,january #eth    ,we have people who   
represent that all great historic       
motives were  economic1 and then have to
 howl at the top of their voices in     
order to  induce the modern democracy to
 act on economic motives4 ,the extreme  
,marxian politicians in ,england exhibit
 themselves as a small1 heroic          
minority1 trying vainly to induce the   
world to do what1 according to  their   
theory1 the world always does4          
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,january  
#fth    ,,the ,,feast ,,of ,,the        
,,epiphany    ,,the ,,wise ,,men        
,step softly1 under snow or rain1       

,to find the place where men can pray2  
,the way is all so very plain1          
,that we may lose the way4        ,oh1  
we have learnt to peer and pore         
,on tortured puzzles from our youth4    
,we know all labyrinthine lore1      ,we
 are the three ,wise ,men of yore1      
,and we know all things but the truth4  
,go humbly 444 it has hailed and snowed 
444        ,with voices low and lanterns
 lit1      ,so very simple is the road1 
,that we may stray from it4        ,the 
world grows terrible and white1         
,and blinding white the breaking day1   
,we walk bewildered in the light1       
,for something is too large for sight1  
,and something much too plain to say4   
,the ,child that was ere worlds begun   
7444 ,we need but walk a little way 444 
,we need but see a latch undone 44471   
,the ,child that played with moon and   
sun        ,is playing with a little    
hay4        ,the house from which the   
heavens are fed1        ,the old strange
 house that is our own1      ,where     

tricks of words are never said1         
,and ,mercy is as plain as bread1       
,and ,honour is as hard as stone4       
,go humbly2 humble are the skies1       
,and low and large and fierce the ,star1
      ,so very near the ,manger lies1   
,that we may travel far4        ,hark6  
,laughter like a lion wakes        ,to  
roar to the resounding plain1      ,and 
the whole heaven shouts and shakes1     
,for ,god ,himself is born again2       
,and we are little children walking     
,through the snow and rain4             
',daily ,news4'      ,,january #gth     
,the idea of private property universal 
but private1 the idea of  families free 
but still families1 of domesticity      
democratic but still  domestic1 of one  
man one house--this remains the real    
vision and magnet  of mankind4 ,the     
world may accept something more official
 and general1  less human and intimate4 
,but the world will be like a           
broken-hearted  woman who makes a       
humdrum marriage because she may not    

make a happy  one2 ,socialism may be the
 world's deliverance1 but it is not the 
world's desire4      ',what's ,wrong    
with the ,world4'      ,,january #hth   
,the dipsomaniac and the abstainer are  
not only both mistaken1 but they  both  
make the same mistake4 ,they both regard
 wine as a drug and not as  a drink4    
',george ,bernard ,shaw4'      ,,january
 #ith    ,the thing from which ,england 
suffers just now more than from any     
other evil is not the assertion of      
falsehoods1 but the endless and         
irrepressible repetition of half-truths4
      ',g4 ,f ,watts4'      ,,january   
#ajth    ,it is amusing to notice that  
many of the moderns1 whether sceptics or
  mystics1 have taken as their sign a   
certain eastern symbol1 which is  the   
very symbol of this ultimate nullity4   
,when they wish to represent  eternity1 
they represent it by a serpent with its 
tail in its mouth4  ,there is a         
startling sarcasm in the image of that  
very unsatisfactory  meal4 ,the eternity

 of the material fatalists1 the eternity
 of the  eastern pessimists1 the        
eternity of the supercilious            
theosophists  and higher scientists of  
to-day is1 indeed1 very well presented  
by a  serpent eating its tail--a        
degraded animal who destroys even       
himself4      ',orthodoxy4'             
,,january #aath    ,variability is one  
of the virtues of a woman4 ,it obviates 
the crude  requirements of polygamy4 ,if
 you have one good wife you are sure to 
have a spiritual harem4      ',daily    
,news4'      ,,january #abth    ,we must
 not have ,king ,midas represented as an
 example of success2 he  was a failure  
of an unusually painful kind4 ,also1 he 
had the ears  of an ass4 ,also 7like    
most other prominent and wealthy        
persons71 he  endeavoured to conceal the
 fact4 ,it was his barber 7if ,i        
remember  right7 who had to be treated  
on a confidential footing with regard to
  this peculiarity2 and his barber1     
instead of behaving like a go-ahead     

person of the succeed-at-all-costs      
school and trying to blackmail ,king    
,midas1 went away and whispered this    
splendid piece of society scandal  to   
the reeds1 who enjoyed it enormously4   
,it is said that they also  whispered it
 as the winds swayed them to and fro4 ,i
 look reverently at  the portrait of    
,lord ,rothschild2 ,i read reverently   
about the exploits  of ,mr4 ,vanderbilt4
 ,i know that ,i cannot turn everything 
,i touch to  gold2 but then ,i also know
 that ,i have never tried1 having a     
preference  for other substances--such  
as grass and good wine4 ,i know that    
these  people have certainly succeeded  
in something2 that they have certainly  
overcome somebody2 ,i know that they are
 kings in a sense that no  men were ever
 kings before2 that they create markets 
and bestride  continents4 ,yet it always
 seems to me that there is some small   
domestic  fact that they are hiding1 and
 ,i have sometimes thought ,i heard upon
  the wind the laughter and whisper of  

the reeds4      ',all ,things           
,considered4'      ,,january #acth      
,the ,christian ideal has not been tried
 and found wanting4 ,it has been  found 
difficult2 and left untried4            
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,january #adth    ,the old masters of a
 healthy madness--,aristophanes or      
,rabelais or  ,shakespeare--doubtless   
had many brushes with the precisians or 
ascetics  of their day1 but we cannot   
but feel that for honest severity and   
consistent self-maceration they would   
always have had respect4 ,but  what     
abysses of scorn1 inconceivable to any  
modern1 would they have  reserved for an
 aesthetic type and movement which      
violated morality and  did not even find
 pleasure1 which outraged sanity and    
could not attain  to exuberance1 which  
contented itself with the fool's cap    
without the  bells6      ',the          
,defendant4'      ,,january #aeth       
,the truth is that all feeble spirits   
naturally live in the future1  because  

it is featureless2 it is a soft job2 you
 can make it what  you like4 ,the next  
age is blank1 and ,i can paint it       
freshly with my  favourite colour4 ,it  
requires real courage to face the past1 
because  the past is full of facts which
 cannot be got over2 of men certainly   
wiser than we1 and of things done which 
we could not do4 ,i know ,i  cannot     
write a poem as good as ',lycidas4' ,but
 it is always easy to say  that the     
particular sort of poetry ,i can write  
will be the poetry of  the future4      
',george ,bernard ,shaw4'      ,,january
 #afth    ',i have only that which the  
poor have equally with the rich2 which  
the  lonely have equally with the man of
 many friends4 ,to me this whole        
strange world is homely1 because in the 
heart of it there is a home2 to  me this
 cruel world is kindly1 because higher  
than the heavens there is  something    
more human than humanity4 ,if a man must
 not fight for this1  may he fight for  
anything8 ,i would fight for my friend1 

but if ,i lost  my friend1 ,i should    
still be there4 ,i would fight for my   
country1 but  if ,i lost my country1 ,i 
should still exist4 ,but if what that   
devil  dreams were true1 ,i should not  
be--,i should burst like a bubble and be
  gone2 ,i could not live in that       
imbecile universe4 ,shall ,i not fight  
for  my own existence8'      ',the ,ball
 and the ,cross4'      ,,january #agth  
,there are vast prospects and splendid  
songs in the point of view of  the      
typically unsuccessful man2 if all the  
used-up actors and spoilt  journalists  
and broken clerks could give a chorus it
 would be a  wonderful chorus in praise 
of the world4      ,introduction to     
',nicholas ,nickleby4'      ,,january   
#ahth    ',tommy was a good boy' is a   
purely philosophical statement1 worthy  
of  ,plato or ,aquinas4 ',tommy lived   
the higher life' is a gross metaphor    
from a ten-foot rule4      ',orthodoxy4'
      ,,january #aith    ,happiness is a
 mystery like religion1 and should never

 be rationalized4  ,suppose a man       
experiences a really splendid moment of 
pleasure4 ,i do  not mean something     
connected with a piece of enamel1 ,i    
mean something  with a violent happiness
 in it--an almost painful happiness4 ,a 
man may  have1 for instance1 a moment of
 ecstasy in first love1 or a moment of  
victory in battle4 ,the lover enjoys the
 moment1 but precisely not for  the     
moment's sake4 ,he enjoys it for the    
woman's sake1 or his own sake4  ,the    
warrior enjoys the moment1 but not for  
the sake of the moment2 he  enjoys it   
for the sake of the flag4 ,the cause    
which the flag stands for  may be       
foolish and fleeting2 the love may be   
calf-love1 and last for a  week4 ,but   
the patriot thinks of the flag as       
eternal2 the lover thinks  of his love  
as something that cannot end4 ,these    
moments are filled with  eternity2 these
 moments are joyful because they do not 
seem momentary4  ,once look at them as  
moments after ,pater's manner1 and they 

become as  cold as ,pater and his style4
 ,man cannot love mortal things4 ,he can
 only  love immortal things for an      
instant4      ',heretics4'              
,,january #bjth    ,it is remarkable    
that in so many great wars it is the    
defeated who  have won4 ,the people who 
were left worst at the end of the war   
were  generally the people who were left
 best at the end of the whole  business4
 ,for instance1 the ,crusades ended in  
the defeat of the  ,christians4 ,but    
they did not end in the decline of the  
,christians2  they ended in the decline 
of the ,saracens4 ,that huge prophetic  
wave  of ,moslem power which had hung in
 the very heavens above the towns  of   
,christendom3 that wave was broken1 and 
never came on again4 ,the  ,crusades had
 saved ,paris in the act of losing      
,jerusalem4 ,the same  applies to that  
epic of ,republican war in the          
eighteenth century to  which we         
,liberals owe our political creed4 ,the 
,french ,revolution ended  in defeat2   

the kings came back across a carpet of  
dead at ,waterloo4  ,the ,revolution had
 lost its last battle1 but it had gained
 its first  object4 ,it had cut a chasm4
 ,the world has never been the same     
since4      ',tremendous ,trifles4'     
,,january #bast    ,from such books 444 
we can discover what a clever man can do
 with the  idea of aristocracy4 ,but    
from the ',family ,herald ,supplement'  
literature  we can learn what the idea  
of aristocracy can do with a man who is 
not  clever4 ,and when we know that we  
know ,english history4      ',heretics4'
      ,,january #bbnd    ,darwinism can 
be used to back up two mad moralities1  
but it cannot  be used to back up a     
single sane one4 ,the kinship and       
competition of  all living creatures can
 be used as a reason for being insanely 
cruel  or insanely sentimental2 but not 
for a healthy love of animals4 ,on  the 
evolutionary basis you may be inhumane1 
or you may be absurdly  humane2 but you 
cannot be human4 ,that you and a tiger  

are one may be a  reason for being      
tender to a tiger4 ,or it may be a      
reason for being as  cruel as the tiger4
 ,it is one way to train the tiger to   
imitate you2  it is a shorter way to    
imitate the tiger4 ,but in neither case 
does  evolution tell you how to treat a 
tiger reasonably--that is1 to admire    
his stripes while avoiding his claws4   
,if you want to treat a tiger           
reasonably1 you must go back to the     
garden of ,eden4      ',orthodoxy4'     
,,january #bcrd    ,some priggish little
 clerk will say1 ',i have reason to     
congratulate  myself that ,i am a       
civilized person1 and not so            
bloodthirsty as the  ,mad ,mullah4'     
,somebody ought to say to him1 ',a      
really good man would be  less          
bloodthirsty than the ,mullah4 ,but you 
are less bloodthirsty1 not  because you 
are more of a good man1 but because you 
are a great deal  less of a man4 ,you   
are not bloodthirsty1 not because you   
would spare  your enemy1 but because you

 would run away from him4'      ',all   
,things ,considered4'      ,,january    
#bdth    ,to the quietest human being1  
seated in the quietest house1 there will
  sometimes come a sudden and unmeaning 
hunger for the possibilities or         
impossibilities of things2 he will      
abruptly wonder whether the teapot  may 
not suddenly begin to pour out honey or 
sea-water1 the clock to  point to all   
hours of the day at once1 the candle to 
burn green or  crimson1 the door to open
 upon a lake or a potato-field instead  
of a  ,london street4 ,upon anyone who  
feels this nameless anarchism there     
rests for the time being the spirit of  
pantomime4 ,of the clown who cuts  the  
policeman in two it may be said 7with no
 darker meaning7 that he  realizes one  
of our visions4      ',the ,defendant4' 
,,january #beth    ,silence is the      
unbearable repartee4      ',charles     
,dickens4'      ,,january #bfth    ',i  
am staring1' said ,mac,ian at last1 'at 
that which shall judge us  both4'       

',oh yes1' said ,turnbull in a tired    
way2 ',i suppose you mean ,god4'        
',no1 ,i don't1' said ,mac,ian1 shaking 
his head1 ',i mean him4' ,and he        
pointed to the half-tipsy yokel who was 
ploughing1 down the road4    ',i mean   
him4 ,he goes out in the early dawn2 he 
digs or he ploughs a  field4 ,then he   
comes back and drinks ale1 and then he  
sings a song4 ,all  your philosophies   
and political systems are young compared
 to him4 ,all  your hoary               
cathedrals--yes1 even the ,eternal      
,church on earth is new  compared to    
him4 ,the most mouldering gods in the   
,british ,museum are  new facts beside  
him4 ,it is he who in the end shall     
judge us all4 ,i am  going to ask him   
which of us is right4'    ',ask that    
intoxicated turnip-eater----'           
',yes--which of us is right4 ,oh1 you   
have long words and ,i have long  words2
 and ,i talk of every man being the     
image of ,god2 and you talk of  every   
man being a citizen and enlightened     

enough to govern4 ,but1 if  every man   
typifies ,god1 there is ,god4 ,if every 
man is an enlightened  citizen1 there is
 your enlightened citizen4 ,the first   
man one meets is  always man4 ,let us   
catch him up4'      ',the ,ball and the 
,cross4'      ,,january #bgth    ,i     
gravely doubt whether women ever were   
married by capture4 ,i think  they      
pretended to be2 as they do still4      
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,january #bhth    ,on bright blue days 
,i do not want anything to happen2 the  
world is  complete and beautiful--a     
thing for contemplation4 ,i no more ask 
for  adventures under that turquoise    
dome than ,i ask for adventures in      
church4 ,but when the background of     
man's life is a grey background1  then1 
in the name of man's sacred supremacy1  
,i desire to paint on it in  fire and   
gore4 ,when the heavens fail man refuses
 to fail2 when the sky  seems to have   
written on it1 in letters of lead and   
pale silver1 the  decree that nothing   

shall happen1 then the immortal soul1   
the prince of  all creatures1 rises up  
and decrees that something shall happen1
 if it  be only the slaughter of a      
policeman4      ',tremendous ,trifles4' 
,,january #bith    ,it is the very      
difference between the artistic mind and
 the  mathematical that the former sees 
things as they are in a picture1  some  
nearer and larger1 some smaller and     
farther away3 while to the  mathematical
 mind everything1 every inch in a       
million1 every fact in  a cosmos1 must  
be of equal value4 ,that is why         
mathematicians go mad1  and poets       
scarcely ever do4 ,a man may have as    
wide a view of life as  he likes1 the   
wider the better3 a distant view1 a     
bird's-eye view1 but  still a view and  
not a map4 ,the one thing he cannot     
attempt in his  version of the universe 
is to draw things to scale4      ',g4   
,f4 ,watts4'      ,,january #cjth       
,,execution ,,of ,,charles ,i      ,the 
face of the ,king's servants grew       

greater than the ,king4    ,he tricked  
them and they trapped him and drew round
 him in a ring2    ,the new grave lords 
closed round him that had eaten the     
abbey's fruits1    ,and the men of the  
new religion with their ,bibles in their
 boots1    ,we saw their shoulders      
moving to menace and discuss4    ,and   
some were pure and some were vile1 but  
none took heed of us2    ,we saw the    
,king when they killed him1 and his face
 was proud and pale1    ,and a few men  
talked of freedom while ,england talked 
of ale4      ',the ,silent ,people4'    
,,january #cast    ,the ',iliad' is only
 great because all life is a battle1 the
 ',odyssey'  because all life is a      
journey1 the ,book of ,job because all  
life is a  riddle4      ',the           
,defendant4'          ,,february        
,,february #ast    ,many modern         
,englishmen talk of themselves as the   
sturdy descendants of  their sturdy     
,puritan fathers4 ,as a fact1 they would
 run away from a  cow4 ,if you asked one

 of their ,puritan fathers1 if you asked
 ,bunyan1  for instance1 whether he was 
sturdy1 he would have answered with     
tears1  that he was as weak as water4   
,and because of this he would have borne
  tortures4      ',heretics4'           
,,february #bnd    ,,candlemas4 ,,the   
,,feast ,,of ,,the ,,purification       
,but as ,i sat scrawling these silly    
figures on brown paper1 it began to     
dawn on me1 to my great disgust1 that ,i
 had left one chalk1 and that a  most   
exquisite and essential one1 behind4 ,i 
searched all my pockets1  but ,i could  
not find any white chalk4 ,now1 those   
who are acquainted  with all the        
philosophy 7nay1 religion7 which is     
typified in the art  of drawing on brown
 paper1 know that white is positive and 
essential4  ,i cannot avoid remarking   
here upon a moral significance4 ,one of 
the  wise and awful truths which this   
brown-paper art reveals is this3 that   
white is a colour4 ,it is not a mere    
absence of colour1 it is a shining  and 

affirmative thing3 as fierce as red1 as 
definite as black4 ,when  7so to speak7 
your pencil grows red hot1 it draws     
roses2 when it grows  white hot1 it     
draws stars4 ,and one of the two or     
three defiant verities  of the best     
religious morality--of real             
,christianity1 for example--is  exactly 
this same thing4 ,the chief assertion of
 religious morality  is that white is a 
colour4 ,virtue is not the absence of   
vices or the  avoidance of moral        
dangers2 virtue is a vivid and separate 
thing1 like  pain or a particular smell4
 ,mercy does not mean not being cruel or
  sparing people revenge or punishment3 
it means a plain and positive  thing    
like the sun1 which one has either seen 
or not seen4 ,chastity  does not mean   
abstention from sexual wrong2 it means  
something flaming  like ,joan of ,arc4  
,in a word1 ,god paints in many colours1
 but ,he never  paints so gorgeously--,i
 had almost said so gaudily--as when ,he
 paints  in white4      ',tremendous    

,trifles4'      ,,february #crd    ,it  
is always easy to let the age have its  
head2 the difficult thing is  to keep   
one's own4 ,it is always easy to be a   
modernist1 as it is easy  to be a snob4 
,to have fallen into any of those open  
traps of error and  exaggeration which  
fashion after fashion and sect after    
sect set along  the historic path of    
,christendom--that would indeed have    
been simple4  ,it is always simple to   
fall2 there are an infinity of angles at
 which  one falls3 only one at which one
 stands4 ,to have fallen into any one of
  the fads from ,gnosticism to          
,christian ,science would indeed have   
been  obvious and tame4 ,but to have    
avoided them all has been one whirling  
adventure2 and in my vision the heavenly
 chariot flies thundering  through the  
ages1 the dull heresies sprawling and   
prostrate1 the wild  truth reeling but  
erect4      ',orthodoxy4'               
,,february #dth    ,the curse against   
,god is ',exercise ,i' in the primer of 

minor poetry4      ',the ,defendant4'   
,,february #eth    ,whatever else the   
worst doctrine of depravity may have    
been1 it was  a product of spiritual    
conviction2 it had nothing to do with   
remote  physical origins4 ,men thought  
mankind wicked because they felt wicked 
themselves4 ,if a man feels wicked1 ,i  
cannot see why he should suddenly  feel 
good because somebody tells him that his
 ancestors once had tails4  ,man's      
primary purity and innocence may have   
dropped off with his tail1  for all     
anybody knows4 ,the only thing we all   
know about that primary  purity and     
innocence is that we have not got it4   
',all ,things ,considered4'             
,,february #fth    ,if you have composed
 a bad opera you may persuade yourself  
that it is a  good one2 if you have     
carved a bad statue you can think       
yourself better  than ,michelangelo4    
,but if you have lost a battle you      
cannot believe you  have won it2 if your
 client is hanged you cannot pretend    

that you have  got him off4             
',george ,bernard ,shaw4'               
,,february #gth  ,,dickens ,,born    ,we
 are able to answer the question1 ',why 
have we no great men8' ,we  have no     
great men chiefly because we are always 
looking for them4 ,we  are connoisseurs 
of greatness1 and connoisseurs can never
 be great2 we  are fastidious--that is1 
we are small4 ,when ,diogenes went about
 with  a lantern looking for an honest  
man1 ,i am afraid he had very little    
time to be honest himself4 ,and when    
anybody goes about on his hands  and    
knees looking for a great man to        
worship1 he is making sure that  one man
 at any rate shall not be great4 ,now   
the error of ,diogenes  is evident4 ,the
 error of ,diogenes lay in the fact that
 he omitted  to notice that every man is
 both an honest man and a dishonest man4
  ,diogenes looked for his honest man   
inside every crypt and cavern1  but he  
never thought of looking inside the     
thief4 ,and that is where  the ,founder 

of ,christianity found the honest man2  
,he found him on a  gibbet and promised 
him ,paradise4 ,just as ,christianity   
looked for the  honest man inside the   
thief1 democracy looked for the wise man
 inside  the fool4 ,it encouraged the   
fool to be wise4 ,we can call this thing
  sometimes optimism1 sometimes         
equality2 the nearest name for it is    
encouragement4 ,it had its              
exaggerations--failure to understand    
original  sin1 notions that education   
would make all men good1 the childlike  
yet  pedantic philosophies of human     
perfectibility4 ,but the whole was full 
of faith in the infinity of human souls1
 which is in itself not only  ,christian
 but orthodox2 and this we have lost    
amid the limitations of  pessimistic    
science4 ,christianity said that any man
 could be a saint  if he chose2         
democracy1 that every man could be a    
citizen if he chose4  ,the note of the  
last few decades in art and ethics has  
been that a man  is stamped with an     

irrevocable psychology and is cramped   
for perpetuity  in the prison of his    
skull4 ,it was a world that expects     
everything and  everybody4 ,it was a    
world that encouraged anybody to be     
anything4 ,and  in ,england and         
literature its living expression was    
,dickens4      ',charles ,dickens4'     
,,february #hth    ,that which is large 
enough for the rich to covet is large   
enough for  the poor to defend4         
',the ,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'     
,,february #ith    ,the modern writers  
who have suggested1 in a more or less   
open manner1  that the family is a bad  
institution1 have generally confined    
themselves to suggesting1 with much     
sharpness1 bitterness1 or pathos1  that 
perhaps the family is not always very   
congenial4 ,of course the  family is a  
good institution because it is          
uncongenial4 ,it is wholesome  precisely
 because it contains so many            
divergencies and varieties4 ,it  is1 as 
the sentimentalists say1 like a little  

kingdom1 and1 like most  other little   
kingdoms1 is generally in a state of    
something resembling  anarchy4 ,it is   
exactly because our brother ,george is  
not interested  in our religious        
difficulties1 but is interested in the  
,trocadero  restaurant1 that the family 
has some of the bracing qualities of the
  commonwealth4 ,it is precisely because
 our uncle ,henry does not approve  of  
the theatrical ambitions of our sister  
,sarah that the family is  like         
humanity4 ,the men and women who1 for   
good reasons and bad1 revolt  against   
the family are1 for good reasons and    
bad1 simply revolting  against mankind4 
,aunt ,elizabeth is unreasonable1 like  
mankind4 ,papa  is excitable1 like      
mankind4 ,our younger brother is        
mischievous1 like  mankind4 ,grandpapa  
is stupid1 like the world2 he is old1   
like the world4      ',heretics4'       
,,february #ajth    ,he said3 ',if these
 were silent the very stones would cry  
out4' ,with  these words ,he called up  

all the wealth of artistic creation that
  has been founded on this creed4 ,with 
those words ,he founded ,gothic         
architecture4 ,for in a town like this1 
which seems to have grown ,gothic  as a 
wood grows leaves--anywhere and         
anyhow--any odd brick or moulding  may  
be carved off into a shouting face4 ,the
 front of vast buildings  is thronged   
with open mouths1 angels praising ,god1 
or devils defying  ,him4 ,rock itself is
 racked and twisted1 until it seems to  
scream4 ,the  miracle is accomplished2  
the very stones cry out4                
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,february 
#aath    ,the chaos of habits that      
always goes with males when left        
entirely  to themselves has only one    
honourable cure2 and that is the strict 
discipline of a monastery4 ,anyone who  
has seen our unhappy young  idealists in
 ,east ,end settlements losing their    
collars in the wash  and living on      
tinned salmon1 will fully understand why
 it was decided  by the wisdom of ,st4  

,bernard or ,st4 ,benedict that if men  
were to live  without women1 they must  
not live without rules4      ',what's   
,wrong with the ,world4'      ,,february
 #abth    ,the ,british ,empire may     
annex what it likes1 it will never annex
  ,england4 ,it has not even discovered 
the island1 let alone conquered it4     
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,february 
#acth    ,let it never be forgotten that
 a hypocrite is a very unhappy man2  he 
is a man who has devoted himself to a   
most delicate and arduous  intellectual 
art in which he may achieve masterpieces
 which he must  keep secret1 fight      
thrilling battles and win hair-breadth  
victories  for which he cannot have a   
whisper of praise4 ,a really            
accomplished  impostor is the most      
wretched of geniuses3 he is a ,napoleon 
on a desert  island4      ',browning4'  
,,february #adth ,,st4 ,,valentine',s   
,,day    ,the revolt against vows has   
been carried in our day even to the     
extent  of a revolt against the typical 

vow of marriage4 ,it is most amusing to 
listen to the opponents of marriage on  
this subject4 ,they appear to  imagine  
that the ideal of constancy was a joke  
mysteriously imposed on  mankind by the 
devil1 instead of being as it is a yoke 
consistently  imposed on all lovers by  
themselves4 ,they have invented a       
phrase1 a  phrase that is a black v4    
white contradiction in two words--'free 
love'--as if a lover ever had been or   
ever could be free4 ,it is  the nature  
of love to bind itself1 and the         
institution of marriage  merely paid the
 average man the compliment of taking   
him at his word4  ,modern sages offer to
 the lover with an ill-favoured grin the
 largest  liberties and the fullest     
irresponsibility2 but they do not       
respect  him as the old ,church         
respected him2 they do not write his    
oath upon  the heavens as the record of 
his highest moment4 ,they give him every
  liberty except the liberty to sell his
 liberty1 which is the only one  that he

 wants4      ',the ,defendant4'         
,,february #aeth    ,london is the      
largest of the bloated modern cities2   
,london is the  smokiest2 ,london is the
 dirtiest2 ,london is1 if you will1 the 
most  sombre2 ,london is1 if you will1  
the most miserable4 ,but ,london is     
certainly the most amusing and the most 
amused4 ,you may prove that we  have the
 most tragedy2 the fact remains that we 
have the most comedy1  that we have the 
most farce4      ',all ,things          
,considered4'      ,,february #afth     
,our fathers had a plain sort of pity3  
if you will1 a gross and coarse  pity4  
,they had their own sort of             
sentimentalism4 ,they were quite        
willing to weep over ,smike4 ,but it    
certainly never occurred to them to     
weep over ,squeers4 ,no doubt they were 
often narrow and often visionary4  ,no  
doubt they often looked at a political  
formula when they should  have looked at
 an elemental fact4 ,no doubt they were 
pedantic in some  of their principles   

and clumsy in some of their solutions4  
,no doubt1  in short1 they were all very
 wrong1 and no doubt we are the people  
and  wisdom shall die with us4 ,but when
 they saw something that in their  eyes1
 such as they were1 really violated     
their morality1 such as it  was1 then   
they did not cry ',investigate6' ,they  
did not cry ',educate6'  ,they did not  
cry ',improve6' ,they did not cry       
',evolve6' ,like ,nicholas  ,nickleby1  
they cried ',stop6' ,and it did stop4   
,introduction to ',nicholas ,nickleby4' 
,,february #agth    ,some people do not 
like the word 'dogma4' ,fortunately they
 are free1  and there is an alternative 
for them4 ,there are two things1 and two
  things only1 for the human mind--a    
dogma and a prejudice4 ,the ,middle     
,ages were a rational epoch1 an age of  
doctrine4 ,our age is1 at its  best1 a  
poetical epoch1 an age of prejudice4 ,a 
doctrine is a definite  point2 a        
prejudice is a direction4 ,that an ox   
may be eaten1 while a  man should not be

 eaten1 is a doctrine4 ,that as little  
as possible of  anything should be eaten
 is a prejudice2 which is also sometimes
 called  an ideal4      ',what's ,wrong 
with the ,world4'      ,,february #ahth 
,there are some people who state that   
the exterior1 sex1 or physique  of      
another person is indifferent to them1  
that they care only for the  communion  
of mind with mind2 but these people need
 not detain us4 ,there  are some        
statements that no one ever thinks of   
believing1 however often  they are made4
      ',the ,defendant4'      ,,february
 #aith    ,there are two rooted         
spiritual realities out of which grow   
all kinds  of democratic conception or  
sentiment of human equality4 ,there are 
two  things in which all men are        
manifestly and unmistakably equal4 ,they
 are  not equally clever or equally     
muscular or equally fat1 as the sages   
of the modern reaction 7with piercing   
insight7 perceive4 ,but this is  a      
spiritual certainty1 that all men are   

tragic4 ,and this1 again1 is  an equally
 sublime spiritual certainty1 that all  
men are comic4 ,no  special and private 
sorrow can be so dreadful as the fact of
 having  to die4 ,and no freak or       
deformity can be so funny as the mere   
fact of  having two legs4 ,every man is 
important if he loses his life2 and     
every  man is funny if he loses his hat1
 and has to run after it4 ,and the      
universal test everywhere of whether a  
thing is popular1 of the people1  is    
whether it employs vigorously these     
extremes of the tragic and the  comic4  
',charles ,dickens4'      ,,february    
#bjth    ,now the reason why our fathers
 did not make marriage1 in the          
middle-aged and static sense1 the       
subject of their plays was a very       
simple one2 it was that a play is a very
 bad place for discussing  that topic4  
,you cannot easily make a good drama out
 of the success or  failure of a        
marriage1 just as you could not make a  
good drama out of  the growth of an     

oak-tree or the decay of an empire4 ,as 
,polonius very  reasonably observed1 it 
is too long4 ,a happy love-affair will  
make a  drama simply because it is      
dramatic2 it depends on an ultimate yes 
or  no4 ,but a happy marriage is not    
dramatic2 perhaps it would be less      
happy if it were4 ,the essence of a     
romantic heroine is that she asks       
herself an intense question2 but the    
essence of a sensible wife is  that she 
is much too sensible to ask herself any 
questions at all4 ,all  the things that 
make monogamy a success are in their    
nature undramatic  things1 the silent   
growth of an instinctive confidence1 the
 common  wounds and victories1 the      
accumulation of customs1 the rich       
maturing  of old jokes4 ,sane marriage  
is an untheatrical thing2 it is         
therefore  not surprising that most     
modern dramatists have devoted          
themselves to  insane marriage4         
',george ,bernard ,shaw4'               
,,february #bast    ,if ,americans can  

be divorced for 'incompatibility of     
temper1' ,i cannot  conceive why they   
are not all divorced4 ,i have known many
 happy  marriages1 but never a          
compatible one4 ,the whole aim of       
marriage is  to fight through and       
survive the instant when incompatibility
 becomes  unquestionable4 ,for a man and
 a woman1 as such1 are incompatible4    
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,february #bbnd    ,of a sane man there
 is only one safe definition3 he is a   
man who can  have tragedy in his heart  
and comedy in his head4                 
',tremendous ,trifles4'    ,,february   
#bcrd    ,the artistic temperament is a 
disease that afflicts amateurs4         
',heretics4'      ,,february #bdth      
,it is constantly assumed1 especially in
 our ,tolstoian tendencies1 that  when  
the lion lies down with the lamb the    
lion becomes lamb-like4 ,but  that is   
brutal annexation and imperialism on the
 part of the lamb4  ,that is simply the 
lamb absorbing the lion instead of the  

lion eating  the lamb4 ,the real problem
 is--,can the lion lie down with the    
lamb  and still retain his royal        
ferocity8 ,that is the problem the      
,church  attempted2 that is the miracle 
she achieved4      ',orthodoxy4'        
,,february #beth    ,nothing is         
important except the fate of the soul2  
and literature is  only redeemed from an
 utter triviality1 surpassing that of   
naughts and  crosses1 by the fact that  
it describes not the world around us1 or
  the things on the retina of the eye1  
or the enormous irrelevancy of          
encyclopdias1 but some condition to     
which the human spirit can come4        
,introduction to ',the ,old ,curiosity  
,shop4'      ,,february #bfth    ,it is 
neither blood nor rain that has made    
,england1 but hope--the thing  all those
 dead men have desired4 ,france was not 
,france because she was  made to be by  
the skulls of the ,celts or by the sun  
of ,gaul4 ,france was  ,france because  
she chose4      ',george ,bernard       

,shaw4'      ,,february #bgth    ,a man 
must be partly a one-idead man because  
he is a one-weaponed  man--and he is    
flung naked into the fight4 ,in short1  
he must 7as the  books on ,success say7 
give 'his best'2 and what a small part  
of a man  'his best' is6 ,his second and
 third best are often much better4 ,if  
he  is the first violin he must fiddle  
for life2 he must not remember that  he 
is a fine fourth bagpipe1 a fair        
fifteenth billiard-cue1 a foil1 a       
fountain-pen1 a hand at whist1 a gun1   
and an image of ,god4      ',what's     
,wrong with the ,world4'      ,,february
 #bhth    ,the wise man will follow a   
star1 low and large and fierce in the   
heavens1 but the nearer he comes to it  
the smaller and smaller it will  grow1  
till he finds it the humble lantern over
 some little inn or  stable4 ,not till  
we know the high things shall we know   
how lovely they  are4      ',william    
,blake4'          ,,march      ,march   
#ast ,,st4 ,,david',s ,,day      ,my    

eyes are void with vision2 ,i sing but  
,i cannot speak2    ,i hide in the      
vaporous caverns like a creature wild   
and weak2    ,but for ever my harps are 
tuned and for ever my songs are sung1   
,and ,i answer my tyrants ever in an    
unknown tongue4      ,when the blue men 
broke in the battle with the ,roman or  
the ,dane1    ,in the cracks of my      
ghastly uplands they gathered like      
ghosts again4    ,some say ,i am still a
 ,druid1 some say my spirit shows       
,catholic1 ,puritan1 ,pagan2 but no man 
knows4      ,mother of ,god's good      
witches1 of all white mystery1          
,whatever else ,i am seeking1 ,i seek   
for thee4    ,for the old harp better   
fitted and swung on a stronger thong1   
,we1 that shall sing for ever2 ,o hear  
our song6      ',the ,seven ,swords4'   
,,march #bnd    ,it may be a very       
limited aim in morality to shoot a      
'many-faced  and fickle traitor1' but at
 least it is a better aim than to be a  
many-faced and fickle traitor1 which is 

a simple summary of a good many  modern 
systems from ,mr4 d',annunzio's         
downwards4      ',the ,defendant4'      
,,march #crd    ,a man may easily be    
forgiven for not doing this or that     
incidental act  of charity1 especially  
when the question is as genuinely       
difficult  and dubious as is the case of
 mendicity4 ,but there is something     
quite  pestilently ,pecksniffian about  
shrinking from a hard task on the plea  
that it is not hard enough4 ,if a man   
will really try talking to the ten      
beggars who come to his door he will    
soon find out whether it is really  so  
much easier than the labour of writing a
 cheque for a hospital4      ',what's   
,wrong with the ,world4'      ,,march   
#dth    ,but the man we see every       
day--the worker in ,mr4 ,gradgrind's    
factory1  the little clerk in ,mr4      
,gradgrind's office--he is too mentally 
worried  to believe in freedom4 ,he is  
kept quiet with revolutionary           
literature4  ,he is calmed and kept in  

his place by a constant succession of   
wild  philosophies4 ,he is a ,marxian   
one day1 a ,nietzscheite the next day1  
a ,superman 7probably7 the next day1 and
 a slave every day4 ,the only  thing    
that remains after all the philosophies 
is the factory4 ,the  only man who gains
 by all the philosophies is ,gradgrind4 
,it would be  worth his while to keep   
his commercial helotry supplied with    
sceptical  literature4 ,and now ,i come 
to think of it1 of course1 ,gradgrind is
  famous for giving libraries4 ,he shows
 his sense3 all modern books are  on his
 side4 ,as long as the vision of heaven 
is always changing1 the  vision of earth
 will be exactly the same4 ,no ideal    
will remain long  enough to be realized1
 or even partly realized4 ,the modern   
young man  will never change his        
environment1 for he will always change  
his mind4      ',orthodoxy4'            
,,march #eth    ,progress should mean   
that we are always walking towards the  
,new  ,jerusalem4 ,it does mean that the

 ,new ,jerusalem is always walking  away
 from us4 ,we are not altering the real 
to suit the ideal4 ,we are  altering the
 ideal3 it is easier4      ',orthodoxy4'
      ,,march #fth    ,in a very        
entertaining work1 over which we have   
roared in childhood1 it  is stated that 
a point has no parts and no magnitude4  
,humility is the  luxurious art of      
reducing ourselves to a point1 not to a 
small thing or  a large one1 but to a   
thing with no size at all1 so that to it
 all the  cosmic things are what they   
really are--of immeasurable stature4    
',the ,defendant4'      ,,march #gth    
,thus because we are not in a           
civilization which believes strongly in 
oracles or sacred places1 we see the    
full frenzy of those who killed         
themselves to find the sepulchre of     
,christ4 ,but being in a civilization   
which does believe in this dogma of fact
 for fact's sake1 we do not see  the    
full frenzy of those who kill themselves
 to find the ,north ,pole4 ,i  am not   

speaking of a tenable ultimate utility1 
which is true both of  the ,crusades and
 the polar explorations4 ,i mean merely 
that we do see  the superficial and     
sthetic singularity1 the startling      
quality1 about  the idea of men crossing
 a continent with armies to conquer the 
place  where a man died4 ,but we do not 
see the sthetic singularity and the     
startling quality of men dying in       
agonies to find a place where no man    
can live--a place only interesting      
because it is supposed to be the        
meeting-place of some lines that do not 
exist4      ',heretics4'      ,,march   
#hth    ,in one of his least convincing 
phrases1 ,nietzsche had said that just  
as the ape ultimately produced the man1 
so should we ultimately  produce        
something higher than the man4 ,the     
immediate answer1 of  course1 is        
sufficiently obvious3 the ape did not   
worry about the  man1 so why should we  
worry about the superman8 ,if the       
superman will  come by natural          

selection1 may we not leave it to       
natural selection8  ,if the superman    
will come by human selection1 what sort 
of superman  are we to select8 ,if he is
 simply to be more just1 more brave1 or 
more merciful1 then ,zarathustra sinks  
into a ,sunday-school teacher2  the only
 way we can work for it is to be more   
just1 more brave1 and  more             
merciful--sensible advice1 but hardly   
startling4 ,if he is to  be anything    
else than this1 why should we desire    
him1 or what else  are we to desire8    
,these questions have been many times   
asked of the  ,nietzscheites1 and none  
of the ,nietzscheites have even         
attempted to  answer them4      ',george
 ,bernard ,shaw4'      ,,march #ith     
,a man can be a ,christian to the end of
 the world1 for the simple reason  that 
a man could have been an ,atheist from  
the beginning of it4 ,the  materialism  
of things is on the face of things3 it  
does not require  any science to find it
 out4 ,a man who has lived and loved    

falls down  dead and the worms eat him4 
,that is ,materialism1 if you like4     
,that is  ,atheism1 if you like4 ,if    
mankind has believed in spite of that1  
it can  believe in spite of anything4   
,but why our human lot is made any more 
hopeless because we know the names of   
the worms who eat him1 or the  names of 
all the parts of him that they eat1 is  
to a thoughtful mind  somewhat difficult
 to discover4      ',all ,things        
,considered4'      ,,march #ajth    ,we 
should probably come considerably nearer
 to the true conception of  things if we
 treated all grown-up persons1 of all   
titles and types1  with precisely that  
dark affection and dazed respect with   
which we  treat the infantile           
limitations4 ,a child has no difficulty 
in achieving  the miracle of speech1    
consequently we find his blunders almost
 as  marvellous as his accuracy4 ,if we 
only adopted the same attitude  towards 
,premiers and ,chancellors of the       
,exchequer1 if we genially  encouraged  

their stammering and delightful attempts
 at human speech1 we  should be in a far
 more wise and tolerant temper4         
',the ,defendant4'      ,,march #aath   
,when the working women in the poor     
districts come to the doors of the      
public-houses and try to get their      
husbands home1 simple-minded 'social    
workers' always imagine that every      
husband is a tragic drunkard and  every 
wife a broken-hearted saint4 ,it never  
occurs to them that the  poor woman is  
only doing under coarser conventions    
exactly what every  fashionable hostess 
does when she tries to get the men from 
arguing  over the cigars to come and    
gossip over the teacups4      ',what's  
,wrong with the ,world4'      ,,march   
#abth    ,what have we done1 and where  
have we wandered1 we that have produced 
sages who could have spoken with        
,socrates and poets who could walk  with
 ,dante1 that we should talk as if we   
had never done anything more            
intelligent than found colonies and kick

 niggers8 ,we are the children  of      
light1 and it is we that sit in         
darkness4 ,if we are judged1 it  will   
not be for the merely intellectual      
transgression of failing to  appreciate 
other nations1 but for the supreme      
spiritual transgression  of failing to  
appreciate ourselves4      ',the        
,defendant4'      ,,march #acth    ,and 
for those who talk to us with           
interfering eloquence about ,jaeger  and
 the pores of the skin1 and about       
,plasmon and the coats of the  stomach1 
at them shall only be hurled the words  
that are hurled at fops  and gluttons1  
',take no thought what ye shall eat1 or 
what ye shall  drink1 or wherewithal ye 
shall be clothed4 ,for after all these  
things  do the ,gentiles seek4 ,but seek
 ye first the ,kingdom of ,god1 and ,his
  righteousness2 and all these things   
shall be added unto you4'               
',heretics4'      ,,march #adth    ,the 
,christian admits that the universe is  
manifold and even  miscellaneous1 just  

as a sane man knows that he is complex4 
,nay1 the  really sane man knows that he
 has a touch of the madman4 ,but the    
,materialist's world is quite simple and
 solid1 just as the madman is  quite    
sure he is sane4 ,the ,materialist is   
sure that history has been  simply and  
solely a chain of causation1 just as the
 interesting person  before mentioned is
 quite sure that he is simply and solely
 a chicken4  ,materialists and madmen   
never have doubts4      ',orthodoxy4'   
,,march #aeth    ,the modern world      
7intent on anarchy in everything1 even  
in ,government7  refuses to perceive the
 permanent element of tragic constancy  
which  inheres in all passion1 and which
 is the origin of marriage4 ,marriage   
rests upon the fact that you cannot have
 your cake and eat it2 that you  cannot 
lose your heart and have it4            
,introduction to ',david ,copperfield4' 
,,march #afth    ,morality did not begin
 by one man saying to another1 ',i will 
not hit  you if you do not hit me'2     

there is no trace of such a transaction4
  ,there is a trace of both men having  
said1 ',we must not hit each  other in  
the holy place4' ,they gained their     
morality by guarding  their religion4   
,they did not cultivate courage4 ,they  
fought for the  shrine1 and found they  
had become courageous4 ,they did not    
cultivate  cleanliness4 ,they purified  
themselves for the altar1 and found that
  they were clean4 ,the history of the  
,jews is the only early document  known 
to most ,englishmen1 and the facts can  
be judged sufficiently from  that4 ,the 
,ten ,commandments which have been found
 substantially common  to mankind were  
merely military commands2 a code of     
regimental orders1  issued to protect a 
certain ark across a certain desert4    
,anarchy was  evil because it endangered
 the sanctity4 ,and only when they made 
a holy  day for ,god did they find they 
had made a holiday for men4             
',orthodoxy4'      ,,march #agth ,,st4  
,,patrick',s ,,day    ,the average      

autochthonous ,irishman is close to     
patriotism because he  is close to the  
earth2 he is close to domesticity       
because he is close  to the earth2 he is
 close to doctrinal theology and        
elaborate ritual  because he is close to
 the earth4 ,in short1 he is close to   
the heavens  because he is close to the 
earth4      ',george ,bernard ,shaw4'   
,,march #ahth    ,we men and women are  
all in the same boat1 upon a stormy sea4
 ,we owe  to each other a terrible and  
tragic loyalty4 ,if we catch sharks for 
food1 let them be killed most           
mercifully2 let anyone who likes love   
the  sharks1 and pet the sharks1 and tie
 ribbons round their necks and give     
them sugar and teach them to dance4 ,but
 if once a man suggests that a  shark is
 to be valued against a sailor1 or that 
the poor shark might  be permitted to   
bite off a nigger's leg occasionally1   
then ,i would  court-martial the man--he
 is a traitor to the ship4      ',all   
,things ,considered4'      ,,march #aith

    ,every statute is a declaration of  
war1 to be backed by arms4 ,every       
tribunal is a revolutionary tribunal4   
,in a republic all punishment is  as    
sacred and solemn as lynching4          
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,march #bjth    ,i have no sympathy    
with international aggression when it is
 taken  seriously1 but ,i have a certain
 dark and wild sympathy with it when it 
is quite absurd4 ,raids are all wrong as
 practical politics1 but they  are human
 and imaginable as practical jokes4 ,in 
fact1 almost any act of  ragging or     
violence can be forgiven on this strict 
condition--that it  is of no use at all 
to anybody4 ,if the aggression gets     
anything out of  it1 then it is quite   
unpardonable4 ,it is damned by the least
 hint of  utility or profit4 ,a man of  
spirit and breeding may brawl1 but he   
does  not steal4 ,a gentleman knocks off
 his friend's hat1 but he does not      
annex his friend's hat4      ',all      
,things ,considered4'      ,,march #bast

    ,modern and cultured persons1 ,i    
believe1 object to their children       
seeing kitchen company or being taught  
by a woman like ,peggotty4 ,but  surely 
it is more important to be educated in a
 sense of human dignity  and equality   
than in anything else in the world4 ,and
 a child who has  once had to respect a 
kind and capable woman of the lower     
classes  will respect the lower classes 
for ever4 ,the true way to overcome the 
evil in class distinctions is not to    
denounce them as revolutionists         
denounce them1 but to ignore them as    
children ignore them4      ',charles    
,dickens4'      ,,march #bbnd    ,there 
is no clearer sign of the absence of    
originality among modern  poets than    
their disposition to find new topics4   
,really original poets  write poems     
about the spring4 ,they are always      
fresh1 just as the spring  is always    
fresh4 ,men wholly without originality  
write poems about  torture1 or new      
religions1 or some perversion of        

obscenity1 hoping  that the mere sting  
of the subject may speak for them4 ,but 
we do not  sufficiently realize that    
what is true of the classic ode is also 
true of the classic joke4 ,a true poet  
writes about the spring being  beautiful
 because 7after a thousand springs7 the 
spring really is  beautiful4 ,in the    
same way the true humorist writes about 
a man sitting  down on his hat because  
the act of sitting down on one's own hat
  7however often and admirably          
performed7 really is extremely funny4   
,we  must not dismiss a new poet because
 his poem is called ',to a ,skylark'2   
nor must we dismiss a humorist because  
his new farce is called ',my            
,mother-in-,law4' ,he may really have   
splendid and inspiring things to say    
upon an eternal problem4 ,the whole     
question is whether he has4             
,introduction to ',sketches by ,boz4'   
,,march #bcrd    ,man is an exception1  
whatever else he is4 ,if he is not the  
image of  ,god1 then he is a disease of 

the dust4 ,if it is not true that a     
divine  being fell1 then we can only say
 that one of the animals went entirely  
off its head4      ',all ,things        
,considered4'      ,,march #bdth        
,social reformers have fired a hundred  
shots against the public-house1  but    
never one against its really shameful   
character4 ,the sign of  decay is not in
 the public-house1 but in the private   
bar2 or rather  the row of five or six  
private bars1 into each of which a      
respectable  dipsomaniac can go in      
solitude1 and by indulging his own      
half-witted  sin violates his own       
half-witted morality4 ,nearly all these 
places are  equipped with an atrocious  
apparatus of ground-glass windows which 
can be so closed that they practically  
conceal the face of the buyer  from the 
seller4 ,words cannot express the       
abysses of human infamy  and hateful    
shame expressed by that elaborate piece 
of furniture4  ,whenever ,i go into a   
public-house1 which happens fairly      

often1 ,i always  carefully open all    
these apertures and then leave the place
 in every  way refreshed4      ',george 
,bernard ,shaw4'      ,,march #beth     
,,lady ,,day        ,fearfully plain the
 flowers grew1          ,like a child's 
book to read1        ,or like a friend's
 face seen in a glass4      ,he looked1 
and there ,our ,lady was2      ,she     
stood and stroked the tall live grass   
,as a man strokes his steed4        ,her
 face was like a spoken word            
,when brave men speak and choose1       
,the very colours of her coat           
,were better than good news4444         
',the gates of heaven are tightly       
locked1        ,we do not guard our     
gain1      ,the heaviest hind may easily
      ,come silently and suddenly       
,upon me in a lane4        ',and any    
little maid that walks        ,in good  
thoughts apart1      ,may break the     
guard of the ,three ,kings1      ,and   
see the dear and dreadful things        
,i hid within my heart4'        ',ballad

 of ,alfred4'      ,,march #bfth    ,it 
is one of the mean and morbid modern    
lies that physical courage  is connected
 with cruelty4 ,the ,tolstoian and      
,kiplingite are nowhere  more at one    
than in maintaining this4 ,they have1 ,i
 believe1 some  small sectarian quarrel 
with each other3 the one saying that    
courage  must be abandoned because it is
 connected with cruelty1 and the other  
maintaining that cruelty is charming    
because it is a part of courage4  ,but  
it is all1 thank ,god1 a lie4 ,an energy
 and boldness of body may  make a man   
stupid or reckless or dull or drunk or  
hungry1 but it does  not make him       
spiteful4      ',what's ,wrong with the 
,world4'      ,,march #bgth    ,for     
human beings1 being children1 have the  
childish wilfulness and the  childish   
secrecy4 ,and they never have from the  
beginning of the world  done what the   
wise men have seen to be inevitable4    
',the ,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'     
,,march #bhth    ,cruelty to animals is 

cruelty and a vile thing2 but cruelty to
 a man is  not cruelty2 it is treason4  
,tyranny over a man is not tyranny3 it  
is  rebellion1 for man is royal4 ,now1  
the practical weakness of the vast  mass
 of modern pity for the poor and the    
oppressed is precisely that it  is      
merely pity2 the pity is pitiful1 but   
not respectful4 ,men feel that  the     
cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty
 to animals4 ,they never  feel that it  
is injustice to equals2 nay1 it is      
treachery to comrades4  ,this dark1     
scientific pity1 this brutal pity1 has  
an elemental  sincerity of its own1 but 
it is entirely useless for all ends of  
social  reform4 ,democracy swept ,europe
 with the sabre when it was founded upon
  the ,rights of ,man4 ,it has done     
literally nothing at all since it has   
been founded only upon the wrongs of    
man4 ,or1 more strictly speaking1  its  
recent failure has been due to its not  
admitting the existence  of any rights  
or wrongs1 or indeed of any humanity4   

,evolution 7the  sinister enemy of      
revolution7 does not especially deny the
 existence  of ,god3 what it does deny  
is the existence of man4 ,and all the   
despair  about the poor1 and the cold   
and repugnant pity for them1 has been   
largely due to the vague sense that they
 have literally relapsed into  the state
 of the lower animals4      ',charles   
,dickens4'      ,,march #bith    ,the   
modern humanitarian can love all        
opinions1 but he cannot love all  men2  
he seems sometimes1 in the ecstasy of   
his humanitarianism1 even to  hate them 
all4 ,he can love all opinions1         
including the opinion that men  are     
unlovable4      ,introduction to ',hard 
,times4'      ,,march #cjth    ,every   
man is dangerous who only cares for one 
thing4      ',the ,napoleon of ,notting 
,hill4'      ,,march #cast    ,as ,mr4  
,blatchford says1 ',the world does not  
want piety1 but soap--and  ,socialism4' 
,piety is one of the popular virtues1   
whereas soap and  ,socialism are two    

hobbies of the upper middle class4      
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,april      ,,april #ast ,,all ,,fools'
 ,,day    ,we shall never make anything 
of democracy until we make fools of     
ourselves4 ,for if a man really cannot  
make a fool of himself1 we may be  quite
 certain that the effort is superfluous4
      ',the ,defendant4'      ,,april   
#bnd    ,modesty has moved from the     
organ of ambition4 ,modesty has settled 
upon  the organ of conviction--where it 
was never meant to be4 ,a man was  meant
 to be doubtful about himself1 but      
undoubting about the truth2  this has   
been exactly reversed4 ,nowadays the    
part of a man that a man  does assert is
 exactly the part he ought not to       
assert--himself4 ,the  part he doubts is
 exactly the part he ought not to       
doubt--the ,divine  ,reason4 ,huxley    
preached a humility content to learn    
from ,nature4 ,but  the new sceptic is  
so humble that he doubts if he can even 
learn4 ,thus  we should be wrong if we  

had said hastily that there is no       
humility  typical of our time4 ,the     
truth is that there is a real humility  
typical  of our time2 but it so happens 
that it is practically a more poisonous 
humility than the wildest prostrations  
of the ascetic4 ,the old humility  was a
 spur that prevented a man from         
stopping3 not a nail in his boot  that  
prevented him from going on4 ,for the   
old humility made a man  doubtful about 
his efforts1 which might make him work  
harder4 ,but the  new humility makes a  
man doubtful about his aims1 which will 
make him  stop working altogether4      
',orthodoxy4'      ,,april #crd    ,it  
is very currently suggested that the    
modern man is the heir of  all the ages1
 that he has got the good out of these  
successive human  experiments4 ,i know  
not what to say in answer to this1      
except to ask  the reader to look at the
 modern man1 as ,i have just looked at  
the  modern man--in the looking-glass4  
,is it really true that you and ,i  are 

two starry towers built up of all the   
most towering visions of  the past8     
,have we really fulfilled all the great 
historic ideals one  after the other1   
from our naked ancestor who was brave   
enough to  kill a mammoth with a stone  
knife1 through the ,greek citizen and   
the  ,christian saint to our own        
grandfather or great-grandfather1 who   
may  have been sabred by the ,manchester
 ,yeomany or shot in the '#dh8 ,are  we 
still strong enough to spear mammoths1  
but now tender enough to  spare them8   
,does the cosmos contain any mammoth    
that we have either  speared or spared8 
,when we decline 7in a marked manner7 to
 fly the red  flag and fire across a    
barricade like our grandfathers1 are we 
really  declining in deference to       
sociologists--or to soldiers8 ,have we  
indeed  outstripped the warrior and     
passed the ascetical saint8 ,i fear we  
only  outstrip the warrior in the sense 
that we should probably run away from   
him4 ,and if we have passed the saint1  

,i fear we have passed him without      
bowing4      ',what's ,wrong with the   
,world4'      ,,april #dth    ,the      
prophet who is stoned is not a brawler  
or a marplot4 ,he is simply a  rejected 
lover4 ,he suffers from an unrequited   
attachment to things in  general4       
',the ,defendant4'      ,,april #eth    
,laughter and love are everywhere4 ,the 
cathedrals1 built in the ages  that     
loved ,god1 are full of blasphemous     
grotesques4 ,the mother laughs          
continually at the child1 the lover     
laughs continually at the lover1  the   
wife at the husband1 the friend at the  
friend4      ',the ,napoleon of ,notting
 ,hill4'      ,,april #fth              
,fairy-tales do not give a child his    
first idea of bogy4 ,what  fairy-tales  
give the child is his first clear idea  
of the possible  defeat of bogy4 ,the   
baby has known the dragon intimately    
ever since  he had an imagination4 ,what
 the fairy-tale provides for him is a   
,st4  ,george to kill the dragon4       

,exactly what the fairy-tale does is    
this3 it accustoms him by a series  of  
clear pictures to the idea that these   
limitless terrors have a  limit1 that   
these shapeless enemies have enemies1   
that these infinite  enemies of man have
 enemies in the knights of ,god1 that   
there is  something in the universe more
 mystical than darkness1 and stronger   
than strong fear4 ,when ,i was a child  
,i have stared at the darkness  until   
the whole black bulk of it turned into  
one negro giant taller  than heaven4 ,if
 there was one star in the sky it only  
made him a  ,cyclops4 ,but fairy-tales  
restored my mental health4 ,for next day
 ,i read  an authentic account of how a 
negro giant with one eye1 of quite equal
  dimensions1 had been baffled by a     
little boy like myself 7of similar      
inexperience and even lower social      
status7 by means of a sword1 some  bad  
riddles1 and a brave heart4             
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,april    
#gth    ,the full value of this life can

 only be got by fighting2 the violent   
take it by storm4 ,and if we have       
accepted everything we have missed      
something--war4 ,this life of ours is a 
very enjoyable fight1 but a very        
miserable truce4      ',charles         
,dickens4'      ,,april #hth    ,the old
 religionists tortured men physically   
for a moral truth4 ,the new  realists   
torture men morally for a physical      
truth4      ',tremendous ,trifles4'     
,,april #ith    ',i sincerely maintain  
that ,nature-worship is more morally    
dangerous  than the most vulgar         
,man-worship of the cities2 since it can
 easily be  perverted into the worship  
of an impersonal mystery1 carelessness1 
or  cruelty4 ,thoreau would have been a 
jollier fellow if he had devoted        
himself to a green-grocer instead of to 
greens4'      ',alarms and              
,discursions4'      ,april #ajth        
,suppose that a great commotion arises  
in the street about  something--let us  
say a lamp-post1 which many influential 

persons  desire to pull down4 ,a        
grey-clad monk1 who is the spirit of the
 ,middle  ,ages1 is approached on the   
matter1 and begins to say1 in the arid  
manner of the ,schoolmen1 ',let us first
 of all consider1 my brethren1  the     
value of ,light4 ,if ,light be in itself
 good----' ,at this point he  is        
somewhat excusably knocked down4 ,all   
the people make a rush for the          
lamp-post1 the lamp-post is down in ten 
minutes1 and they go about              
congratulating each other on their      
unmedieval practicality4 ,but as  things
 go on they do not work out so easily4  
,some people have pulled  the lamp-post 
down because they wanted the electric   
light2 some because  they wanted old    
iron2 some because they wanted darkness1
 because their  deeds were evil4 ,some  
thought it not enough of a lamp-post1   
some too  much2 some acted because they 
wanted to smash municipal machinery2    
some because they wanted to smash       
something4 ,and there is war in the     

night1 no man knowing whom he strikes4  
,so1 gradually and inevitably1  to-day1 
to-morrow1 or the next day1 there comes 
back the conviction  that the monk was  
right after all1 and that all depends on
 what is  the philosophy of ,light4     
,only what we might have discussed under
 the  gas-lamp we must now discuss in   
the dark4      ',heretics4'      ,,april
 #aath    ,his soul will never starve   
for exploits or excitements who is wise 
enough to be made a fool of4 ,he will   
make himself happy in the traps  that   
have been laid for him2 he will roll in 
their nets and sleep4 ,all  doors will  
fly open to him who has a mildness more 
defiant than mere  courage4 ,the whole  
is unerringly expressed in one fortunate
 phrase--he  will be always 'taken in4' 
,to be taken in everywhere is to see the
  inside of everything4 ,it is the      
hospitality of circumstance4 ,with      
torches and trumpets1 like a guest1 the 
greenhorn is taken in by ,life4  ,and   
the sceptic is cast out by it4          

',charles ,dickens4'      ,,april #abth 
,you cannot admire will in general1     
because the essence of will is that  it 
is particular4 ,a brilliant anarchist   
like ,mr4 ,john ,davidson felt  an      
irritation against ordinary morality1   
and therefore he invokes  will--will to 
anything4 ,he only wants humanity to    
want something4 ,but  humanity does want
 something4 ,it wants ordinary morality4
 ,he rebels  against the law and tells  
us to will something or anything4 ,but  
we  have willed something4 ,we have     
willed the law against which he rebels4 
',orthodoxy4'      ,,april #acth    ,i  
have often been haunted with a fancy    
that the creeds of men might  be        
paralleled and represented in their     
beverages4 ,wine might stand  for       
genuine ,catholicism1 and ale for       
genuine ,protestantism2 for these  at   
least are real religions with comfort   
and strength in them4 ,clean  cold      
,agnosticism would be clean cold        
water--an excellent thing if you  can   

get it4 ,most modern ethical and        
idealistic movements might be well      
represented by soda-water--which is a   
fuss about nothing4 ,mr4 ,bernard       
,shaw's philosophy is exactly like black
 coffee--it awakens1 but it does  not   
really inspire4 ,modern hygienic        
materialism is very like cocoa2 it      
would be impossible to express one's    
contempt for it in stronger terms  than 
that4 ,sometimes one may come across    
something that may honestly  be compared
 to milk1 an ancient and heathen        
mildness1 an earthly yet  sustaining    
mercy--the milk of human kindness4 ,you 
can find it in a few  pagan poets and a 
few old fables2 but it is everywhere    
dying out4      ',william ,blake4'      
,,april #adth    ,as it is in politics  
with the specially potent man1 so it is 
in history  with the specially learned4 
,we do not need the learned man to teach
  us the important things4 ,we all know 
the important things1 though we  all    
violate and neglect them4 ,gigantic     

industry1 abysmal knowledge  are needed 
for the discovery of the tiny           
things--the things that seem  hardly    
worth the trouble4 ,generally speaking1 
the ordinary man should  be content with
 the terrible secret that men are       
men--which is another  way of saying    
that they are brothers4                 
',illustrated ,london ,news4'           
,,april #aeth    ,the women were of the 
kind vaguely called emancipated1 and    
professed  some protest against male    
supremacy4 ,yet these new women would   
always  pay to a man the extraordinary  
compliment which no ordinary woman ever 
pays to him--that of listening while he 
is talking4      ',the ,man who was     
,thursday4'      ,,april #afth          
,whatever the merits or demerits of the 
,pantheistic sentiment of melting  into 
nature of ',oneness' 7,i think they call
 it7 with seas and skies1  it is not and
 it never has been a popular sentiment4 
,it has been the  feeling of a few      
learned aesthetes or secluded           

naturalists4 ,popular  poetry is all    
against ,pantheism and quite removed    
from ,immanence4 ,it is  all about the  
beautiful earth as an edge or fringe of 
something much  better and quite        
distinct4 ,ballads and carols do not go 
to the tune of  ',one with the ,essence 
of the ,boundless ,world4' ,ballads and 
carols go to  the tune of ',over the    
hills and far away2' the sense that life
 leads by  a strange and special path to
 something sacred and separate4         
',daily ,news4'      ,,april #agth      
,how high the sea of human happiness    
rose in the ,middle ,ages1 we now  only 
know by the colossal walls that they    
built to keep it in bounds4  ,how low   
human happiness sank in the twentieth   
century1 our children  will only know by
 these extraordinary modern books1 which
 tell people  to be cheerful and that   
life is not so bad after all4 ,humanity 
never  produces optimists till it has   
ceased to produce happy men4 ,it is     
strange to be obliged to impose a       

holiday like a fast1 and to drive men   
to a banquet with spears4      ',george 
,bernard ,shaw4'      ,,april #ahth     
,if a god does come upon the earth1 he  
will descend at the sight of the  brave4
 ,our prostrations and litanies are of  
no avail2 our new moons and  sabbaths   
are an abomination4 ,the great man will 
come when all of us are  feeling great1 
not when all of us are feeling small4   
,he will ride in at  some splendid      
moment when we all feel that we could do
 without him4      ',charles ,dickens4' 
,,april #aith ,,primrose ,,day    ,if   
the great ,jew who led the ,english     
,tories understood patriotism 7as  ,i do
 not doubt that he did7 it must have    
been a decidedly special and  peculiar  
kind of patriotism1 and it necessarily  
laid him open to the  mistake about the 
relative positions of the terms ,emperor
 and ,king4 ,to  him no doubt ,emperor  
seemed obviously a higher title2 just as
 ,brother  of the ,sun and ,moon would  
have seemed to him a higher title than  

,second ,cousin of the ,evening ,star4  
,among ,orientals all such titles are   
towering and hyperbolical4 ,but of      
kingship as it has been felt among      
,christian men he had no notion1 and    
small blame to him4 ,he did not         
understand the domestic1 popular1 and   
priestly quality in the thing2  the idea
 expressed in the odd old phrase of     
being the breath of his  people's       
nostrils2 the mystical life pumped      
through the lungs and  framework of a   
state4      ',illustrated ,london       
,news4'      ,,april #bjth    ',i know  
of a magic wand1 but it is a wand that  
only one or two may  rightly use1 and   
only seldom4 ,it is a fairy wand of     
great fear1  stronger than those who use
 it--often frightful1 often wicked to   
use4  ,but whatever is touched with it  
is never again wholly common2 whatever  
is touched with it takes a magic from   
outside the world4 ,it has made  mean   
landscapes magnificent and hovels       
outlast cathedrals4 ,the touch of  it is

 the finger of a strange perfection4    
',there it is6'--he pointed to the floor
 where his sword lay flat and  shining4 
',the ,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'     
,,april #bast    ,there are many        
definite methods1 honest and dishonest1 
which make men  rich2 the only          
'instinct' ,i know of which does it is  
that instinct  which theological        
,christianity crudely describes as 'the 
sin of  avarice4'      ',all ,things    
,considered4'      ,,april #bbnd    ,it 
is a common saying that anything may    
happen behind our backs3                
transcendentally considered1 the thing  
has an eerie truth about it4  ,eden may 
be behind our backs1 or ,fairyland4 ,but
 this mystery of the  human back has1   
again1 its other side in the strange    
impression  produced on those behind3 to
 walk behind anyone along a lane is a   
thing  that1 properly speaking1 touches 
the oldest nerve of awe4 ,watts has     
realized this as no one in art or       
letters has realized it in the whole    

history of the world2 it has made him   
great4 ,there is one possible  exception
 to his monopoly of this magnificent    
craze4 ,two thousand years  before1 in  
the dark scriptures of a nomad people1  
it had been said that  their prophet saw
 the immense ,creator of all things1 but
 only saw ,him  from behind4      ',g4  
,f4 ,watts4'      ,,april #bcrd ,,st4   
,,george',s ,,day        ,i see you how 
you smile in state        ,straight from
 the ,peak to ,plymouth ,bar2      ,you 
need not tell me you are great1         
,i know how more than great you are4    
,i know what spirit ,chaucer was2       
,i have seen ,gainsborough and the      
grass4        ',tremendous ,trifles4'   
,,april #bdth    ,there is no fear that 
a modern king will attempt to override  
the  constitution3 it is more likely    
that he will ignore the constitution    
and work behind its back4 ,he will take 
no advantage of his kingly  power3 it is
 more likely that he will take advantage
 of his kingly  powerlessness--of the   

fact that he is free from criticism and 
publicity4 ,for the ,king is the most   
private person of our time4 ,it  will   
not be necessary for anyone to fight    
against the proposal of a  censorship of
 the ,press4 ,we do not need a          
censorship of the ,press4 ,we  have a   
censorship by the ,press4               
',orthodoxy4'      ,,april #beth ,,st   
,,mark',s ,,day    ,the only thing still
 old-fashioned enough to reject miracles
 is the ,new  ,theology4                
',orthodoxy4'      ,,april #bfth    ,the
 modern man thought ,becket's robes too 
rich and his meals too poor4  ,but then 
the modern man was really exceptional in
 history2 no man  before ever ate such  
elaborate dinners in such ugly clothes4 
,the modern  man found the ,church too  
simple exactly where life is too        
complex2 he  found the ,church too      
gorgeous exactly where modern life is   
too dingy4  ,the man who disliked the   
plain fasts and feasts was mad on       
entres4  ,the man who disliked vestments

 wore a pair of preposterous trousers4  
,and surely if there was any insanity   
involved in the matter at all it  was in
 the trousers1 not in the simply falling
 robe4 ,if there was any  insanity at   
all1 it was in the extravagant entres1  
not in the bread  and wine4             
',orthodoxy4'      ,,april #bgth        
,,the two things that a healthy person  
hates most between heaven and hell  are 
a woman who is not dignified and a man  
who is4      ',all ,things ,considered4'
      ,,april #bhth    ,for those who   
study the great art of lying in bed     
there is one emphatic  caution to be    
added4 ,even for those who cannot do    
their work in bed  7as1 for example1 the
 professional harpooners of whales71 it 
is obvious  that the indulgence must be 
very occasional4 ,but that is not the   
caution ,i mean4 ,the caution is this3  
if you do lie in bed1 be sure  you do it
 without any reason or justification at 
all4 ,i do not speak1  of course1 of the
 seriously sick4 ,but if a healthy man  

lies in bed1  let him do it without a   
rag of excuse2 then he will get up a    
healthy  man4 ,if he does it for some   
secondary hygienic reason1 if he has    
some  scientific explanation1 he may get
 up a hypochondriac4      ',tremendous  
,trifles4'      ,,april #bith    ,the   
creed of our cruel cities is not so sane
 and just as the creed  of the old      
country-side2 but the people are just as
 clever in giving  names to their sins  
in the city as in giving names to their 
joys in the  wilderness4 ,one could not 
better sum up ,christianity than by     
calling  a small white insignificant    
flower ',the ,star of ,bethlehem4' ,but 
then  again one could not better sum up 
the philosophy deduced from ,darwinism  
than in the one verbal picture of       
'having your monkey up4'      ',daily   
,news4'      ,,april #cjth ,,st4        
,,catherine ,,of ,,siena',s ,,day       
,historic ,christianity rose into a high
 and strange coup de thtre  of          
morality--things that are to virtue what

 the crimes of ,nero are  to vice4 ,the 
spirits of indignation and of charity   
took terrible and  attractive forms1    
ranging from that monkish fierceness    
that scourged  like a dog the first and 
greatest of the ,plantagenets1 to the   
sublime  pity of ,st4 ,catherine1 who1  
in the official shambles1 kissed the    
bloody head of the criminal4 ,our       
ethical teachers write reasonably  for  
prison reform2 but we are not likely to 
see ,mr4 ,cadbury1 or any  eminent      
philanthropist1 go into ,reading ,jail  
to embrace the strangled  corpse before 
it is cast into the quicklime4 ,our     
ethical teachers write  wildly against  
the power of millionaires1 but we are   
not likely to see  ,mr4 ,rockefeller1 or
 any modern tyrant1 publicly whipped in 
,westminster  ,abbey4      ',orthodoxy4'
          ,,may      ,,may #ast ,,labour
 ,,day      ,it may be we shall rise the
 last as ,frenchmen rose the first2     
,our wrath come after ,russia's1 and our
 wrath be the worst4    ,it may be we   

are set to mark by our riot and our rest
    ,god's scorn of all man's           
governance3 it may be beer is best4     
,but we are the people of ,england1 and 
we never have spoken yet4    ,mock at   
us1 pay us1 pass us2 but do not quite   
forget4      ',the ,silent ,people4'    
,,may #bnd    ,if drudgery only means   
dreadfully hard work1 ,i admit the woman
 drudges  in the home1 as a man might   
drudge at the ,cathedral of ,amiens or  
drudge  behind a gun at ,trafalgar4 ,but
 if it means that the hard work is more 
heavy because it is trifling1           
colourless1 and of small import to the  
soul1 then1 as ,i say1 ,i give it up3 ,i
 do not know what the word means4  ,to  
be ,queen ,elizabeth within a definite  
area--deciding sales1 banquets1         
labours1 and holidays2 to be ,whiteley  
within a certain area--providing  toys1 
boots1 sheets1 cakes1 and books2 to be  
,aristotle within a certain             
area--teaching morals1 manners1         
theology1 and hygiene3 ,i can understand

  how this might exhaust the mind1 but  
,i cannot imagine how it could  narrow  
it4      ',what's ,wrong with the       
,world4'      ,,may #crd    ,since it is
 lawful to pray for the coming of the   
,kingdom1 it is lawful  also to pray for
 the coming of the revolution that shall
 restore the  ,kingdom4 ,it is lawful to
 hope to hear the wind of ,heaven in the
 trees4  ,it is lawful to pray1 ',thine 
anger come on earth as it is in         
,heaven4'      ',tremendous ,trifles4'  
,,may #dth        ,happy is he and more 
than wise        ,who sees with         
wondering eyes and clean      ,this     
world through all the grey disguise     
,of sleep and custom in between4        
,yes2 we may pass the heavenly screen1  
,but shall we know when we are there8   
,who know not what these dead stones    
mean1        ,the lovely city of        
,lierre4        ',tremendous ,trifles4' 
,,may #eth    ,anomalies do matter very 
much1 and do a great deal of harm2      
abstract  illogicalities do matter a    

great deal1 and do a great deal of harm3
  and this for a reason that anyone at  
all acquainted with human nature  can   
see for himself4 ,all injustice begins  
in the mind3 and anomalies  accustom the
 mind to the idea of unreason and       
untruth4 ,suppose ,i had  by some       
prehistoric law the power of forcing    
every man in ,battersea  to nod his head
 three times before he got out of bed3  
the practical  politicians might say    
that this power was a harmless anomaly1 
that it  was not a grievance4 ,it could 
do my subjects no harm2 it could do me  
no good4 ,the people of ,battersea1 they
 would say1 might safely submit  to it2 
but the people of ,battersea could not  
safely submit to it1 for  all that4 ,if 
,i had nodded their heads for them for  
fifty years1 ,i could  cut off their    
heads for them at the end of it with    
immeasurably greater  ease2 for there   
would have permanently sunk into every  
man's mind the  notion that it was a    
natural thing for me to have a fantastic

 and  irrational power4 ,they would have
 grown accustomed to insanity4          
',all ,things ,considered4'      ,,may  
#fth    ,ireland is a country in which  
the political conflicts are at least    
genuine3 they are about something4 ,they
 are about patriotism1 about  religion1 
or about money3 the three great         
realities4 ,in other words1  they are   
concerned with what commonwealth a man  
lives in1 or with what  universe a man  
lives in1 or how he is to manage to live
 in either4 ,but  they are not concerned
 with which of two wealthy cousins in   
the same  governing class shall be      
allowed to bring in the same ,parish    
,councils  ,bill4      ',george ,bernard
 ,shaw4'      ,,may #gth    ,maeterlinck
 is as efficient in filling a man with  
strange spiritual  tremors as ,messrs4  
,crosse  ,blackwell are in filling a man
 with jam4  ,but it all depends on what 
you want to be filled with4 ,lord       
,rosebery1  being a modern sceptic1     
probably prefers the spiritual tremors4 

,i1  being an orthodox ,christian1      
prefer the jam4      ',what's ,wrong    
with the ,world4'      ,,may #hth       
,the world is not a lodging-house at    
,brighton1 which we are to leave        
because it is miserable4 ,it is the     
fortress of our family1 with the  flag  
flying on the turret1 and the more      
miserable it is the less we  should     
leave it4 ,the point is not that this   
world is too sad to love or  too glad   
not to love2 the point is that when you 
do love a thing1 its  gladness is a     
reason for loving it1 and its sadness a 
reason for loving  it more4 ,all        
optimistic thoughts about ,england and  
all pessimistic  thoughts about her are 
alike reasons for the ,english patriot4 
,similarly1 optimism and pessimism are  
alike arguments for the cosmic  patriot4
      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,may #ith     
,it is not by any means self-evident    
upon the face of it that an  institution
 like the liberty of speech is right or 
just4 ,it is not  natural or obvious to 

let a man utter follies and abominations
 which  you believe to be bad for       
mankind any more than it is natural or  
obvious to let a man dig up a part of   
the public road1 or infect half  a town 
with typhoid fever4 ,the theory of free 
speech1 that truth is so  much larger   
and stranger and more many-sided than we
 know of1 that it  is very much better  
at all costs to hear every one's account
 of it1  is a theory which has been     
justified upon the whole by experiment1 
but which remains a very daring and even
 a very surprising theory4 ,it  is      
really one of the great discoveries of  
the modern time2 but once  admitted1 it 
is a principle that does not merely     
affect politics1 but  philosophy1       
ethics1 and finally1 poetry4            
',browning4'      ,,may #ajth           
,whatever makes men feel old is mean--an
 empire or a skin-flint shop4  ,whatever
 makes men feel young is great--a great 
war or a love-story4  ,and in the       
darkest of the books of ,god there is   

written a truth that  is also a riddle4 
,it is of the new things that men       
tire--of fashions  and proposals and    
improvements and change4 ,it is the old 
things that  startle and intoxicate4 ,it
 is the old things that are young4      
,there is  no sceptic who does not feel 
that men have doubted before4 ,there is 
no rich and fickle man who does not feel
 that all his novelties are  ancient4   
,there is no worshipper of change who   
does not feel upon his  neck the vast   
weight of the weariness of the universe4
 ,but we who do  the old things are fed 
by ,nature with a perpetual infancy4 ,no
 man who  is in love thinks that anyone 
has been in love before4 ,no woman who  
has a child thinks there have been such 
things as children4 ,no people  that    
fight for their own city are haunted    
with the burden of the broken  empires4 
',the ,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'     
,,may #aath    ,most of us have suffered
 from a certain sort of lady who1 by her
  perverse unselfishness1 gives more    

trouble than the selfish2 who almost    
clamours for the unpopular dish and     
scrambles for the worst seat4 ,most  of 
us have known parties or expeditions    
full of this seething fuss of           
self-effacement4      ',what's ,wrong   
with the ,world4'      ,,may #abth      
,it is the custom1 particularly among   
magistrates1 to attribute half the      
crimes of the ,metropolis to cheap      
novelettes4 ,if some grimy urchin runs  
away with an apple1 the magistrate      
shrewdly points out that the child's    
knowledge that apples appease hunger is 
traceable to some curious  literary     
researches4 ,the boys themselves1 when  
penitent1 frequently  accuse the        
novelettes with great bitterness1 which 
is only to be  expected from young      
people possessed of no little native    
humour4 ,if ,i  had forged a will1 and  
could obtain sympathy by tracing the    
incident to  the influence of ,mr4      
,george ,moore's novels1 ,i should find 
the greatest  entertainment in the      

diversion4 ,at any rate1 it is firmly   
fixed in the  minds of most people that 
gutter-boys1 unlike everybody else in   
the  community1 find their principal    
motives for conduct in printed books4   
',the ,defendant4'      ,,may #acth     
,soldiers have many faults1 but they    
have one redeeming merit3 they  are     
never worshippers of ,force4 ,soldiers  
more than any other men are  taught     
severely and systematically that might  
is not right4 ,the fact  is obvious3 the
 might is in the hundred men who obey4  
,the right 7or  what is held to be      
right7 is in the one man who commands   
them4 ,they  learn to obey symbols1     
arbitrary things1 stripes on an arm1    
buttons  on a coat1 a title1 a flag4    
,these may be artificial things2 they   
may  be unreasonable things2 they may1  
if you will1 be wicked things2 but  they
 are not weak things4 ,they are not     
,force1 and they do not look  like      
,force4 ,they are parts of an idea1 of  
the idea of discipline2 if  you will1 of

 the idea of tyranny2 but still an idea4
 ,no soldier could  possibly say that   
his own bayonets were his authority4 ,no
 soldier  could possibly say that he    
came in the name of his own bayonets4   
,it  would be as absurd as if a postman 
said that he came inside his bag4  ,i do
 not1 as ,i have said1 underrate the    
evils that really do arise  from        
militarism and the military ethic4 ,it  
tends to give people wooden  faces and  
sometimes wooden heads4 ,it tends1      
moreover 7both through its              
specialization and through its constant 
obedience71 to a certain loss  of real  
independence and strength of character4 
,this has almost always  been found when
 people made the mistake of turning the 
soldier into a  statesman1 under the    
mistaken impression that he was a strong
 man4 ,the  ,duke of ,wellington1 for   
instance1 was a strong soldier and      
therefore  a weak statesman4 ,but the   
soldier is always1 by the nature of     
things1  loyal to something4 ,and as    

long as one is loyal to something one   
can  never be a worshipper of mere      
force4 ,for mere force1 violence in the 
abstract1 is the enemy of anything we   
love4 ,to love anything is to see  it at
 once under lowering skies of danger4   
,loyalty implies loyalty in  misfortune2
 and when a soldier has accepted any    
nation's uniform he has  already        
accepted its defeat4      ',all ,things 
,considered4'      ,,may #adth    ,now1 
,i have not lost my ideals in the least2
 my faith in fundamentals  is exactly   
what it always was4 ,what ,i have lost  
is my old childlike  faith in practical 
politics4 ,i am still as much concerned 
as ever about  the ,battle of           
,armageddon2 but ,i am not so much      
concerned about the  ,general ,election4
 ,as a babe ,i leapt up on my mother's  
knee at the mere  mention of it4 ,no2   
the vision is always solid and reliable4
 ,the vision  is always a fact4 ,it is  
the reality that is often a fraud4 ,as  
much  as ,i ever did1 ,i believe in     

,liberalism4 ,but there was a rosy time 
of  innocence when ,i believed in       
,liberals4      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,may
 #aeth    ,distribute the dignified     
people and the capable people and the   
highly  business-like people among all  
the situations which their ambition or  
their innate corruption may demand1 but 
keep close to your heart1 keep  deep in 
your inner councils the absurd people2  
let the clever people  pretend to govern
 you1 let the unimpeachable people      
pretend to advise  you1 but let the     
fools alone influence you2 let the      
laughable people  whose faults you see  
and understand be the only people who   
are really  inside your life1 who really
 come near you or accompany you on your 
lonely march towards the last           
impossibility4      ,introduction to    
',david ,copperfield4'      ,,may #afth 
,philosophy is not the concern of those 
who pass through ,divinity and  ,greats1
 but of those who pass through birth and
 death4 ,nearly all the  more awful and 

abstruse statements can be put in words 
of one syllable1  from ',a child is     
born' to ',a soul is damned4' ,if the   
ordinary man may  not discuss existence1
 why should he be asked to conduct it8  
',george ,bernard ,shaw4'      ,,may    
#agth    ,keeping to one woman is a     
small price for so much as seeing one   
woman4      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,may    
#ahth ,,george ,,meredith ,,died    ,the
 trees thinned and fell away from each  
other1 and ,i came out into  deep grass 
and a road4 ,i remember being surprised 
that the evening  was so far advanced2  
,i had a fancy that this valley had a   
sunset all  to itself4 ,i went along    
that road according to directions that  
had  been given me1 and passed the      
gateway in a slight paling1 beyond which
  the wood changed only faintly to a    
garden4 ,it was as if the curious       
courtesy and fineness of that character 
,i was to meet went out from  him upon  
the valley2 for ,i felt on all these    
things the finger of  that quality which

 the old ,english called 'faerie'2 it is
 the quality  which those can never     
understand who think of the past as     
merely  brutal2 it is an ancient        
elegance such as there is in trees4 ,i  
went  through the garden and saw an old 
man sitting by a table1 looking         
smallish in his big chair4 ,he was      
already an invalid1 and his hair and    
beard were both white2 not like snow1   
for snow is cold and heavy1 but  like   
something feathery1 or even fierce2     
rather they were white like  white      
thistledown4 ,i came up quite close to  
him2 he looked at me as  he put out his 
frail hand1 and ,i saw of a sudden that 
his eyes were  startlingly young4 ,he   
was the one great man of the old world  
whom ,i  have met who was not a mere    
statue over his own grave4    ,he was   
deaf and he talked like a torrent4 ,he  
did not talk about the  books he had    
written2 he was far too much alive for  
that4 ,he talked  about the books he had
 not written4 ,he unrolled a purple     

bundle of  romances which he had never  
had time to sell4 ,he asked me to write 
one of the stories for him1 as he would 
have asked the milkman1 if he  had been 
talking to the milkman4 ,it was a       
splendid and frantic story1  a sort of  
astronomical farce4 ,it was all about a 
man who was rushing  up to the ,royal   
,society with the only possible way of  
avoiding an  earth-destroying comet2 and
 it showed how1 even on this huge       
errand1  the man was tripped up at every
 other minute by his own weaknesses  and
 vanities2 how he lost a train by       
trifling or was put in gaol for         
brawling4 ,that is only one of them2    
there were ten or twenty more4          
,another1 ,i dimly remember1 was a      
version of the fall of ,parnell2 the    
idea that a quite honest man might be   
secret from a pure love of  secrecy1 of 
solitary self-control4 ,i went out of   
that garden with a  blurred sensation of
 the million possibilities of creative  
literature4  ,the feeling increased as  

my way fell back into the wood2 for a   
wood is  a palace with a million        
corridors that cross each other         
everywhere4 ,i  really had the feeling  
that ,i had seen the creative quality2  
which is  supernatural4 ,i had seen what
 ,virgil calls the ,old ,man of the     
,forest3 ,i  had seen an elf4 ,the trees
 thronged behind my path2 ,i have never 
seen  him again2 and now ,i shall not   
see him1 because he died last ,tuesday4 
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,may #aith
 ,,gladstone ,,died        ,lift up your
 heads3 in life1 in death1        ,god  
knoweth his head was high2      ,quit we
 the coward's broken breath        ,who 
watched a strong man die4        ,oh1   
young ones of a darker day1        ,in  
,art's wan colours clad1      ,whose    
very love and hate are grey--           
,whose very sin is sad1        ,pass on2
 one agony long drawn        ,was       
merrier than your mirth1      ,when     
hand-in-hand came death and dawn        
,and spring was on the earth4           

',to ,them that ,mourn4'      ,,may     
#bjth    ,if the authors and publishers 
of ',dick ,deadshot1' and such          
remarkable  works1 were suddenly to make
 a raid upon the educated class1 were to
  take down the names of every man1     
however distinguished1 who was caught   
at a ,university ,extension ,lecture1   
were to confiscate all our novels  and  
warn us all to correct our lives1 we    
should be seriously annoyed4  ,yet they 
have far more right to do so than we2   
for they1 with all their  idiotcy1 are  
normal and we are abnormal4 ,it is the  
modern literature of  the educated1 not 
of the uneducated1 which is avowedly and
 aggressively  criminal4 ,books         
recommending profligacy and pessimism1  
at which the  high-souled errand-boy    
would shudder1 lie upon all our         
drawing-room  tables4 ,if the dirtiest  
old owner of the dirtiest old bookstall 
in  ,whitechapel dared to display works 
really recommending polygamy or         
suicide1 his stock would be seized by   

the police4 ,these things are  our      
luxuries4 ,and with a hypocrisy so      
ludicrous as to be almost  unparalleled 
in history1 we rate the gutter boys for 
their immorality  at the very time that 
we are discussing 7with equivocal       
,german  professors7 whether morality is
 valid at all4 ,at the very instant that
  we curse the ,penny ,dreadful for     
encouraging thefts upon property1 we    
canvass the proposition that all        
property is theft4444 ,at the very      
instant that we charge it with          
encouraging the young to destroy life1  
we are placidly discussing whether life 
is worth preserving4      ',the         
,defendant4'      ,,may #bast    ,the   
,english nation will still be going the 
way of all ,european nations  when the  
,anglo-,saxon race has gone the way of  
all fads4      ',heretics4'      ,,may  
#bbnd    ,the public does not like bad  
literature4 ,the public likes a certain 
kind of literature1 and likes that kind 
even when it is bad better  than another

 kind of literature even when it is     
good4 ,nor is this  unreasonable2 for   
the line between different types of     
literature is as  real as the line      
between tears and laughter2 and to tell 
people who  can only get bad comedy that
 you have some first-class tragedy is as
  irrational as to offer a man who is   
shivering over weak1 warm coffee a      
really superior sort of ice4            
',charles ,dickens4'      ,,may #bcrd   
,to-morrow is the ,gorgon2 a man must   
only see it mirrored in the shining     
shield of yesterday4 ,if he sees it     
directly he is turned to stone4  ,this  
has been the fate of all those who have 
really seen fate and  futurity as clear 
and inevitable4 ,the ,calvinists1 with  
their perfect  creed of predestination1 
were turned to stone2 the modern        
sociological  scientists 7with their    
excruciating ,eugenics7 are turned to   
stone4 ,the  only difference is that the
 ,puritans make dignified1 and the      
,eugenists  somewhat amusing1 statues4  

',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,may #bdth ,,empire ,,day    ,i for one
 should be sincerely glad if we could   
have a national  celebration1           
remembering our real achievements and   
reminding ourselves  of our real work in
 the world4 ,only for any such national 
celebration  ,i should suggest two      
conditions3 first1 that our national    
celebration  should be invented by our  
nation and not by another nation4 ,and  
secondly1 that it should be forced by   
the people on the newspaper             
proprietors1 and not by the newspaper   
proprietors on the people4              
',illustrated ,london ,news4'      ,,may
 #beth    ,there is no hope for men who 
do not boast that their wives bully     
them4      ',alarms and ,discursions4'  
,,may #bfth ,,st4 ,,augustine ,,of      
,,england',s ,,day    ,if our faith had 
been a mere fad of the fading empire1   
fad would have  followed fad in the     
twilight1 and if the civilization ever  
re-emerged  7and many such have never   

re-emerged7 it would have been under    
some new  barbaric flag4 ,but the       
,christian ,church was the last life of 
the old  society and was also the first 
life of the new4 ,she took the people   
who  were forgetting how to make an     
arch1 and she taught them to invent the 
,gothic arch4 ,in a word1 the most      
absurd thing that could be said of the  
,church is the thing we have all heard  
said of it4 ,how can we say that  the   
,church wishes to bring us back into the
 ,dark ,ages8 ,the ,church was  the only
 thing that ever brought us out of them4
      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,may #bgth    
,one ,sun is splendid3 six ,suns would  
be only vulgar4 ,one ,tower of ,giotto  
is sublime3 a row of ,towers of ,giotto 
would be only like a row of white       
posts4 ,the poetry of art is in         
beholding the single tower2 the poetry  
of nature1 in seeing the single tree2   
the poetry of love1 in following  the   
single woman2 the poetry of religion1 in
 worshipping the single  star4          

',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,may #bhth
    ,boys like romantic tales2 but      
babies like realistic tales--because    
they  find them romantic4 ,in fact1 a   
baby is about the only person1 ,i should
  think1 to whom a modern realistic     
novel could be read without boring  him4
      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,may #bith    
,,the ,,restoration    ,it is a         
commonplace that the ,restoration       
,movement can only be  understood when  
considered as a reaction against        
,puritanism4 ,but it  is insufficiently 
realized that the tyranny which half    
frustrated  all the good work of        
,puritanism was of a very peculiar kind4
 ,it was  not the fire of ,puritanism1  
the exultation in sobriety1 the frenzy  
of restraint1 which passed away3 that   
still burns in the heart of  ,england1  
only to be quenched by the final        
overwhelming sea4 ,but it is  seldom    
remembered that the ,puritans were in   
their day emphatically  intellectual    
bullies1 that they relied swaggeringly  

on the logical  necessity of ,calvinism1
 that they bound omnipotence itself in  
the  chains of syllogism4 ,the ,puritans
 fell1 through the damning fact that    
they had a complete theory of life1     
through the eternal paradox that a      
satisfactory explanation can never      
satisfy4      ',twelve ,types4'         
,,may #cjth ,,blessed ,,joan ,,of ,,arc 
,joan of ,arc was not stuck at the      
,cross ,roads either by rejecting all   
the paths like ,tolstoy or by accepting 
them all like ,nietzsche4 ,she  chose a 
path and went down it like a            
thunderbolt4 ,yet ,joan1 when ,i come   
to think of her1 had in her all that was
 true either in ,tolstoy or             
,nietzsche--all that was even tolerable 
in either of them4 ,i thought of  all   
that is noble in ,tolstoy3 the pleasure 
in plain things1 especially  in plain   
pity1 the actualities of the earth1 the 
reverence for the  poor1 the dignity of 
the bowed back4 ,joan of ,arc had all   
that1 and  with this great addition3    

that she endured poverty while she      
admired  it1 whereas ,tolstoy is only a 
typical aristocrat trying to find out   
its secret4 ,and then ,i thought of all 
that was brave and proud and  pathetic  
in poor ,nietzsche and his mutiny       
against the emptiness and  timidity of  
our time4 ,i thought of his cry for the 
ecstatic equilibrium  of danger1 his    
hunger for the rush of great horses1 his
 cry to arms4  ,well1 ,joan of ,arc had 
all that2 and1 again1 with this         
difference1 that  she did not praise    
fighting1 but fought4 ,we know that she 
was not  afraid of an army1 while       
,nietzsche for all we know was afraid of
 a  cow4 ,tolstoy only praised the      
peasant2 she was the peasant4 ,nietzsche
  only praised the warrior2 she was the 
warrior4 ,she beat them both at  their  
own antagonistic ideals2 she was more   
gentle than the one1 more  violent than 
the other4 ,yet she was a perfectly     
practical person who  did something1    
while they are wild speculators who do  

nothing4      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,may  
#cast    ,our civilization has decided1 
and very justly decided1 that           
determining  the guilt or innocence of  
men is a thing too important to be      
trusted  to trained men4 ,if it wishes  
for light upon that awful matter1 it    
asks  men who know no more law than ,i  
know1 but who can feel the things that  
,i felt in the jury-box4 ,when it wants 
a library catalogued1 or the  solar     
system discovered1 or any trifle of that
 kind1 it uses up its  specialists4 ,but
 when it wishes anything done which is  
really serious1  it collects twelve of  
the ordinary men standing round4 ,the   
same thing  was done1 if ,i remember    
right1 by the ,founder of ,christianity4
      ',tremendous ,trifles4'           
,,june      ,,june #ast    ,the great   
lords will refuse the ,english peasant  
his three acres and a  cow on advanced  
grounds1 if they cannot refuse it longer
 on reactionary  grounds4 ,they will    
deny him the three acres on grounds of  

,state  ,ownership4 ,they will forbid   
him the cow on grounds of               
humanitarianism4      ',what's ,wrong   
with the ,world4'      ,,june #bnd      
,life is a thing too glorious to be     
enjoyed4      ',george ,bernard ,shaw4' 
,,june #crd    ,i remember an artistic  
and eager lady asking me1 in her grand  
green  drawing-room1 whether ,i believed
 in comradeship between the sexes1 and  
why not4 ,i was driven back on offering 
the obvious and sincere answer3         
',because if ,i were to treat you for   
two minutes like a comrade1 you  would  
turn me out of the house4'      ',what's
 ,wrong with the ,world4'      ,,june   
#dth    ,every man of us to-day is three
 men4 ,there is in every modern         
,european  three powers so distinct as  
to be almost personal--the trinity of   
our earthly destiny4 ,the three may be  
rudely summarized thus3 ,first  and     
nearest to us is the ,christian1 the man
 of the historic ,church1  of the creed 
that must have coloured our minds       

incurably whether we  regard it as the  
crown and combination of the other two1 
or whether  we regard it as an          
accidental superstition which has       
remained for two  thousand years4       
,first1 then1 comes the ,christian2     
behind him comes  the ,roman--the       
citizen of that great cosmopolitan realm
 of reason and  order1 in the level and 
equality of which ,christianity arose4  
,he is the  ,stoic who is so much       
sterner than the ,ancorites4 ,he is the 
,republican  who is so much prouder than
 kings4 ,it is he that makes straight   
roads  and clear laws1 and for whom good
 sense is good enough4 ,and the third   
man3 he has no name1 and all true tales 
of him are blotted out2 yet he  walks   
behind us in every forest path and wakes
 within us when the wind  wakes at      
night4 ,he is the origins--he is the man
 in the forest4      ',william ,blake4' 
,,june #eth    ,the right and proper    
thing1 of course1 is that every good    
patriot  should stop at home and curse  

his own country4 ,so long as that is    
being  done everywhere1 we may be sure  
that things are fairly happy1 and being 
kept up to a reasonably high standard4  
,so long as we are discontented         
separately we may be well content as a  
whole4      ',illustrated ,london       
,news4'      ,,june #fth    ,i have     
never been able to understand where     
people got the idea that  democracy was 
in some way opposed to tradition4 ,it is
 obvious that  tradition is only        
democracy extended through time4 ,it is 
trusting to  a consensus of common human
 voices rather than to some isolated or 
arbitrary record4 ,the man who quotes   
some ,german historian against the      
tradition of the ,catholic ,church1 for 
instance1 is strictly appealing  to     
aristocracy4 ,he is appealing to the    
superiority of one expert  against the  
awful authority of a mob4 ,it is quite  
easy to see why a  legend is treated1   
and ought to be treated1 more           
respectfully than a  book of history4   

,the legend is generally made by the    
majority of people  in the village1 who 
are sane4 ,the book is generally written
 by the one  man in the village1 who is 
mad4 ,those who urge against            
tradition--that  men in the past were   
ignorant--may go and urge it at the     
,carlton ,club1  along with the         
statement that voters in the slums are  
ignorant4 ,it will  not do for us4 ,if  
we attach great importance to the       
opinion of ordinary  men in great       
unanimity when we are dealing with daily
 matters1 there is  no reason why we    
should disregard it when we are dealing 
with history  or fable4 ,tradition may  
be defined as an extension of the       
franchise4  ,tradition means giving     
votes to the most obscure of all        
classes--our  ancestors4 ,it is the     
democracy of the dead4 ,tradition       
refuses to submit  to the small and     
arrogant oligarchy of those who merely  
happen to be  walking about4 ,all       
democrats object to men being           

disqualified by the  accident of birth3 
tradition objects to their being        
disqualified by  the accident of death4 
,democracy tells us not to neglect a    
good man's  opinion1 even if he is our  
groom3 tradition asks us not to neglect 
a  good man's opinion1 even if he is our
 father4      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,june 
#gth    ,you hold that your heretics and
 sceptics have helped the world forward 
and handed on a lamp of progress4 ,i    
deny it4 ,nothing is plainer from  real 
history than that each of your heretics 
invented a complete cosmos  of his own  
which the next heretic smashed entirely 
to pieces4 ,who knows  now exactly what 
,nestorius taught8 ,who cares8 ,there   
are only two things  that we know for   
certain about it4 ,the first is that    
,nestorius1 as a  heretic1 taught       
something quite opposite to the teaching
 of ,arius1  the heretic who came before
 him1 and something quite useless to    
,james  ,turnbull1 the heretic who comes
 after4 ,i defy you to go back to the   

,freethinkers of the past and find any  
habitation for yourself at all4  ,i defy
 you to read ,godwin or ,shelley1 or the
 deists of the eighteenth  century1 or  
the nature-worshipping humanists of the 
,renaissance1  without discovering that 
you differ from them twice as much as   
you  differ from the ,pope4 ,you are a  
nineteenth-century sceptic1 and you are 
always telling me that ,i ignore the    
cruelty of ,nature4 ,if you had been  an
 eighteenth-century sceptic you would   
have told me that ,i ignore the         
kindness and benevolence of ,nature4    
,you are an ,atheist1 and you praise    
the deists of the eighteenth century4   
,read them instead of praising  them1   
and you will find that their whole      
universe stands or falls with  the      
deity4 ,you are a ,materialist1 and you 
think ,bruno a scientific  hero4 ,see   
what he said1 and you will think him an 
insane mystic4 ,no2  the great          
,freethinker1 with his genuine ability  
and honesty1 does  not in practice      

destroy ,christianity4 ,what he does    
destroy is the  ,freethinker who went   
before4      ',the ,ball and the        
,cross4'      ,,june #hth    ,when the  
old ,liberals removed the gags from all 
the heresies1 their  idea was that      
religious and philosophical discoveries 
might thus be  made4 ,their view was    
that cosmic truth was so important that 
everyone  ought to bear independent     
testimony4 ,the modern idea is that     
cosmic  truth is so unimportant that it 
cannot matter what anyone says4 ,the    
former freed inquiry as men loose a     
noble hound2 the latter frees  inquiry  
as men fling back into the sea a fish   
unfit for eating4 ,never  has there been
 so little discussion about the nature  
of men as now1  when1 for the first     
time1 anyone can discuss it4            
',heretics4'      ,,june #ith ,,dickens 
,,died    ,the hour of absinthe is over4
 ,we shall not be much further troubled 
with the little artists who found       
,dickens too sane for their sorrows  and

 too clean for their delights4 ,but we  
have a long way to travel  before we get
 back to what ,dickens meant2 and the   
passage is along an  ,english rambling  
road--a twisting road such as ,mr4      
,pickwick travelled4  ,but this at least
 is part of what he meant3 that         
comradeship and  serious joy are not    
interludes in our travel1 but that      
rather our  travels are interludes in   
comradeship and joy1 which1 through     
,god1  shall endure for ever4 ,the inn  
does not point to the road3 the road    
points to the inn4 ,and all roads point 
at last to an ultimate inn1  where we   
shall meet ,dickens and all his         
characters4 ,and when we drink  again it
 shall be from the great flagons in the 
tavern at the end of  the world4        
',charles ,dickens4'      ,,june #ajth  
,i have always been inclined to believe 
the ruck of hard-working people  rather 
than to believe that special and        
troublesome literary class  to which ,i 
belong4 ,i prefer even the fancies and  

prejudices of the  people who see life  
from the inside to the clearest         
demonstrations of  the people who see   
life from the outside4 ,i would always  
trust the  old wives' fables against the
 old maids' facts4 ,as long as wit is   
mother-wit it can be as wild as it      
pleases4      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,june 
#aath    ,however far aloft a man may go
 he is still looking up1 not only at    
,god 7which is obvious71 but in a manner
 at men also3 seeing more and  more all 
that is towering and mysterious in the  
dignity and destiny  of the lonely house
 of ,adam4444 ,so it may be hoped1 until
 we die1  you and ,i will always look up
 rather than down at the labours and    
habitations of our race2 we will lift up
 our eyes to the valleys from  whence   
cometh our help4 ,for from every special
 eminence beyond every  sublime         
landmark1 it is good for our souls to   
see only vaster and  vaster visions of  
that dizzy and divine level1 and to     
behold from our  crumbling turrets the  

tall plains of equality4      ',alarms  
and ,discursions4'      ,,june #abth    
,there is more of the song and music of 
mankind in a clerk putting on  his      
,sunday clothes than in a fanatic       
running naked down ,cheapside4          
',william ,blake4'      ,,june #acth    
,if we are to save the oppressed1 we    
must have two apparently  antagonistic  
emotions in us at the same time4 ,we    
must think the  oppressed man intensely 
miserable1 and at the same time         
intensely  attractive and important4 ,we
 must insist with violence upon his     
degradation2 we must insist with the    
same violence upon his dignity4  ,for if
 we relax by one inch the one assertion1
 men will say he does  not need saving4 
,and if we relax by one inch the other  
assertion men  will say he is not worth 
saving4 ,the optimists will say that    
reform  is needless4 ,the pessimists    
will say that reform is hopeless4 ,we   
must  apply both simultaneously to the  
same oppressed man2 we must say that  he

 is a worm and a god2 and we must thus  
lay ourselves open to the  accusation   
7or the compliment7 of                  
transcendentalism4      ',charles       
,dickens4'      ,,june #adth    ,you say
 your civilization will include all     
talents4 ,will it8 ,do you  really mean 
to say that at the moment when the      
,esquimaux has learnt to  vote for a    
,county ,council1 you will have learnt  
to spear a walrus8      ',the ,napoleon 
of ,notting ,hill4'      ,,june #aeth   
',certainly1 it is untrue that three is 
no company4 ,three is splendid  company4
 ,three is the ideal number for pure    
comradeship3 as in the  ',three         
,musketeers4' ,but if you reject the    
proverb altogether2 if you  say that two
 and three are the same sort of company2
 if you cannot see  that there is a     
wider abyss between two and three than  
between three  and three million--then  
,i regret to inform you that you shall  
have no  company either of two or three1
 but shall be alone in a howling desert 

till you die4'      ',alarms and        
,discursions4'      ,,june #afth        
,blasphemy is an artistic effect1       
because blasphemy depends on a          
philosophical conviction4 ,blasphemy    
depends upon belief1 and is fading  with
 it4 ,if anyone doubts this1 let him sit
 down seriously and try to  think       
blasphemous thoughts about ,thor4 ,i    
think his family will find him  at the  
end of the day in a state of some       
exhaustion4      ',heretics4'           
,,june #agth    ,just as the rivalry of 
armaments is only a sort of sulky       
plagiarism1  so the rivalry of parties  
is only a sort of sulky inheritance4    
,men  have votes1 so women must soon    
have votes2 poor children are taught by 
force1 so they must soon be fed by      
force2 the police shut public-houses  by
 twelve o'clock1 so soon they must shut 
them by eleven o'clock2  children stop  
at school till they are fourteen1 so    
soon they will stop  till they are      
forty4 ,no gleam of reason1 no momentary

 return to first  principles1 no        
abstract asking of any obvious question1
 can interrupt  this mad and monotonous 
gallop of mere progress by precedent4   
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,june #ahth ,,waterloo ,,day    ,the   
time of big theories was the time of big
 results4 ,in the era  of sentiment and 
fine words1 at the end of the eighteenth
 century1  men were really robust and   
effective4 ,the sentimentalists         
conquered  ,napoleon4 ,the cynics could 
not catch ,de ,wet4 ,a hundred years ago
 our  affairs for good or evil were     
wielded triumphantly by rhetoricians4   
,now  our affairs are hopelessly muddled
 by strong1 silent men4                 
',heretics4'      ,,june #aith          
,herein lies the peculiar significance1 
the peculiar sacredness  even1 of penny 
dreadfuls and the common printed matter 
made for our  errand-boys4 ,here in dim 
and desperate forms1 under the ban of   
our  base culture1 stormed at by silly  
magistrates1 sneered at by silly        

schoolmasters--here is the old popular  
literature still popular2 here  is the  
unmistakable voluminousness1 the        
thousand-and-one tales of ,dick         
,deadshot1 like the thousand-and-one    
tales of ,robin ,hood4 ,here is the     
splendid and static boy1 the boy who    
remains a boy through a thousand        
volumes and a thousand years4 ,here in  
mean alleys and dim shops1  shadowed and
 shamed by the police1 mankind is still 
driving its dark  trade in heroes4 ,and 
elsewhere1 and in all ages1 in braver   
fashion1  under cleaner skies1 the same 
eternal tale-telling still goes on1 and 
the whole mortal world is a factory of  
immortals4      ',charles ,dickens4'    
,,june #bjth    ,there are two very     
curious things which the critic of life 
may observe4  ,the first is the fact    
that there is one real difference       
between men and  women3 that women      
prefer to talk in two's1 while men      
prefer to talk in  three's4 ,the second 
is that when you find 7as you often do7 

three young  cads and idiots going about
 together and getting drunk together    
every  day1 you generally find that one 
of the three cads and idiots is 7for    
some extraordinary reason7 not a cad and
 not an idiot4 ,in those small  groups  
devoted to a drivelling dissipation     
there is almost always one  man who     
seems to have condescended to his       
company3 one man who1 while  he can talk
 a foul triviality with his fellows1 can
 also talk politics  with a ,socialist1 
or philosophy with a ,catholic4         
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,june     
#bast    ,mankind has in nearly all     
places and periods seen that there is a 
soul  and a body as plainly as that     
there is a sun and moon4 ,but because a 
narrow ,protestant sect called          
,materialists declared for a short time 
that there was no soul1 another narrow  
,protestant sect called ,christian      
,scientist is now maintaining that there
 is no body4      ',what's ,wrong with  
the ,world4'      ,,june #bbnd          

,,those thinkers who cannot believe in  
any gods often assert that the  love of 
humanity would be in itself sufficient  
for them2 and so1  perhaps1 it would1 if
 they had it4      ',tremendous         
,trifles4'      ,,june #bcrd    ,only   
the ,christian ,church can offer any    
rational objection to a  complete       
confidence in the rich4 ,for she has    
maintained from the  beginning that the 
danger was not in man's environment1 but
 in man4  ,further1 she has maintained  
that if we come to talk of a dangerous  
environment1 the most dangerous of all  
is the commodious environment4  ,i know 
that the most modern manufacture has    
been really occupied in  trying to      
produce an abnormally large needle4 ,i  
know that the most  recent biologists   
have been chiefly anxious to discover a 
very small  camel4 ,but if we diminish  
the camel to his smallest1 or open the  
eye of  the needle to its largest3 if1  
in short1 we assume the words of ,christ
  to have meant the very least that they

 could mean1 ,his words must at  the    
very least mean this--that rich men are 
not very likely to be  morally          
trustworthy4      ',orthodoxy4'         
,,june #bdth ,,midsummer ,,day        ,o
 well for him that loves the sun1       
,that sees the heaven-race ridden or    
run1      ,the splashing seas of sunset 
won1        ,and shouts for victory4    
,god made the sun to crown his head1    
,and when death's dart at last is sped1 
,at least it will not find him dead1    
,and pass the carrion by4        ,o ill 
for him that loves the sun2      ,shall 
the sun stoop for anyone8      ,shall   
the sun weep for hearts undone          
,or heavy souls that pray8        ,not  
less for us and everyone      ,was that 
white web of splendour spun2      ,o    
well for him who loves the sun          
,although the sun should slay4          
',ballad of the ,sun4'      ,,june #beth
    ,a man's good work is effected by   
doing what he does3 a woman's by being  
what she is4      ',robert ,browning4'  

,,june #bfth    ,if the old priests     
forced a statement on mankind1 at least 
they  previously took some trouble to   
make it lucid4 ,it has been left for the
  modern mobs of ,anglicans and         
,nonconformists to persecute for a      
doctrine  without even stating it4      
',heretics4'      ,,june #bgth    ,from 
the time of the first fairy tales men   
had always believed ideally  in         
equality2 they had always thought that  
something ought to be done1  if anything
 could be done1 to redress the balance  
between ,cinderella  and the ugly       
sisters4 ,the irritating thing about the
 ,french was  not that they said this   
ought to be done3 everybody said that4  
,the  irritating thing about the ,french
 was that they did it4                  
,introduction to ',hard ,times4'        
,,june #bhth        ,my ,lady clad      
herself in grey1        ,that caught and
 clung about her throat2      ,then all 
the long grey winter-day        ,on me a
 living splendour smote2      ,and why  

grey palmers holy are1        ,and why  
grey minsters great in story1      ,and 
grey skies ring the morning star1       
,and grey hairs are a crown of glory4   
,my ,lady clad herself in green1        
,like meadows where the wind-waves pass2
      ,then round my spirit spread1 ,i  
ween1        ,a splendour of forgotten  
grass4      ,then all that dropped of   
stem or sod1        ,hoarded as emeralds
 might be1      ,i bowed to every bush1 
and trod        ,amid the live grass    
fearfully4        ,my ,lady clad herself
 in blue1        ,then on me1 like the  
seer long gone1      ,the likeness of a 
sapphire grew1        ,the throne of him
 that sat thereon4      ,then knew ,i   
why the ,fashioner        ,splashed     
reckless blue on sky and sea2      ,and 
ere 'twas good enough for her1          
,he tried it on ,eternity4              
,beneath the gnarled old ,knowledge-tree
        ,sat1 like an owl1 the evil     
sage3      ',the world's a bubble1'     
solemnly        ,he read1 and turned a  

second page4      ',a bubble1 then1 old 
crow1' ,i cried1        ',god keep you  
in your weary wit6      ,a bubble--have 
you ever spied        ,the colours ,i   
have seen on it8'        ',a ,chord of  
,colour4'      ,,june #bith ,,st4       
,,peter',s ,,day    ,when ,christ at a  
symbolic moment was establishing ,his   
great society1  ,he chose for its       
corner-stone neither the brilliant ,paul
 nor the  mystic ,john1 but a shuffler1 
a snob1 a coward--in a word1 a man4 ,and
  upon this rock ,he has built ,his     
,church1 and the gates of ,hell have not
  prevailed against it4 ,all the empires
 and the kingdoms have failed  because  
of this inherent and continual weakness1
 that they were founded  by strong men  
and upon strong men4 ,but this one      
thing--the historic  ,christian         
,church--was founded upon a weak man1   
and for that reason it  is              
indestructible4 ,for no chain is        
stronger than its weakest link4         
',heretics4'      ,,june #cjth    ,there

 are thrilling moments1 doubtless1 for  
the spectator1 the amateur1  and the    
sthete2 but there is one thrill that is 
known only to the  soldier who fights   
for his own flag1 to the ascetic who    
starves himself  for his own            
illumination1 to the lover who makes    
finally his own  choice4 ,and it is this
 transfiguring self-discipline that     
makes the vow  a truly sane thing4 ,it  
must have satisfied even the giant      
hunger of  the soul of a lover or a poet
 to know that in consequence of some one
  instant of decision that strange chain
 would hang for centuries in the  ,alps 
among the silences of stars and snows4  
,all around us is the city  of small    
sins1 abounding in backways and         
retreats2 but surely1 sooner  or later1 
the towering flame will rise from the   
harbour announcing that  the reign of   
the cowards is over and a man is burning
 his ships4      ',the ,defendant4'     
,,july      ,,july #ast    ,the average 
man votes below himself2 he votes with  

half a mind or a  hundredth part of one4
 ,a man ought to vote with the whole of 
himself1  as he worships or gets        
married4 ,a man ought to vote with his  
head and  heart1 his soul and stomach1  
his eye for faces and his ear for music2
  also 7when sufficiently provoked7 with
 his hands and feet4 ,if he has  ever   
seen a fine sunset1 the crimson colour  
of it should creep into  his vote4 ,if  
he has ever heard splendid songs1 they  
should be in his  ears when he makes the
 mystical cross4 ,but as it is1 the     
difficulty  with ,english democracy at  
all elections is that it is something   
less  than itself4 ,the question is not 
so much whether only a minority of the  
electorate votes4 ,the point is that    
only a minority of the voter votes4     
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,july #bnd
    ,modern masters of science are much 
impressed with the need of beginning    
all inquiry with a fact4 ,the ancient   
masters of religion were quite  equally 
impressed with that necessity4 ,they    

began with the fact of  sin--a fact as  
practical as potatoes4 ,whether or not  
man could be  washed in miraculous      
waters1 there was no doubt at any rate  
that he  wanted washing4 ,but certain   
religious leaders in ,london1 not mere  
,materialists1 have begun in our day not
 to deny the highly disputable  water1  
but to deny the indisputable dirt4      
,certain new theologians  dispute       
original sin1 which is the only part of 
,christian theology  which can really be
 proved4 ,some followers of the         
,reverend ,r4 ,j4  ,campbell1 in their  
almost too fastidious spirituality1     
admit divine  sinlessness1 which they   
cannot see even in their dreams4 ,but   
they  essentially deny human sin1 which 
they can see in the street4 ,the        
strongest saints and the strongest      
sceptics alike took positive evil as    
the starting-point of their argument4   
,if it be true 7as it certainly  is7    
that a man can feel exquisite happiness 
in skinning a cat1 then  the religious  

philosopher can only draw one of two    
deductions3 he must  either deny the    
existence of ,god1 as all ,atheists do1 
or he must deny  the present union      
between ,god and man1 as all ,christians
 do4 ,the new  theologians seem to think
 it a highly rationalistic solution to  
deny  the cat4      ',orthodoxy4'       
,,july #crd    ,the love of those whom  
we do not know is quite as eternal a    
sentiment  as the love of those whom we 
do know4 ,in our friends the richness of
  life is proved to us by what we have  
gained2 in the faces in the street  the 
richness of life is proved to us by a   
hint of what we have lost4      ',robert
 ,browning4'      ,,july #dth           
,,independence ,,day    ,the old        
,anglo-,american quarrel was much more  
fundamentally friendly  than most       
,anglo-,american alliances4 ,each nation
 understood the other  enough to        
quarrel4 ,in our time1 neither nation   
understands itself even  enough to      
quarrel4      ,introduction to          

',american ,notes4'      ,,july #eth    
,it is the one great weakness of        
journalism as a picture of our modern   
existence1 that it must be a picture    
made up entirely of exceptions4 ,we     
announce on flaring posters that a man  
has fallen off a scaffolding4  ,we do   
not announce on flaring posters that a  
man has not fallen off a  scaffolding4  
,yet this latter fact is fundamentally  
more exciting1 as  indicating that the  
moving tower of terror and mystery1 a   
man1 is still  abroad upon the earth4   
,that the man has not fallen off a      
scaffolding  is really more sensational2
 and it is also some thousand times more
  common4 ,but journalism cannot        
reasonably be expected thus to insist   
upon the permanent miracles4 ,busy      
editors cannot be expected to put on    
their posters ',mr4 ,wilkinson ,still   
,safe1' or ',mr4 ,jones of ,worthing1   
,not ,dead ,yet4' ,they cannot announce 
the happiness of mankind at all4  ,they 
cannot describe all the forks that are  

not stolen1 or all the  marriages that  
are not dissolved4 ,hence the complete  
picture they give  of life is of        
necessity fallacious3 they can only     
represent what is  unusual4 ,however    
democratic they may be1 they are only   
concerned with  the minority4      ',the
 ,ball and the ,cross4'      ,,july #fth
        ,happy1 who like ,ulysses or    
that lord        ,that raped the fleece1
 returning full and sage1      ,with    
usage and the world's wide reason       
stored1        ,with his own kin can    
wait the end of age4      ,when shall ,i
 see1 when shall ,i see1 ,god knows6    
,my little village smoke2 or pass the   
door1      ,the old dear door of that   
unhappy house        ,that is to me a   
kingdom and much more8      ,mightier to
 me the house my fathers made           
,than your audacious heads1 ,o ,halls of
 ,rome6      ,more than immortal marbles
 undecayed1        ,the thin sad slates 
that cover up my home2      ,more than  
your ,tiber is my ,loire to me1         

,than ,palatine my little ,lyr there2   
,and more than all the winds of all the 
sea        ,the quiet kindness of the   
,angevin air4        ,translation from  
',du ,bellay4'      ,,july #gth    ,it  
is a great mistake to suppose that love 
unites and unifies men4  ,love          
diversifies them1 because love is       
directed towards individuality4  ,the   
thing that really unites men and makes  
them like to each other is  hatred4     
,thus1 for instance1 the more we love   
,germany the more pleased  we shall be  
that ,germany should be something       
different from ourselves1  should keep  
her own ritual and conviviality and we  
ours4 ,but the  more we hate ,germany   
the more we shall copy ,german guns and 
,german  fortifications in order to be  
armed against ,germany4 ,the more modern
  nations detest each other the more    
meekly they follow each other2 for  all 
competition is in its nature only a     
furious plagiarism4      ',charles      
,dickens4'      ,,july #hth    ,the     

temporary decline of theology had       
involved the neglect of  philosophy and 
all fine thinking1 and ,bernard ,shaw   
had to find shaky  justifications in    
,schopenhauer for the sons of ,god      
shouting for joy4 ,he  called it the    
,will to ,live--a phrase invented by    
,prussian professors  who would like to 
exist but can't4      ',george ,bernard 
,shaw4'      ,,july #ith    ,there are  
only two kinds of social structure      
conceivable--personal  government and   
impersonal government4 ,if my anarchic  
friends will not  have rules1 they will 
have rulers4 ,preferring personal       
government1 with  its tact and          
flexibility1 is called ,royalism4       
,preferring impersonal  government1 with
 its dogmas and definitions1 is called  
,republicanism4  ,objecting             
broad-mindedly both to kings and creeds 
is called ,bosh--at  least1 ,i know no  
more philosophic word for it4           
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,july #ajth    ,now1 ,i have no        

particular objection to people who take 
the gilt off  the gingerbread3 if only  
for this excellent reason--that ,i am   
much  fonder of gingerbread than ,i am  
of gilt4 ,but there are some objections 
to this task when it becomes a crusade  
or an obsession4 ,one of them is  this3 
that people who have really scraped the 
gilt off the gingerbread  generally     
waste the rest of their lives in        
attempting to scrape the  gilt off      
gigantic lumps of gold4 ,such has too   
often been the case with  ,shaw4 ,he    
can1 if he likes1 scrape the romance off
 the armaments of  ,europe or the party 
system of ,great ,britain2 but he cannot
 scrape the  romance off love or        
military valour1 because it is all      
romance1 and  three thousand miles      
thick4      ',george ,bernard ,shaw4'   
,,july #aath    ',the ,church is not a  
thing like the ,athenum ,club1' he      
cried4 ',if the  ,athenum ,club lost all
 its members1 the ,athenum ,club would  
dissolve  and cease to exist4 ,but when 

we belong to the ,church we belong to   
something which is outside all of us3   
which is outside everything you  talk   
about1 outside the ,cardinals and the   
,pope4 ,they belong to it1 but  it does 
not belong to them4 ,if we all fell dead
 suddenly1 the ,church  would still     
somehow exist in ,god4'      ',the ,ball
 and the ,cross4'      ,,july #abth     
,of all conceivable forms of            
enlightenment the worst is what these   
people call the ,inner ,light4 ,of all  
horrible religions the most  horrible is
 the worship of the god within4 ,anyone 
who knows anybody  knows how it would   
work2 anyone who knows anyone from the  
,higher  ,thought ,centre knows how it  
does work4 ,that ,jones shall worship   
the god  within him turns out ultimately
 to mean that ,jones shall worship      
,jones4  ,let ,jones worship the sun or 
moon--anything rather than the ,inner   
,light2 let ,jones worship cats or      
crocodiles1 if he can find any in  his  
street1 but not the god within4         

,christianity came into the world1      
firstly1 in order to assert with        
violence that a man had not only to     
look inwards1 but to look outwards1 to  
behold with astonishment and  enthusiasm
 a divine company and a divine captain4 
,the only fun of being  a ,christian was
 that a man was not left alone with the 
,inner ,light1 but  definitely          
recognized an outer light1 fair as the  
sun1 clear as the  moon1 terrible as an 
army with banners4      ',orthodoxy4'   
,,july #acth    ,the slum novelist gains
 his effects by describing the same grey
 mist  as draping the dingy factory and 
the dingy tavern4 ,but to the man he  is
 supposed to be studying there must be  
exactly the same difference  between the
 factory and the tavern that there is to
 a middle-class man  between a late     
night at the office and a supper at     
,pagani's4      ',heretics4'      ,,july
 #adth ,,the ,,fall ,,of ,,the          
,,bastille    ,the destruction of the   
,bastille was not a reform3 it was      

something more  important than a reform4
 ,it was an iconoclasm2 it was the      
breaking of a  stone image4 ,the people 
saw the building like a giant looking at
 them  with a score of eyes1 and they   
struck at it as at a carved face4 ,for  
of all the shapes in which that immense 
illusion called ,materialism  can       
terrify the soul1 perhaps the most      
oppressive is that of the big  building4
 ,man feels like a fly1 an accident in  
the thing he has himself  made4 ,it     
requires a violent effort of the spirit 
to remember that man  made this         
confounding thing and man could unmake  
it4 ,therefore the  mere act of the     
ragged people in the street taking and  
destroying a  huge public building has a
 spiritual1 and a ritual1 meaning far   
beyond  its immediate political results4
 ,it is a religious service4 ,if1 for   
instance1 the ,socialists were numerous 
or courageous enough to capture  and    
smash up the ,bank of ,england you might
 argue for ever about the  inutility of 

the act1 and how it really did not touch
 the root of the  economic problem in   
the correct manner4 ,but mankind would  
never forget  it4 ,it would change the  
world4      ',tremendous ,trifles4'     
,,july #aeth ,,st4 ,,swithin',s ,,day   
,only in our romantic country do you    
have the romantic thing called          
weather--beautiful and changeable as a  
woman4 ,the great ,english  landscape   
painters 7neglected now1 like everything
 that is ,english7  have this salient   
distinction1 that the weather is not the
 atmosphere  of their pictures3 it is   
the subject of their pictures4 ,they    
paint  portraits of the weather4 ,the   
weather sat to ,constable2 the weather  
posed for ,turner--and the deuce of a   
pose it was4 ,in the ,english  painters 
the climate is the hero2 in the case of 
,turner a swaggering  and fighting hero1
 melodramatic but magnificent4 ,the tall
 and  terrible protagonist robed in     
rain1 thunder1 and sunlight1 fills the  
whole canvas and the whole foreground4  

,rich colours actually look  more       
luminous on a grey day1 because they are
 seen against a dark  background1 and   
seem to be burning with a lustre of     
their own4 ,against  a dim sky all      
flowers look like fireworks4 ,there is  
something strange  about them at once   
vivid and secret1 like flowers traced in
 fire in  the grim garden of a witch4 ,a
 bright blue sky is necessarily the high
  light in the picture1 and its         
brightness kills all the bright blue    
flowers4 ,but on a grey day the larkspur
 looks like fallen heaven2 the  red     
daisies are really the lost-red eyes of 
day1 and the sun-flower  is the         
vice-regent of the sun4 ,lastly1 there  
is this value about the  colour that men
 call colourless3 that it suggests in   
some way the mixed  and troubled average
 of existence1 especially in its quality
 of strife  and expectation and promise4
 ,grey is a colour that always seems on 
the eve of changing to some other       
colour2 of brightening into blue1  or   

blanching into white or breaking into   
green or gold4 ,so we may be            
perpetually reminded of the indefinite  
hope that is in doubt itself2  and when 
there is grey weather on our hills or   
grey hair on our heads  perhaps they may
 still remind us of the morning4        
',daily ,news4'      ,,july #afth    ,it
 is true that all sensible women think  
all studious men mad4 ,it is  true1 for 
the matter of that1 all women of any    
kind think all men of  any kind mad4    
,but they do not put it in telegrams any
 more than they  wire to you that grass 
is green or ,god all-merciful4 ,these   
things are  truisms and often private   
ones at that4      ',the ,club of ,queer
 ,trades4'      ,,july #agth    ,you may
 come to think a blow bad because it    
humiliates4 ,you may come to  think     
murder wrong because it is violent1 and 
not because it is unjust4      ',the    
,ball and the ,cross4'      ,,july #ahth
 ,,thackeray ,,born    ,in all things   
his great spirit had the grandeur and   

the weakness which  belonged to the     
,england of his time--an ,england       
splendidly secure and  free1 and yet    
7perhaps for that reason7 provincial and
 innocent4 ,he had  nothing of the      
doctrinal quality of the ,french and    
,germans4 ,he was not  one who made up  
his mind1 but one who let his mind make 
him up4 ,he lay  naturally open to all  
noble influences flowing around him2 but
 he never  bestirred himself to seek    
those that were not flowing or that     
flowed  in opposite directions4 ,thus1  
for instance1 he really loved liberty1  
as only a novelist can love it1 a man   
mainly occupied with the variety  and   
vivacity of men4 ,but he could not see  
the cause of liberty except  where the  
,victorian ,english saw it2 he could not
 see it in the cause of  ,irish liberty 
7which was exactly like the cause of    
,polish or ,italian  liberty1 except    
that it was led by much more religious  
and responsible  men71 and he made the  
,irish characters the object of much    

innocent and  rather lumbering satire4  
,but this was not his mistake1 but the  
mistake  of the atmosphere1 and he was a
 sublime emotional ,englishman1 who     
lived  by atmosphere4 ,he was a great   
sensitive4 ,the comparison between him  
and ,dickens is commonly as clumsy and  
unreasonable as a comparison  between   
,wilkie ,collins and ,charles ,reade or 
,bulwer ,lytton and ,anthony  ,trollope4
 ,but the comparison really has this    
element of actuality3 that  ,dickens was
 above all things creative2 ,thackeray  
was above all things  receptive4 ,there 
is no sense in talking about truth in   
the matter3  both are modes of truth4   
,if you like to put it so3 the world    
imposed  on ,thackeray1 and ,dickens    
imposed on the world4 ,but it could be  
put  more truly by saying that          
,thackeray represents1 in that gigantic 
parody  called genius1 the spirit of the
 ,englishman in repose4 ,this spirit is 
the idle embodiment of all of us2 by his
 weaknesses we shall fail and  by his   

enormous sanities we shall endure4      
,introduction to ',thackeray4'          
,,july #aith    ,the ,marchioness really
 has all the characteristics1 the       
entirely  heroic characteristics1 which 
make a woman respected by a man4 ,she is
  female--that is1 she is at once       
incurably candid and incurably loyal1   
she is full of terrible common sense1   
she expects little pleasure  for herself
 and yet she can enjoy bursts of it2    
above all1 she is  physically timid and 
yet she can face anything4              
,introduction to ',the ,old ,curiosity  
,shop4'      ,,july #bjth    ,democracy 
in its human sense is not arbitrament by
 the majority2 it  is not even          
arbitrament by everybody4 ,it can be    
more nearly defined  as arbitrament by  
anybody3 ,i mean that it rests on that  
club-habit of  taking a total stranger  
for granted1 of assuming certain things 
to be  inevitably common to yourself and
 him4 ,only the things that anybody may 
be presumed to hold have the full       

authority of democracy4 ,look out of    
the window and notice the first man who 
walks by4 ,the ,liberals may have  swept
 ,england with an overwhelming majority2
 but you would not stake a  button that 
the man is a ,liberal4 ,the ,bible may  
be read in all schools  and respected in
 all law courts2 but you would not bet a
 straw that he  believes in the ,bible4 
,but you would bet your week's wages1   
let us say1  that he believes in wearing
 clothes4 ,you would bet that he        
believes  that physical courage is a    
fine thing1 or that parents have        
authority  over children4 ,of course1 he
 might be the millioneth man who does   
not  believe these things2 if it comes  
to that1 he might be the ,bearded ,lady 
dressed up as a man4 ,but these         
prodigies are quite a different thing   
from any mere calculation of numbers4   
,people who hold these views are  not a 
minority1 but a monstrosity4 ,but of    
these universal dogmas that  have full  
democratic authority the only test is   

this test of anybody3  what you would   
observe before any new-comer in a       
tavern--that is the  real ,english law4 
,the first man you see from the window1 
he is the ,king  of ,england4           
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,july #bast    ,many clever men like   
you have trusted to civilization4 ,many 
clever  ,babylonians1 many clever       
,egyptians1 many clever men at the end  
of ,rome4  ,can you tell me1 in a world 
that is flagrant with the failures of   
civilization1 what there is particularly
 immortal about yours8      ',the       
,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'           
,,july #bbnd    ,it is a sufficient     
proof that we are not an essentially    
democratic  state that we are always    
wondering what we shall do with the     
poor4 ,if  we were democrats1 we should 
be wondering what the poor will do with 
us4 ,with us the governing class is     
always saying to itself1 ',what laws    
shall we make8' ,in a purely democratic 
state it would be always saying1  ',what

 laws can we obey8'      ',heretics4'   
,,july #bcrd    ,no two ideals could be 
more opposite than a ,christian saint in
 a ,gothic  cathedral and a ,buddhist   
saint in a ,chinese temple4 ,the        
opposition  exists at every point2 but  
perhaps the shortest statement of it is 
that the ,buddhist saint always has his 
eyes shut1 while the ,christian  saint  
always has them very wide open4 ,the    
,buddhist saint always has  a very sleek
 and harmonious body1 but his eyes are  
heavy and sealed  with sleep4 ,the      
medieval saint's body is wasted to its  
crazy bones1  but his eyes are          
frightfully alive4 ,there cannot be any 
real community  of spirit between forces
 that produced symbols so different as  
that4  ,granted that both images are    
extravagances1 are perversions of the   
pure  creed1 it must be a real          
divergence which could produce such     
opposite  extravagances4 ,the ,buddhist 
is looking with peculiar intentness     
inwards4 ,the ,christian is staring with

 a frantic intentness outwards4         
',orthodoxy4'      ,,july #bdth         
,novels and newspapers still talk of the
 ,english aristocracy that came  over   
with ,william the ,conqueror4 ,little of
 our effective oligarchy is  as old as  
the ,reformation2 and none of it came   
over with ,william the  ,conqueror4     
,some of the older ,english landlords   
came over with ,william  of ,orange2 the
 rest have come over by ordinary alien  
immigration4      ',george ,bernard     
,shaw4'      ,,july #beth    ,it is the 
negation of property that the ,duke of  
,sutherland should  have all the farms  
in one estate2 just as it would be the  
negation of  marriage if he had all our 
wives in one harem4      ',what's ,wrong
 with the ,world4'      ,,july #bfth    
,christianity is always out of fashion  
because it is always sane2 and  all     
fashions are mild insanities4 ,when     
,italy is mad on art the ,church  seems 
too ,puritanical2 when ,england is mad  
on ,puritanism the ,church  seems too   

artistic4 ,when you quarrel with us now 
you class us with  kingship and         
despotism2 but when you quarrelled with 
us first it was  because we would not   
accept the divine despotism of ,henry   
,,viii4 ,the  ,church always seems to be
 behind the times1 when it is really    
beyond  the times2 it is waiting till   
the last fad shall have seen its last   
summer4 ,it keeps the key of a permanent
 virtue4      ',the ,ball and the       
,cross4'      ,,july #bgth    ,the best 
men of the ,revolution were simply      
common men at their best4  ,this is why 
our age can never understand ,napoleon4 
,because he was  something great and    
triumphant1 we suppose that he must have
 been  something extraordinary1         
something inhuman4 ,some say he was the 
,devil2  some say he was the ,superman4 
,was he a very1 very bad man8 ,was he a 
good man with some greater moral code8  
,we strive in vain to invent the        
mysteries behind that immortal mask of  
brass4 ,the modern world with all  its  

subtleness will never guess his strange 
secret2 for his strange  secret was that
 he was very like other people4         
',charles ,dickens4'      ,,july #bhth  
,the greatest disaster of the nineteenth
 century was this3 that men  began to   
use the word 'spiritual' as the same as 
the word 'good4' ,they  thought that to 
grow in refinement and uncorporeality   
was to grow in  virtue4 ,when scientific
 evolution was announced1 some feared   
that  it would encourage mere animality4
 ,it did worse3 it encouraged mere      
spirituality4 ,it taught men to think   
that so long as they were passing  from 
the ape they were going4 ,but you can   
pass from the ape and go to  the devil4 
',orthodoxy4'      ,,july #bith    ,one 
of the deepest and strangest of all     
human moods is the mood  which will     
suddenly strike us perhaps in a garden  
at night1 or deep  in sloping meadows1  
the feeling that every flower and leaf  
has just  uttered something stupendously
 direct and important1 and that we have 

by a prodigy of imbecility not heard or 
understood it4 ,there is a  certain     
poetic value1 and that a genuine one1 in
 this sense of having  missed the full  
meaning of things4 ,there is beauty1 not
 only in wisdom1  but in this dazed and 
dramatic ignorance4      ',robert       
,browning4'      ,,july #cjth    ,the   
authority of priests to absolve1 the    
authority of popes to define1  the      
authority even of inquisitors to        
terrify3 these were all only dark       
defences erected round one central      
authority1 more undemonstrable1 more    
supernatural than all the authority of a
 man to think4 ,we know now  that this  
is so2 we have no excuse for not knowing
 it4 ,for we can hear  scepticism       
crashing through the old ring of        
authorities1 and at the  same moment we 
can see reason swaying upon her throne4 
',orthodoxy4'      ,,july #cast    ,the 
party system in ,england is an enormous 
and most efficient machine  for         
preventing political conflicts4         

',george ,bernard ,shaw4'               
,,august      ,,august #ast    ,a man   
must be orthodox upon most things1 or he
 will never even have  time to preach   
his own heresy4      ',george ,bernard  
,shaw4'      ,,august #bnd    ,just as  
one generation could prevent the very   
existence of the next  generation1 by   
all entering a monastery or jumping into
 the sea1 so one  set of thinkers can in
 some degree prevent further thinking by
 teaching  the next generation that     
there is no validity in any human       
thought4 ,it  is idle to talk always of 
the alternative of reason and faith4    
,reason  is itself a matter of faith4   
,it is an act of faith to assert that   
our thoughts have any relation to       
reality at all4 ,if you are merely  a   
sceptic1 you must sooner or later ask   
yourself the question1 ',why  should    
anything go right2 even observation or  
deduction8 ,why should not  good logic  
be as misleading as bad logic8 ,they are
 both movements in  the brain of a      

bewildered ape8' ,the young sceptic     
says1 ',i have a right  to think for    
myself4' ,but the old sceptic1 the      
complete sceptic1 says1  ',i have no    
right to think for myself4 ,i have no   
right to think at all4'                 
',orthodoxy4'      ,,august #crd        
,even among liars there are two classes1
 one immeasurably better than  another4 
,the honest liar is the man who tells   
the truth about his old  lies2 who says 
on ,wednesday1 ',i told a magnificent   
lie on ,monday4' ,he  keeps the truth in
 circulation2 no one version of things  
stagnates in  him and becomes an evil   
secret4 ,he does not have to live with  
old lies2  a horrible domesticity4      
,introduction to ',the ,old ,curiosity  
,shop4'      ,,august #dth    ,the only 
way to remember a place for ever is to  
live in the place for  an hour2 and the 
only way to live in the place for an    
hour is to forget  the place for an     
hour4 ,the undying scenes we can all    
see1 if we shut  our eyes1 are not the  

scenes we have stared at under the      
direction  of guide-books2 the scenes we
 see are the scenes at which we did not 
look at all--the scenes in which we     
walked when we were thinking about      
something else--about a sin1 or a love  
affair1 or some childish sorrow4  ,we   
can see the background now because we   
did not see it then4      ',charles     
,dickens4'      ,,august #eth    ,,the  
keeper of a restaurant would much prefer
 that each customer should  give his    
order smartly1 though it were for stewed
 ibis or boiled  elephant1 rather than  
that each customer should sit holding   
his head  in his hands1 plunged in      
arithmetical calculations about how much
 food  there can be on the premises4    
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,august #fth ,,transfiguration    ,joy1
 which was the small publicity of the   
pagan1 is the gigantic secret  of the   
,christian4 ,the tremendous figure which
 fills the ,gospels  towers in this     
respect1 as in every other1 above all   

the  thinkers who ever thought          
themselves tall4 ,his pathos was        
natural1  almost casual4 ,the ,stoics1  
ancient and modern1 were proud of       
concealing  their tears4 ,he never      
concealed ,his tears2 ,he showed them   
plainly  on ,his open face at any daily 
sight1 such as the far sight of ,his    
native city4 ,yet ,he concealed         
something4 ,solemn supermen and imperial
  diplomatists are proud of restraining 
their anger4 ,he never restrained  ,his 
anger4 ,he flung furniture down the     
front steps of the ,temple and  asked   
men how they expected to escape the     
damnation of hell4 ,yet ,he  restrained 
something4 ,i say it with reverence2    
there was in that  shattering           
personality a thread that must be called
 shyness4 ,there was  something that ,he
 hid from all men when ,he went up a    
mountain to pray4  ,there was something 
that ,he covered by abrupt silence or   
impetuous  isolation4 ,there was some   
one thing that was too great for ,god to

 show  us when ,he walked upon our      
earth1 and ,i have sometimes fancied    
that it  was ,his mirth4                
',orthodoxy4'      ,,august #gth        
,imperialism is foreign1 ,socialism is  
foreign1 ,militarism is foreign1        
,education is foreign1 strictly even    
,liberalism is foreign4 ,but            
,radicalism was our own2 as ,english as 
the hedge-rows4      ',charles          
,dickens4'      ,,august #hth      ,a   
cloud was on the mind of men1 and       
wailing went the weather1    ,yea1 a    
sick cloud upon the soul when we were   
boys together4    ,science announced    
nonentity and art admired decay2    ,the
 world was old and ended3 but you and ,i
 were gay4    ,round us in antic order  
their crippled vices came--    ,lust    
that had lost its laughter1 fear that   
had lost its shame4    ,like the white  
lock of ,whistler1 that lit our aimless 
gloom1    ,men showed their own white   
feather as proudly as a plume4    ,life 
was a flower that faded1 and death a    

drone that stung2    ,the world was very
 old indeed when you and ,i were young6 
,they twisted even decent sins to shapes
 not to be named3    ,men were ashamed  
of honour2 but we were not ashamed4     
,weak if we were and foolish1 not thus  
we failed1 not thus2    ,when that black
 ,baal blocked the heavens he had no    
hymns from us4    ,children we were--our
 forts of sand were even as weak as we1 
,high as they went we piled them up to  
break that bitter sea4    ,fools as we  
were in motley1 all jangled and absurd1 
,when all church bells were silent1 our 
cap and bells were heard4      ',the    
,man who was ,thursday4'      ,,august  
#ith    ,in practice no one is mad      
enough to legislate or educate upon     
dogmas of  physical inheritance2 and    
even the language of the thing is rarely
 used  except for special modern        
purposes--such as the endowment of      
research  or the oppression of the poor4
      ',what's ,wrong with the ,world4' 
,,august #ajth ,,the ,,fall ,,of ,,the  

,,french ,,monarchy    ,we1 the modern  
,english1 cannot easily understand the  
,french ,revolution1  because we cannot 
easily understand the idea of a bloody  
battle  for pure common sense2 we cannot
 understand common sense in arms  and   
conquering4 ,the ,french feeling--the   
feeling at the back of the              
,revolution--was that the more sensible 
a man was1 the more you must  look out  
for slaughter4      ',charles ,dickens4'
      ,,august #aath    ,tom ,jones is  
still alive1 with all his good and all  
his evil2 he is  walking about the      
streets2 we meet him every day4 ,we meet
 with him1 we  drink with him1 we smoke 
with him1 we talk with him1 we talk     
about him4  ,the only difference is that
 we have no longer the intellectual     
courage  to write about him4 ,we split  
up the supreme and central human being1 
,tom ,jones1 into a number of separate  
aspects4 ,we let ,mr4 ,j4 ,m4 ,barrie   
write about him in his good moments1 and
 make him out better than he  is4 ,we   

let ,zola write about him in his bad    
moments1 and make him out  much worse   
than he is4 ,we let ,maeterlinck        
celebrate those moments of  spiritual   
panic which he knows to be cowardly2 we 
let ,mr4 ,rudyard  ,kipling celebrate   
those moments of brutality which he     
knows to be far  more cowardly4 ,we let 
obscene writers write about the         
obscenities of  this ordinary man4 ,we  
let puritan writers write about the     
purities of  this ordinary man4 ,we look
 through one peephole that makes men out
 as  devils1 and we call it the ,new    
,art4 ,we look through another peephole 
that makes men out as angels1 and we    
call it the ,new ,theology4 ,but if  we 
pull down some dusty old books from the 
bookshelf1 if we turn over  some old    
mildewed leaves1 and if in that         
obscurity and decay we find  some faint 
traces of a tale about a complete       
man--such a man as is  walking on the   
pavement outside--we suddenly pull a    
long face1 and we  call it the coarse   

morals of a bygone age4      ',all      
,things ,considered4'      ,,august     
#abth    ,self is the ,gorgon4 ,vanity  
sees it in the mirror of other men and  
lives4 ,pride studies it for itself and 
is turned to stone4      ',heretics4'   
,,august #acth    ,you complain of      
,catholicism for setting up an ideal of 
virginity2  it did nothing of the kind4 
,the whole human race set up an ideal of
  virginity2 the ,greeks in ,athene1 the
 ,romans in the ,vestal fire1 set up  an
 ideal of virginity4 ,what then is your 
real quarrel with ,catholicism8  ,your  
quarrel can only be1 your quarrel really
 only is1 that ,catholicism  has        
achieved an ideal of virginity2 that it 
is no longer a mere piece  of floating  
poetry4 ,but if you1 and a few feverish 
men1 in top hats1  running about in a   
street in ,london1 choose to differ as  
to the ideal  itself1 not only from the 
,church1 but from the ,parthenon whose  
name  means virginity1 from the ,roman  
,empire which went outwards from the    

virgin flame1 from the whole legend and 
tradition of ,europe1 from the  lion who
 will not touch virgins1 from the       
unicorn who respects them1  and who make
 up together the bearers of your own    
national shield1 from  the most living  
and lawless of your own poets1 from     
,massinger1 who  wrote the ',virgin     
,martyr1' from ,shakespeare1 who wrote  
',measure for  ,measure'--if you in     
,fleet ,street differ from all this     
human experience1  does it never strike 
you that it may be ,fleet ,street that  
is wrong8      ',the ,ball and the      
,cross4'      ,,august #adth    ,it     
cannot be too often repeated that all   
real democracy is an attempt  7like that
 of a jolly hostess7 to bring shy people
 out4 ,for every  practical purpose of a
 political state1 for every practical   
purpose of  a tea-party1 he that abaseth
 himself must be exalted4 ,at a         
tea-party  it is equally obvious that he
 that exalteth himself must be abased1  
if  possible without bodily violence4   

',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,august   
#aeth ,,the ,,assumption        ,one    
instant in a still light        ,he saw 
,our ,lady1 then      ,her dress was    
soft as western sky1      ,and she was a
 queen most womanly1        ,but she was
 a queen of men4        ,and over the   
iron forest        ,he saw ,our ,lady   
stand1      ,her eyes were sad withouten
 art      ,and seven swords were in her 
heart1        ,but one was in her hand4 
',ballad of ,alfred4'      ,,august     
#afth    ,i am not prepared to admit    
that there is1 or can be1 properly      
speaking1  in the world anything that is
 too sacred to be known4 ,that spiritual
  beauty and spiritual truth are in     
their nature communicable and that  they
 should be communicated1 is a principle 
which lies at the root  of every        
conceivable religion4 ,christ was       
crucified upon a hill1 and  not in a    
cavern1 and the word ,gospel itself     
involves the same idea  as the ordinary 
name of a daily paper4 ,whenever1       

therefore1 a poet  or any similar type  
of man can1 or conceives that he can1   
make all  men partakers in some splendid
 secret of his own heart1 ,i can imagine
  nothing saner and nothing manlier than
 his course in doing so4      ',robert  
,browning4'      ,,august #agth    ,once
 men sang together round a table in     
chorus2 now one man sings  alone1 for   
the absurd reason that he can sing      
better4 ,if scientific  civilization    
goes on 7which is most improbable7 only 
one man will  laugh1 because he can     
laugh better than the rest4             
',heretics4'      ,,august #ahth    ,all
 ,i have to urge is that ,i dislike the 
big ,whiteley shop1 and that ,i  dislike
 ,socialism because it will 7according  
to ,socialists7 be so like  that shop4  
,it is its fulfilment1 not its reversal4
 ,i do not object to  ,socialism1       
because it will revolutionize our       
commerce1 but because it  will leave it 
so horribly the same4      ',what's     
,wrong with the ,world4'      ,,august  

#aith    ,in a hollow of the grey-green 
hills of rainy ,ireland lived an old1   
old  woman1 whose uncle was always      
,cambridge at the ,boat ,race4 ,but in  
her  grey-green hollows1 she knew       
nothing of this2 she didn't know that   
there was a ,boat ,race4 ,also she did  
not know that she had an uncle4 ,she    
had heard of nobody at all1 except of   
,george the ,first1 of whom she  had    
heard 7,i know not why71 and in whose   
historical memory she put her  simple   
trust4 ,and by and by1 in ,god's good   
time1 it was discovered that  this uncle
 of hers was really not her uncle1 and  
they came and told her  so4 ,she smiled 
through her tears1 and said only1       
',virtue is its own  reward4'      ',the
 ,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'          
,,august #bjth    ,surely the vilest    
point of human vanity is exactly that2  
to ask to be  admired for admiring what 
your admirers do not admire4            
,introduction to ',bleak ,house4'       
,,august #bast    ,there is more        

simplicity in the man who eats caviar on
 impulse than in  the man who eats      
grape-nuts on principle4                
',heretics4'      ,,august #bbnd        
,there was until lately a law forbidding
 a man to marry his deceased  wife's    
sister2 yet the thing happened          
constantly4 ,there was no law           
forbidding a man to marry his deceased  
wife's scullery-maid2 yet it  did not   
happen nearly so often4 ,it did not     
happen because the marriage  market is  
managed in the spirit and by the        
authority of women4      ',what's ,wrong
 with the ,world4'      ,,august #bcrd  
,this world and all our powers in it are
 far more awful and beautiful  than we  
ever know until some accident reminds   
us4 ,if you wish to  perceive that      
limitless felicity1 limit yourself if   
only for a moment4  ,if you wish to     
realize how fearfully and wonderfully   
,god's image is  made1 stand upon one   
leg4 ,if you want to realize the        
splendid vision of  all visible         

things--wink the other eye4             
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,august   
#bdth ,,st4 ,,bartholomew',s ,,day      
,the ,secularist says that ,christianity
 produced tumult and cruelty4 ,he  seems
 to suppose that this proves it to be   
bad4 ,but it might prove it  to be very 
good4 ,for men commit crimes not only   
for bad things1 far  more often for good
 things4 ,for no bad things can be      
desired quite  so passionately and      
persistently as good things can be      
desired1 and  only very exceptional men 
desire very bad and unnatural things4   
,most  crime is committed because1 owing
 to some peculiar complication1 very    
beautiful and necessary things are in   
some danger4 ,for instance1 if we       
wanted to abolish thieving and swindling
 at one blow1 the best thing  to do     
would be to abolish babies4 ,babies1 the
 most beautiful things  on earth1 have  
been the excuse and origin of almost all
 the business  brutality and financial  
infamy on earth4 ,if we could abolish   

monogamic  or romantic love1 the country
 would be dotted with ,maiden ,assizes4 
',religious ,doubts of ,democracy4'     
,,august #beth    ,there are only three 
things in the world that women do not   
understand2  and they are ,liberty1     
,equality1 and ,fraternity4             
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,august #bfth    ,modern ,nonconformist
 newspapers distinguish themselves by   
suppressing  precisely those nouns and  
adjectives which the founders of        
,nonconformity distinguished themselves 
by flinging at kings and queens4        
',heretics4'      ,,august #bgth        
,many of us live publicly with          
featureless public puppets1 images of   
the  small public abstractions4 ,it is  
when we pass our own private gate1 and  
open our own secret door1 that we step  
into the land of the giants4            
',charles ,dickens4'      ,,august #bhth
    ,with any recovery from morbidity   
there must go a certain healthy         
humiliation4 ,there comes a certain     

point in such conditions when only      
three things are possible3 first1 a     
perpetuation of ,satanic pride2         
secondly1 tears2 and third1 laughter4   
',the ,man who was ,thursday4'          
,,august #bith    ,did ,herbert ,spencer
 ever convince you--did he ever convince
  anybody--did he ever for one mad      
moment convince himself--that it  must  
be to the interest of the individual to 
feel a public spirit8 ,do  you believe  
that1 if you rule your department badly1
 you stand any  more chance1 or one half
 of the chance1 of being guillotined    
that an  angler stands of being pulled  
into the river by a strong pike8        
,herbert  ,spencer refrained from theft 
for the same reason he refrained from   
wearing feathers in his hair1 because he
 was an ,english gentleman with         
different tastes4      ',the ,napoleon  
of ,notting ,hill4'      ,,august #cjth 
,war is a dreadful thing2 but it does   
prove two points sharply and            
unanswerably--numbers and an unnatural  

valour4 ,one does discover the  two     
urgent matters2 how many rebels there   
are alive1 and how many are  ready to be
 dead4      ',what's ,wrong with the    
,world4'      ,,august #cast    ,carlyle
 said that men were mostly fools4       
,christianity1 with a surer and  more   
reverent realism1 says that they are all
 fools4 ,this doctrine is  sometimes    
called the doctrine of original sin4 ,it
 may also be described  as the doctrine 
of the equality of men4                 
',heretics4'          ,,september       
,,september #ast    ,if a modern        
philanthropist came to ,dotheboys ,hall 
,i fear he would not  employ the simple1
 sacred and truly ,christian solution of
 beating ,mr4  ,squeers with a stick4 ,i
 fancy he would petition the ,government
 to  appoint a ,royal ,commission to    
inquire into ,mr4 ,squeers4 ,i think he 
would every now and then write letters  
to the newspapers reminding  people     
that1 in spite of all appearances to the
 contrary1 there was a  ,royal          

,commission to inquire into ,mr4        
,squeers4 ,i agree that he might  even  
go the length of calling a crowded      
meeting in ,st4 ,james's ,hall  on the  
subject of the best policy with regard  
to ,mr4 ,squeers4 ,at this  meeting some
 very heated and daring speakers might  
even go the length  of alluding sternly 
to ,mr4 ,squeers4 ,occasionally even    
hoarse voices  from the back of the hall
 might ask 7in vain7 what was going to  
be  done with ,mr4 ,squeers4 ,the ,royal
 ,commission would report about three   
years afterwards and would say that many
 things had happened which were         
certainly most regrettable1 that ,mr4   
,squeers was the victim of a bad        
system2 that ,mrs4 ,squeers was also the
 victim of a bad system2 but that  the  
man who sold ,squeers' cane had really  
acted with great indiscretion  and ought
 to be spoken to kindly4 ,something like
 this would be what1  after four years1 
the ,royal ,commission would have said2 
but it would  not matter in the least   

what the ,royal ,commission had said1   
for by that  time the philanthropists   
would be off on a new tack and the world
 would  have forgotten all about        
,dotheboys ,hall and everything         
connected with  it4 ,by that time the   
philanthropists would be petitioning    
,parliament  for another ,royal         
,commission2 perhaps a ,royal           
,commission to inquire  into whether    
,mr4 ,mantalini was extravagant with his
 wife's money2  perhaps a commission to 
inquire into whether ,mr4 ,vincent      
,crummies kept  the ,infant ,phenomenon 
short by means of gin4                  
,introduction to ',nicholas ,nickleby4' 
,,september #bnd ,,battle ,,of ,,sedan  
,the ,germans have not conquered very   
much in history as a whole4 ,about      
fifty years ago they beat the ,french   
and fifty years before that the  ,french
 very soundly beat them4 ,if we see     
history as a whole there is  no more    
doubt that the ,french people is the    
more military than there  is that the   

,german people is the more musical4     
,germany is a great and  splendid       
nation2 and there are millions of       
sensible ,german patriots  grappling    
with the sins and follies which are part
 of her problem4      ',illustrated     
,london ,news4'      ,,september #crd   
,if votes for women do not mean mobs for
 women they do not mean what  they were 
meant to mean4      ',what's ,wrong with
 the ,world4'      ,,september #dth     
,there is a notion adrift everywhere    
that imagination1 especially  mystical  
imagination1 is dangerous to man's      
mental balance4 ,poets are  commonly    
spoken of as psychologically unreliable2
 and generally there  is a vague        
association between wreathing laurels in
 your hair and  sticking straws in it4  
,facts and history utterly contradict   
this view4  ,most of the very great     
poets have been not only sane1 but      
extremely  business-like2 and if        
,shakespeare ever really held horses1 it
 was  because he was much the safest man

 to hold them4 ,imagination does not    
breed insanity4 ,exactly what does breed
 insanity is reason4 ,poets do  not go  
mad1 but chess-players do4              
,mathematicians go mad1 and cashiers1   
but creative artists very seldom4       
',orthodoxy4'      ,,september #eth     
,our modern mystics make a mistake when 
they wear long hair or loose  ties to   
attract the spirits4 ,the elves and the 
old gods when they  revisit the earth   
really go straight for a dull top-hat4  
,for it means  simplicity1 which the    
gods love4      ',charles ,dickens4'    
,,september #fth    ,women have been set
 free to be ,bacchantes4 ,they have been
 set free to  be virgin martyrs2 they   
have been set free to be witches4 ,do   
not ask  them now to sink so low as the 
higher culture4      ',all ,things      
,considered4'      ,,september #gth     
,the sin and sorrow of despotism is not 
that it does not love men1 but  that it 
loves them too much and trusts them too 
little4      ',robert ,browning4'       

,,september #hth    ,a philosopher      
cannot talk about any single thing1 down
 to a pumpkin1  without showing whether 
he is wise or foolish2 but he can easily
 talk  about everything without anyone  
having any views about him1 beyond      
gloomy suspicions4      ',g4 ,f4        
,watts4'      ,,september #ith          
,chattering finch and water-fly         
,are not merrier than ,i2      ,here    
among the flowers ,i lie      ,laughing 
everlastingly4      ,no3 ,i may not tell
 the best2      ,surely1 friends1 ,i    
might have guessed      ,death was but  
the good ,king's jest1      ,it was hid 
so carefully4        ',the ,skeleton4'  
,,september #ajth    ,england is still  
ruled by the great ,barnacle family4    
,parliament is  still ruled by the great
 ,barnacle trinity--the solemn old      
,barnacle1 who  knew that the           
,circumlocution ,office was a           
protection2 the sprightly  young        
,barnacle1 who knew that it was a fraud2
 and the bewildered  young ,barnacle who

 knew nothing about it4 ,from these     
three types our  ,cabinets are still    
exclusively recruited4 ,people talk of  
the tyrannies  and anomalies which      
,dickens denounced as things of the past
 like the  ,star ,chamber4 ,they believe
 that the days of the old brutal        
optimism  and the old brutal            
indifference are gone for ever4 ,in     
truth1 this very  belief is only the    
continuance of the old stupid optimism  
and the old  brutal indifference4 ,we   
believe in a free ,england and a pure   
,england1  because we still believe in  
the ,circumlocution ,office account of  
this  matter4 ,undoubtedly our serenity 
is widespread4 ,we believe that ,england
  is really reformed1 we believe that   
,england is really democratic1  we      
believe that ,english politics are free 
from corruption4 ,but this  general     
satisfaction of ours does not show that 
,dickens has beaten the  ,barnacles4 ,it
 only shows that the ,barnacles have    
beaten ,dickens4      ',charles         

,dickens4'      ,,september #aath       
,when a man begins to think that the    
grass will not grow at night unless  he 
lies awake to watch it1 he generally    
ends either in an asylum or on  the     
throne of an emperor4      ',robert     
,browning4'      ,,september #abth      
,thieves respect property4 ,they merely 
wish the property to become their       
property that they may more perfectly   
respect it4 ,but philosophers  dislike  
property as property2 they wish to      
destroy the very idea of  personal      
possession4 ,bigamists respect marriage1
 or they would not go  through the      
highly ceremonial and even ritualistic  
formality of bigamy4  ,but philosophers 
despise marriage as marriage4 ,murderers
 respect human  life2 they merely wish  
to attain a greater fullness of human   
life in  themselves by the sacrifice of 
what seems to them to be lesser lives4  
,but philosophers hate life itself1     
their own as much as other people's4    
',the ,man who was ,thursday4'          

,,september #acth    ,the lunatic is the
 man who lives in a small world but     
thinks it is a  large one2 he is a man  
who lives in a tenth of the truth1 and  
thinks it  is the whole4 ,the madman    
cannot conceive any cosmos outside a    
certain  tale or conspiracy or vision4  
,hence the more clearly we see the world
  divided into ,saxons and non-,saxons1 
into our splendid selves and the  rest1 
the more certain we may be that we are  
slowly and quietly going  mad4 ,the more
 plain and satisfying our state appears1
 the more we may  know that we are      
living in an unreal world4 ,for the real
 world is not  satisfying4 ,the more    
clear become the colours and facts of   
,anglo-,saxon  superiority1 the more    
surely we may know we are in a dream4   
,for the  real world is not clear or    
plain4 ,the real world is full of       
bracing  bewilderments and brutal       
surprises4 ,comfort is the blessing and 
the  curse of the ,english1 and of      
,americans of the ,pogram type also4    

,with  them it is a loud comfort1 a wild
 comfort1 a screaming and capering      
comfort2 but comfort at bottom still4   
,for there is but an inch of  difference
 between the cushioned chamber and the  
padded cell4      ',charles ,dickens4'  
,,september #adth    ,i never said a    
word against eminent men of science4    
,what ,i complain of  is a vague popular
 philosophy which supposes itself to be 
scientific  when it is really nothing   
but a sort of new religion and an       
uncommonly  nasty one4 ,when people     
talked about the ,fall of ,man1 they    
knew they  were talking about a mystery1
 a thing they didn't understand4 ,now   
they  talk about the survival of the    
fittest3 they think they do understand  
it1 whereas they have not merely no     
notion1 they have an elaborately  false 
notion of what the words mean4          
',the ,club of ,queer ,trades4'         
,,september #aeth    ,the only way of   
catching a train ,i have ever discovered
 is to miss the  train before4          

',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,september
 #afth    ,many people have wondered why
 it is that children's stories are so   
full  of moralizing4 ,the reason is     
perfectly simple3 it is that children   
like  moralizing more than anything     
else1 and eat it up as if it were so    
much  jam4 ,the reason why we1 who are  
grown up1 dislike moralizing is equally 
clear3 it is that we have discovered how
 much perversion and hypocrisy  can be  
mixed with it2 we have grown to dislike 
morality not because  morality is moral1
 but because morality is so often       
immoral4 ,but the  child has never seen 
the virtues twisted into vices2 the     
child does not  know that men are not   
only bad from good motives1 but also    
often good  from bad motives4 ,the child
 does not know that whereas the ,jesuit 
may  do evil that good may come1 the man
 of the world often does good that  evil
 may come4 ,therefore1 the child has a  
hearty1 healthy1 unspoiled1  and        
insatiable appetite for mere morality2  

for the mere difference  between a good 
little girl and a bad little girl4 ,and 
it can be proved  by innumerable        
examples that when we are quite young we
 do like the  moralizing story4         
,grown-up people like the ,comic        
,sandford and ,merton1  but children    
like the real ,sandford and ,merton4    
',daily ,news4'      ,,september #agth  
,one of the few gifts that can really   
increase with old age is a  sense of    
humour4 ,that is the whole fun of       
belonging to an ancient  civilization   
like our own great civilization of      
,europe4 ,in my vision ,i  see ,europe  
still sitting on her mighty bull1 the   
enormous and mystic  mother from whom we
 come1 who has given us everything from 
the ',iliad'  to the ,french            
,revolution4 ,and from her awful lips ,i
 seem to hear the  words3--             
',think of me1 old ,mother ,scrubbs1    
,a-joining these 'ere totty clubs3      
,fancy me deserting the pubs        ,at 
my time of life6'        ',illustrated  

,london ,news4'      ,,september #ahth  
,,dr4 ,,johnson ,,born    ,if anyone    
wishes to see the real rowdy            
egalitarianism which is  necessary 7to  
males at least7 he can find it as well  
as anywhere in  the great old tavern    
disputes which come down to us in such  
books  as ,boswell's ',johnson4' ,it is 
worth while to mention that one name    
especially1 because the modern world in 
its morbidity has done it a  grave      
injustice4 ,the demeanour of ,johnson1  
it is said1 was 'harsh  and despotic4'  
,it was occasionally harsh1 but it was  
never despotic4  ,johnson was not in the
 least a despot4 ,johnson was a         
demagogue1 he  shouted against a        
shouting crowd4 ,the very fact that he  
wrangled with  other people is a proof  
that other people were allowed to       
wrangle with  him4 ,his very brutality  
was based on the idea of an equal       
scrimmage  like that of football4 ,it is
 strictly true that he bawled and banged
  the table because he was a modest man4

 ,he was honestly afraid of being       
overwhelmed or even overlooked4 ,addison
 had exquisite manners and was  the king
 of his company4 ,he was polite to      
everybody1 but superior to  everybody2  
therefore he has been handed down for   
ever in the immortal  insult of ,pope3--
        ,like ,cato give his little     
,senate laws      ,and sit attention to 
his own applause4    ,johnson1 so far   
from being king of his company1 was a   
sort of ,irish  ,member in his own      
,parliament4 ,addison was a courteous   
superior and was  hated4 ,johnson was an
 insolent equal1 and therefore was loved
 by all  who knew him and handed down in
 a marvellous book which is one of the  
mere miracles of love4      ',what's    
,wrong with the ,world4'                
,,september #aith    ,brave men are all 
vertebrates3 they have their softness on
 the surface  and their toughness in the
 middle4      ',tremendous ,trifles4'   
,,september #bjth    ,the teetotaller   
has chosen a most unfortunate phrase for

 the drunkard  when he says that the    
drunkard is making a beast of himself4  
,the man  who drinks ordinarily makes   
nothing but an ordinary man of himself4 
,the man who drinks excessively makes a 
devil of himself4 ,but nothing          
connected with a human and artistic     
thing like wine can bring one  nearer to
 the brute life of ,nature4 ,the only   
man who is1 in the exact  and literal   
sense of the words1 making a beast of   
himself is the  teetotaller4            
',charles ,dickens4'      ,,september   
#bast ,,st4 ,,matthew',s ,,day    ,the  
abyss between ,christ and all ,his      
modern interpreters is that we  have no 
record that ,he ever wrote a word1      
except with ,his finger in  the sand4   
,the whole is the history of one        
continuous and sublime  conversation4   
,it was not for any pompous             
proclamation1 it was not for  any       
elaborate output of printed volumes2 it 
was for a few splendid and  idle words  
that the cross was set up on ,calvary   

and the earth gaped1  and the sun was   
darkened at noonday4      ',twelve      
,types4'      ,,september #bbnd      ,so
 with the wan waste grasses on my spear1
    ,i ride for ever seeking after ,god4
    ,my hair grows whiter than my       
thistle plume    ,and all my limbs are  
loose2 but in my eyes    ,the star of an
 unconquerable praise3    ,for in my    
soul one hope for ever sings1    ,that  
at the next white corner of a road      
,my eyes may look on ,him4      ',the   
,wild ,knight4'      ,,september #bcrd  
,an error is more menacing than a crime1
 for an error begets crimes4444  ,a free
 lover is worse than a profligate4 ,for 
a profligate is serious  and reckless   
even in his shortest love2 while a free 
lover is cautious  and irresponsible    
even in his longest devotion4           
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,september
 #bdth    ,if the barricades went up in 
our streets and the poor became masters1
  ,i think the priests would escape1 ,i 
fear the gentlemen would2 but  ,i       

believe the gutters would be simply     
running with the blood of               
philanthropists4      ',charles         
,dickens4'      ,,september #beth       
,pessimism says that life is so short   
that it gives nobody a chance2  religion
 says that life is so short that it     
gives everybody his final  chance4      
,introduction to ',nicholas ,nickleby4' 
,,september #bfth    ,in short1 one     
,pankhurst is an exception1 but a       
thousand ,pankhursts are  a nightmare1 a
 ,bacchic orgy1 a witch's sabbath4 ,for 
in all legends men  have thought of     
women as sublime separately1 but        
horrible in a crowd4      ',what's      
,wrong with the ,world4'                
,,september #bgth    ,individually1 men 
may present a more or less rational     
appearance1  eating1 sleeping1 and      
scheming4 ,but humanity as a whole is   
changeful1  mystical1 fickle1           
delightful4 ,men are men1 but ,man is a 
woman4      ',the ,napoleon of ,notting 
,hill4'      ,,september #bhth    ,i    

should not be at all surprised if ,i    
turned one corner in ,fleet ,street  and
 saw a queer looking window1 turned     
another corner and saw a yet  queerer   
looking lamp2 ,i should not be surprised
 if ,i turned a third  corner and found 
myself in ,elfland4      ',tremendous   
,trifles4'      ,,september #bith ,,st4 
,,michael ,,and ,,all ,,angels          
,historic ,christianity has always      
believed in the valour of ,st4 ,michael 
riding in front of the ,church          
,militant1 and in an ultimate and       
absolute  pleasure1 not indirect or     
utilitarian1 the intoxication of the    
,spirit1  the wine of the blood of ,god4
      ',george ,bernard ,shaw4'         
,,september #cjth    ,when a man really 
tells the truth1 the first truth he     
tells is that he  himself is a liar4    
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,october      ,,october #ast    ,of all
 the tests by which the good citizen and
 strong reformer can be  distinguished  
from the vague faddist or the inhuman   

sceptic1 ,i know no  better test than   
this--that the unreal reformer sees in  
front of him  one certain future1 the   
future of his fad2 while the real       
reformer sees  before him ten or twenty 
futures among which his country must    
choose1  and may in some dreadful hour  
choose the wrong one4 ,the true patriot 
is  always doubtful of victory2 because 
he knows that he is dealing with a      
living thing2 a thing with free will4   
,to be certain of free will is to  be   
uncertain of success4      ,introduction
 to ',american ,notes4'      ,,october  
#bnd    ,nietzsche scales staggering    
mountains1 but he turns up ultimately in
  ,tibet4 ,he sits down beside ,tolstoy 
in the land of nothing and ,nirvana4    
,they are both helpless--one because he 
must not grasp anything1 and the  other 
because he must not let go of anything4 
,the ,tolstoian's will is  frozen by a  
,buddhistic instinct that all special   
actions are evil4 ,but  the             
,nietzscheite's will is quite equally   

frozen by his view that all  special    
actions are good2 for if all special    
actions are good1 none  of them are     
special4 ,they stand at the cross roads1
 and one hates all  the roads and the   
other likes all the roads4 ,the result  
is--well1 some  things are not hard to  
calculate4 ,they stand at the cross     
roads4      ',orthodoxy4'      ,,october
 #crd    ,modern women defend their     
office with all the fierceness of       
domesticity4 ,they fight for desk and   
typewriter as for hearth and home1  and 
develop a sort of wolfish wifehood on   
behalf of the invisible head  of the    
firm4 ,that is why they do office work  
so well2 and that is why  they ought not
 to do it4      ',what's ,wrong with the
 ,world4'      ,,october #dth ,,st4     
,,francis ,,of ,,assisi    ,for most    
people there is a fascinating           
inconsistency in the position  of ,st4  
,francis4 ,he expressed in loftier and  
bolder language than any  earthly       
thinker the conception that laughter is 

as divine as tears4  ,he called his     
monks the mountebanks of ,god4 ,he never
 forgot to take  pleasure in a bird as  
it flashed past him1 or a drop of water 
as it  fell from his finger2 he was     
perhaps the happiest of the sons of men4
  ,yet this man undoubtedly founded his 
whole polity on the negation of  what we
 think of the most imperious            
necessities2 in his three vows  of      
poverty1 chastity1 and obedience he     
denied to himself1 and those  he loved  
most1 property1 love1 and liberty4 ,why 
was it that the most  large-hearted and 
poetic spirits in that age found their  
most congenial  atmosphere in these     
awful renunciations8 ,why did he who    
loved where all  men were blind1 seek to
 blind himself where all men loved8 ,why
 was he a  monk and not a troubadour8   
,we have a suspicion that if these      
questions  were answered we should      
suddenly find that much of the enigma of
 this  sullen time of ours was answered 
also4      ',twelve ,types4'            

,,october #eth    ,it is awful to think 
that this world which so many poets have
 praised  has even for a time been      
depicted as a mantrap into which we may 
just  have the manhood to jump4 ,think  
of all those ages through which men     
have had the courage to die1 and then   
remember that we have actually  fallen  
to talking about having the courage to  
live4      ',george ,bernard ,shaw4'    
,,october #fth    ,we will eat and drink
 later4 ,let us remain together a       
little1 we  who have loved each other so
 sadly1 and have fought so long4 ,i seem
  to remember only centuries of heroic  
war1 in which you were always           
heroes--epic on epic1 iliad on iliad1   
and you always brothers in arms4        
,whether it was but recently 7for ,time 
is nothing7 or at the beginning  of the 
world1 ,i sent you out to war4 ,i sat in
 the darkness where there  is not any   
created thing1 and to you ,i was only a 
voice commanding  valour and an         
unnatural virtue4 ,you heard the voice  

in the dark and  you never heard it     
again4 ,the sun in heaven denied it1 the
 earth and  sky denied it1 all human    
wisdom denied it4 ,and when ,i met you  
in the  daylight ,i denied it myself4   
,but you were men4 ,you did not forget  
your  secret honour1 though the whole   
cosmos turned an engine of torture to   
tear it out of you4      ',the ,man who 
was ,thursday4'      ,,october #gth     
,the truest kinship with humanity would 
lie in doing as humanity has  always    
done1 accepting with a sportsman-like   
relish the estate to which  we are      
called1 the star of our happiness1 and  
the fortunes of the land  of our birth4 
',twelve ,types4'      ,,october #hth   
,when your father told you1 walking     
about the garden1 that bees stung  or   
that roses smell sweet1 you did not talk
 of taking the best  out of his         
philosophy4 ,when the bees stung you1   
you did not call  it an entertaining    
coincidence2 when the rose smelt sweet  
you did  not say1 ',my father is a rude1

 barbaric symbol enshrining 7perhaps    
unconsciously7 the deep delicate truth  
that flowers smell4' ,no1 you  believed 
your father because you had found him to
 be a living fountain  of facts1 a thing
 that really knew more than you2 a thing
 that would  tell you the truth         
to-morrow1 as well as to-day4           
',orthodoxy4'      ,,october #ith       
,there is only one thing that it        
requires real courage to say1 and that  
is a truism4      ',g4 ,f4 ,watts4'     
,,october #ajth    ,red is the most     
joyful and dreadful thing in the        
physical universe2 it  is the fiercest  
note1 it is the highest light1 it is the
 place where  the walls of this world of
 ours wear thinnest and something beyond
  burns through4 ,it glows in the blood 
which sustains and in the fire  which   
destroys us1 in the roses of our romance
 and in the awful cup of  our religion4 
,it stands for all passionate happiness1
 as in faith or in  first love4         
',daily ,news4'      ,,october #aath    

,commonness means the quality common to 
the saint and the sinner1 to  the       
philosopher and the fool2 and it was    
this that ,dickens grasped and          
developed4 ,in everybody there is a     
certain thing that loves babies1  that  
fears death1 that likes sunlight3 that  
thing enjoys ,dickens4 ,and  everybody  
does not mean uneducated crowds1        
everybody means everybody3  everybody   
means ,mrs4 ,meynell4      ',charles    
,dickens4'      ,,october #abth    ,some
 of the most frantic lies on the face of
 life are told with modesty  and        
restraint2 for the simple reason that   
only modesty and restraint  will save   
them4      ',charles ,dickens4'         
,,october #acth    ,in a world without  
humour1 the only thing to do is to eat4 
,and how  perfect an exception6 ,how can
 these people strike dignified          
attitudes1  and pretend that things     
matter1 when the total ludicrousness of 
life is  proved by the very method by   
which it is supported8 ,a man strikes   

the  lyre1 and says1 ',life is real1    
life is earnest1' and then goes into a  
room and stuffs alien substances into a 
hole in his head4      ',the ,napoleon  
of ,notting ,hill4'      ,,october #adth
 ,,battle ,,of ,,hastings        ,gored 
on the ,norman gonfalon      ,the       
,golden ,dragon died1        ,we shall  
not wake with ballad strings      ,the  
good time of the smaller things1        
,we shall not see the holy kings        
,ride down the ,severn side4            
',ballad of ,alfred4'      ,,october    
#aeth    ,i am grown up1 and ,i do not  
worry myself much about ,zola's         
immorality4  ,the thing ,i cannot stand 
is his morality4 ,if ever a man on this 
earth  lived to embody the tremendous   
text1 ',but if the light in your body be
  darkness1 how great is the darkness6' 
it was certainly he4 ,great men  like   
,ariosto1 ,rabelais1 and ,shakespeare   
fall in foul places1 flounder  in       
violent but venial sin1 sprawl for      
pages1 exposing their gigantic          

weakness1 are dirty1 are indefensible2  
and then they struggle up  again and can
 still speak with a convincing kindness 
and an unbroken  honour of the best     
things in the world3 ,rabelais1 of the  
instruction  of ardent and austere      
youth2 ,ariosto1 of holy chivalry2      
,shakespeare1  of the splendid stillness
 of mercy4 ,but in ,zola even the ideals
 are  undesirable2 ,zola's mercy is     
colder than justice--nay1 ,zola's mercy 
is  more bitter in the mouth than       
injustice4 ,when ,zola shows us an ideal
  training he does not take us1 like    
,rabelais1 into the happy fields of     
humanist learning4 ,he takes us into the
 schools of inhumanist learning1  where 
there are neither books nor flowers1 nor
 wine nor wisdom1 but  only deformities 
in glass bottles1 and where the rule is 
taught from  the exceptions4 ,zola's    
truth answers the exact description of  
the  skeleton in the cupboard2 that is1 
it is something of which a domestic     
custom forbids the discovery1 but which 

is quite dead1 even when it is          
discovered4      ',all ,things          
,considered4'      ,,october #afth      
,we talk in a cant phrase of the ,man in
 the ,street1 but the ,frenchman is  the
 ,man in the ,street4 ,as the ,frenchman
 drinks in the street and dines  in the 
street1 so he fights in the street and  
dies in the street2 so  that the street 
can never be commonplace to him4        
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,october  
#agth    ,if we wish to preserve the    
family we must revolutionize the nation4
      ',what's ,wrong with the ,world4' 
,,october #ahth ,,st4 ,,luke',s ,,day   
,in these days we are accused of        
attacking science because we want it to 
be scientific4 ,surely there is not any 
undue disrespect to our doctor  in      
saying that he is our doctor1 not our   
priest or our wife or ourself4  ,it is  
not the business of the doctor to say   
that we must go to a  watering-place2 it
 is his affair to say that certain      
results of health  will follow if we do 

go to a watering-place4 ,after that1    
obviously1 it  is for us to judge4      
,physical science is like simple        
addition2 it is  either infallible or it
 is false4 ,to mix science up with      
philosophy  is only to produce a        
philosophy that has lost all its ideal  
value and  a science that has lost all  
its practical value4 ,i want my private 
physician to tell me whether this or    
that food will kill me4 ,it is for  my  
private philosopher to tell me whether  
,i ought to be killed4      ',all       
,things ,considered4'      ,,october    
#aith    ,it was absurd to say that     
,waterloo was won on ,eton              
cricket-fields4 ,but  it might have been
 fairly said that ,waterloo was won on  
the village  green1 where clumsy boys   
played a very clumsy cricket4 ,in a     
word1 it  was the average of the nation 
that was strong1 and athletic glories do
  not indicate much about the average of
 a nation4 ,waterloo was not won  by    
good cricket-players4 ,but ,waterloo was

 won by bad cricket-players1  by a mass 
of men who had some minimum of athletic 
instincts and habits4  ,it is a good    
sign in a nation1 when such things are  
done badly4 ,it  shows that all the     
people are doing them4 ,and it is a bad 
sign in a  nation when such things are  
done very well1 for it shows that only  
a few experts and eccentrics are doing  
them1 and that the nation is  merely    
looking on4      ',all ,things          
,considered4'      ,,october #bjth    ,i
 sometimes think it is a pity that      
people travel in foreign countries2  it 
narrows their minds so much4            
',daily ,news4'      ,,october #bast    
,,trafalgar ,,day    ,the heroic is a   
fact1 even when it is a fact of         
coincidence or of  miracle2 and a fact  
is a thing which can be admitted without
 being  explained4 ,but ,i would merely 
hint that there is a very natural       
explanation of this frightful felicity1 
either of phrase or action1  which so   
many men have exhibited on so many      

scaffolds or battlefields4  ,it is      
merely that when a man has found        
something which he prefers to  life1 he 
then for the first time begins to live4 
,a promptitude of  poetry opens in his  
soul of which our paltry experiences do 
not possess  the key4 ,when once he has 
despised this world as a mere           
instrument1 it  becomes a musical       
instrument1 it falls into certain       
artistic harmonies  around him4 ,if     
,nelson had not worn his stars he would 
not have been  hit4 ,but if he had not  
worn his stars he would not have been   
,nelson2  and if he had not been ,nelson
 he might have lost the battle4         
',daily ,news4'      ,,october #bbnd    
,watts proved no doubt that he was not  
wholly without humour by this  admirable
 picture 7,the ,first ,oyster74         
,gladstone proved that he was  not      
wholly without humour by his reply to   
,mr4 ,chaplin1 by his singing  of       
,doo-dah1 and by his support of a grant 
to the ,duke of ,coburg4 ,but  both men 

were singularly little possessed by the 
mood or the idea of  humour4 ,to them   
had been in peculiar fullness revealed  
the one great  truth which our modern   
thought does not know1 and which it may 
possibly  perish through not knowing4   
,they knew that to enjoy life means to  
take  it seriously4 ,there is an eternal
 kinship between solemnity and high     
spirits1 and almost the very name of it 
is ,gladstone4 ,its other name  is      
,watts4 ,they knew that not only life1  
but every detail of life1 is  most a    
pleasure when it is studied with the    
gloomiest intensity4444  ,the startling 
cheerfulness of the old age of          
,gladstone1 the startling  cheerfulness 
of the old age of ,watts1 are both      
redolent of this  exuberant seriousness1
 this uproarious gravity4 ,they were as 
happy as  the birds because1 like the   
birds1 they were untainted by the       
disease  of laughter4 ,they are as awful
 and philosophical as children at play3 
indeed1 they remind us of a truth true  

for all of us1 though capable of        
misunderstanding1 that the great aim of 
a man's life is to get into his  second 
childhood4      ',watts4'      ,,october
 #bcrd    ,the foil may curve in the    
lunge2 but there is nothing beautiful   
about  beginning the battle with a      
crooked foil4 ,so the strict aim1 the   
strong  doctrine1 may give a little in  
the actual fight with facts2 but that   
is no reason for beginning with a weak  
doctrine or a twisted aim4 ,do  not be  
an opportunist2 try to be theoretic at  
all the opportunities2  fate can be     
trusted to do all the opportunist part  
of it4 ,do not try to  bend2 any more   
than the trees try to bend4 ,try to grow
 straight2 and  life will bend you4     
',daily ,news4'      ,,october #bdth    
,truth must necessarily be stranger than
 fiction2 for fiction is the  creation  
of the human mind and therefore         
congenial to it4      ',the ,club of    
,queer ,trades4'      ,,october #beth   
,if a thing is worth doing1 it is worth 

doing badly4      ',what's ,wrong with  
the ,world4'      ,,october #bfth    ,it
 is currently said that hope goes with  
youth and lends to youth its  wings of a
 butterfly2 but ,i fancy that hope is   
the last gift given to  man1 and the    
only gift not given to youth4 ,youth is 
pre-eminently the  period in which a man
 can be lyric1 fanatical1 poetic2 but   
youth is  the period in which a man can 
be hopeless4 ,the end of every episode  
is  the end of the world4 ,but the power
 of hoping through everything1 the      
knowledge that the soul survives its    
adventures1 that great inspiration      
comes to the middle-aged4 ,god has kept 
that good wine until now4      ',charles
 ,dickens4'      ,,october #bgth    ,we 
have made an empire out of our refuse2  
but we cannot make a nation  even out of
 our best material4 ,such is the vague  
and half-conscious  contradiction that  
undoubtedly possesses the minds of great
 masses of  the not unkindly rich4      
,touching the remote empire they feel a 

vague  but vast humanitarian hope2      
touching the chances of small holdings  
or rural reconstruction in the heart of 
the empire they feel a doubt  and a     
disinclination that is not untouched    
with despair4 ,their creed  contains two
 great articles3 first1 that the common 
,englishman can get  on anywhere2 and   
second1 that the common ,englishman     
cannot get on in  ,england4             
,introduction to ',cottage ,homes of    
,england4'      ,,october #bhth         
,there is only one very timid sort of   
man that is not afraid of women4        
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,october #bith    ,i do not see ghosts2
 ,i only see their inherent probability4
      ',tremendous ,trifles4'           
,,october #cjth    ,do you see this     
lantern8 ,do you see the cross carved on
 it and the  flame inside8 ,you did not 
make it4 ,you did not light it4 ,better 
men  than you1 men who could believe and
 obey1 twisted the entrails of iron1    
and preserved the legend of fire4 ,there

 is not a street you walk on1  there is 
not a thread you wear1 that was not made
 as this lantern was1  by denying your  
philosophy of dirt and rats4 ,you can   
make nothing4 ,you  can only destroy4   
,you will destroy mankind2 you will     
destroy the world4  ,let that suffice   
you4 ,yet this one old ,christian       
lantern you shall now  destroy4 ,it     
shall go where your empire of apes will 
never have the wit  to find it4         
',the ,man who was ,thursday4'          
,,october #cast ,,hallow ,e',,en    ,if 
we ever get the ,english back on to the 
,english land they will become  again a 
religious people1 if all goes well1 a   
superstitious people4  ,the absence from
 modern life of both the higher and the 
lower forms of  faith is largely due to 
a divorce from nature and the trees and 
clouds4  ,if we have no more turnip     
ghosts it is chiefly from the lack of   
turnips4      ',heretics4'              
,,november      ,,november #ast ,,all   
,,saints' ,,day    ,you cannot deny that

 it is perfectly possible that to-morrow
 morning in  ,ireland or in ,italy there
 might appear a man not only as good but
 good  in exactly the same way as ,st4  
,francis of ,assisi4 ,very well2 now    
take  the other types of human virtue3  
many of them splendid4 ,the ,english    
gentleman of ,elizabeth was chivalrous  
and idealistic4 ,but can you stand      
still in this meadow and be an ,english 
gentleman of ,elizabeth8 ,the  austere  
republican of the eighteenth century1   
with his stern patriotism  and his      
simple life1 was a fine fellow4 ,but    
have you ever seen him8  ,have you ever 
seen an austere republican8 ,only a     
hundred years have  passed and that     
volcano of revolutionary truth and      
valour is as cold as  the mountains of  
the moon4 ,and so it will be with the   
ethics which are  buzzing down ,fleet   
,street at this instant as ,i speak4    
,what phrase would  inspire a ,london   
clerk or workman just now8 ,perhaps that
 he is a son  of the ,british ,empire on

 which the sun never sets2 perhaps that 
he is  a prop of his ,trades ,union1 or 
a class-conscious proletarian something 
or other2 perhaps merely that he is a   
gentleman1 when he obviously is  not4   
,those names and notions are all        
honourable1 but how long will they      
last8 ,empires break2 industrial        
conditions change2 the suburbs will not 
last for ever4 ,what will remain8 ,i    
will tell you3 the ,catholic saint  will
 remain4      ',the ,ball and the       
,cross4'      ,,november #bnd ,,all     
,,souls' ,,day    ,there are two things 
in which all men are manifestly and     
unmistakably  equal4 ,they are not      
equally clever or equally muscular or   
equally fat1  as the sages of the modern
 reaction 7with piercing insight7       
perceive4  ,but this is a spiritual     
certainty1 that all men are tragic4 ,and
 this  again is an equally sublime      
spiritual certainty1 that all men are   
comic4      ',charles ,dickens4'        
,,november #crd    ,you cannot love a   

thing without wanting to fight for it4  
,introduction to ',nicholas ,nickleby4' 
,,november #dth    ,the modern          
philosopher had told me again and again 
that ,i was in the  right place1 and ,i 
had still felt depressed even in        
acquiescence4 ,but  ,i had heard that ,i
 was in the wrong place1 and my soul    
sang for  joy1 like a bird in spring4   
,the knowledge found out and illuminated
  forgotten chambers in the dark house  
of infancy4 ,i knew now why grass  had  
always seemed to me as queer as the     
green beard of a giant1 and why  ,i     
could feel homesick at home4            
',orthodoxy4'      ,,november #eth ,,guy
 ,,fawkes' ,,day    ,guy ,fawkes' ,day  
is not only in some rude sense a        
festival1 and in  some rude sense a     
religious festival2 it is also1 what is 
supremely  symbolic and important1 a    
winter religious festival4 ,here the    
#eth of  ,november1 which celebrates a  
paltry ,christian quarrel1 has a touch  
of  the splendour of the #beth of       

,december1 which celebrates             
,christianity  itself4 ,dickens and all 
the jolly ,english giants who write of  
the red  firelight are grossly          
misunderstood in this matter4 ,prigs    
call them  coarse and materialistic     
because they write about the punch and  
plum  pudding of winter festivals4 ,the 
prigs do not see that if these writers  
were really coarse and materialistic    
they would not write about winter       
feasts at all4 ,mere materialists would 
write about summer and the sun4  ,the   
whole point of winter pleasure is that  
it is a defiant pleasure1 a  pleasure   
armed and at bay4 ,the whole point is in
 the fierce contrast  between the fire  
and wine within and the roaring rains   
outside4 ,and  some part of the         
sacredness of firelight we may allow to 
fireworks4      ,article in ',the       
,observer4'      ,,november #fth        
,what we are looking at is not the      
boyhood of free thought3 it is the  old 
age and ultimate dissolution of free    

thought4 ,it is vain for  bishops and   
pious big wigs to discuss what things   
will happen if wild  scepticism runs its
 course4 ,it has run its course4 ,it is 
vain for  eloquent atheists to talk of  
the great truths that will be revealed  
if  once we see free thought begin4 ,we 
have seen it end4 ,it has no more       
questions to ask2 it has questioned     
itself4 ,you cannot call up any  wilder 
vision than a city in which men ask     
themselves if they have any  selves4    
,you cannot fancy a more sceptical world
 than that in which men  doubt if there 
is a world4      ',orthodoxy4'          
,,november #gth    ,a man ought to eat  
because he has a good appetite to       
satisfy1 and  emphatically not because  
he has a large frame to sustain4 ,a man 
ought  to take exercise not because he  
is too fat1 but because he loves foils  
or horses or high mountains1 and loves  
them for their own sake4 ,and  a man    
ought to marry because he has fallen in 
love1 and emphatically  not because the 

world requires to be populated4 ,the    
food will really  renovate his tissues  
as long as he is not thinking about his 
tissues4  ,the exercise will really get 
him into training so long as he is      
thinking about something else4 ,and the 
marriage will really stand  some chance 
of producing a generous-blooded         
generation if it had its  origin in its 
own natural and generous excitement4 ,it
 is the first law  of health that our   
necessities should not be accepted as   
necessities2  they should be accepted as
 luxuries4 ,let us1 then1 be careful    
about  the small things1 such as a      
scratch or a slight illness1 or anything
  that can be managed with care4 ,but in
 the name of all sanity1 let us be      
careless about the important things1    
such as marriage1 or the fountain  of   
our very life will fail4                
',heretics4'      ,,november #hth    ,if
 there be any value in scaling the      
mountains1 it is only that from  them   
one can behold the plains4      ',daily 

,news4'      ,,november #ith ,,lord     
,,mayor',s ,,day    ,i pressed some     
little way farther through the throng of
 people1 and  caught a glimpse of some  
things that are never seen in ,fleet    
,street4 ,i  mean real green which is   
like the grass in the glaring sun1 and  
real  blue that is like the burning sky 
in another quarter of the world1  and   
real gold that is like fire that cannot 
be quenched1 and real red  that is like 
savage roses and the wine that is the   
blood of ,god4 ,nor  was it a           
contemptible system of ideas that was   
supposed to be depicted  by these       
colours of flags and shields and shining
 horsemen4 ,it was  at least supposed to
 be ,england1 which made us all2 it was 
at least  supposed to be ,london1 which 
made me and better men4 ,i at least am  
not so made that ,i can make sport of   
such symbols4 ,there in whatever        
ungainly procession1 there on whatever  
ugly shields1 there was the  cross of   
,st4 ,george and the sword of ,st4      

,paul4 ,even if all men should  go      
utterly away from everything that is    
symbolized1 the last symbol  will       
impress them4 ,if no one should be left 
in the world except a  million open     
malefactors and one hypocrite1 that     
hypocrite will still  remind them of    
holiness4      ',daily ,news4'          
,,november #ajth        ,old happiness  
is grey as we        ,and we may still  
outstrip her2      ,if we be slippered  
pantaloons        ,o let us hunt the    
slipper6        ,the old world glows    
with colours clear1        ,and if1 as  
saith the saint1      ,the world is but 
a painted show1        ,o let us lick   
the paint6        ,far1 far behind are  
morbid hours        ,and lonely hearts  
that bleed2      ,far1 far behind us are
 the days        ,when we were old      
indeed4        ,behold the simple sum of
 things        ,where1 in one splendour 
spun1      ,the stars go round the      
,mulberry ,bush1        ,the ,burning   
,bush1 the ,sun4        ',grey ,beards  

at ,play4'      ,,november #aath    ,a  
man 7of a certain age7 may look into the
 eyes of his lady-love to  see that they
 are beautiful4 ,but no normal lady will
 allow that young  man to look into her 
eyes to see whether they are beautiful4 
,the same  variety and idiosyncrasy has 
been generally observed in gods4 ,praise
  them2 or leave them alone2 but do not 
look for them unless you know  they are 
there4 ,do not look for them unless you 
want them4      ',all ,things           
,considered4'      ,,november #abth     
,likelier across these flats afar1      
,these sulky levels smooth and free1    
,the drums shall crash a waltz of war   
,and ,death shall dance with ,liberty2  
,likelier the barricades shall blare    
,slaughter below and smoke above1       
,and death and hate and hell declare    
,that men have found a thing to love4   
',the ,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'     
,,november #acth    ,everything is      
military in the sense that everything   
depends upon  obedience4 ,there is no   

perfectly epicurean corner2 there is no 
perfectly irresponsible place4          
,everywhere men have made the way for us
  with sweat and submission4 ,we may    
fling ourselves into a hammock in  a fit
 of divine carelessness4 ,but we are    
glad that the net-maker did  not make   
the net in a fit of divine carelessness4
 ,we may jump upon a  child's           
rocking-horse for a joke4 ,but we are   
glad that the carpenter  did not leave  
the legs of it unglued for a joke4      
',heretics4'      ,,november #adth    ,i
 will ride upon the ,nightmare2 but she 
shall not ride on me4      ',daily      
,news4'      ,,november #aeth    ,a     
great man of letters or any great artist
 is symbolic without knowing  it4 ,the  
things he describes are types because   
they are truths4  ,shakespeare may or   
may not have ever put it to himself that
 ,richard  the ,second was a            
philosophical symbol2 but all good      
criticism must  necessarily see him so4 
,it may be a reasonable question whether

 an  artist should be allegorical4      
,there can be no doubt among sane men   
that  a critic should be allegorical4   
,introduction to ',great ,expectations4'
      ,,november #afth    ,when society 
is in rather a futile fuss about the    
subjection of women1  will no one say   
how much every man owes to the tyranny  
and privilege  of women1 to the fact    
that they alone rule education until    
education  becomes futile8 ,for a boy is
 only sent to be taught at school when  
it is too late to teach him anything4   
,the real thing has been done  already1 
and thank ,god it is nearly always done 
by women4 ,every man  is womanized1     
merely by being born4 ,they talk of the 
masculine woman2  but every man is a    
feminized man4 ,and if ever men walk to 
,westminster  to protest against this   
female privilege1 ,i shall not join     
their  procession4      ',orthodoxy4'   
,,november #agth    ,seriousness is not 
a virtue4 ,it would be a heresy1 but a  
much more  sensible heresy1 to say that 

seriousness is a vice4 ,it is really a  
natural trend or lapse into taking one's
 self gravely1 because it is  the       
easiest thing to do4 ,it is much easier 
to write a good ,times  leading article 
than a good joke in ,punch4 ,for        
solemnity flows out of  men naturally1  
but laughter is a leap4 ,it is easy to  
be heavy3 hard to  be light4 ,satan fell
 by the force of gravity4               
',orthodoxy4'      ,,november #ahth     
,yes1 you are right4 ,i am afraid of    
him4 ,therefore ,i swear by ,god that   
,i will seek out this man whom ,i fear  
until ,i find him and strike him  on the
 mouth4 ,if heaven were his throne and  
the earth his footstool ,i  swear that  
,i would pull him down4444 ,because ,i  
am afraid of him2 and no  man should    
leave in the universe anything of which 
he is afraid4      ',the ,man who was   
,thursday4'      ,,november #aith       
,under all this vast illusion of the    
cosmopolitan planet1 with its  empires  
and its ,reuter's ,agency1 the real life

 of man goes on concerned  with this    
tree or that temple1 with this harvest  
or that drinking-song1  totally         
uncomprehended1 totally untouched4 ,and 
it watches from its  splendid           
parochialism1 possibly with a smile of  
amusement1 motor-car  civilization going
 its triumphant way1 outstripping time1 
consuming  space1 seeing all and seeing 
nothing1 roaring on at last to the      
capture  of the solar system1 only to   
find the sun cockney and the stars      
suburban4      ',heretics4'             
,,november #bjth    ,every detail points
 to something1 certainly1 but generally 
to the  wrong thing4 ,facts point in all
 directions1 it seems to me1 like the   
thousands of twigs on a tree4 ,it is    
only the life of the tree that has      
unity and goes up--only the green blood 
that springs1 like a fountain1  at the  
stars4      ',the ,club of ,queer       
,trades4'      ,,november #bast         
,shallow romanticists go away in trains 
and stop in places called               

,hugmy-in-the-,hole1 or                 
,bumps-on-the-,puddle4 ,and all the time
 they could1  if they liked1 go and live
 at a place with the dim1 divine name of
 ,st4  ,john's ,wood4 ,i have never been
 to ,st4 ,john's ,wood4 ,i dare not4 ,i 
should  be afraid of the innumerable    
night of fir-trees1 afraid to come upon 
a  blood-red cup and the beating of the 
wings of the eagle4 ,but all these      
things can be imagined by remaining     
reverently in the ,harrow train4        
',the ,napoleon of ,notting ,hill4'     
,,november #bbnd    ,giants1 as in the  
wise old fairy-tales1 are vermin4       
,supermen1 if not  good men1 are vermin4
      ',heretics4'      ,,november #bcrd
    ,it is part of that large and placid
 lie that the rationalists tell  when   
they say that ,christianity arose in    
ignorance and barbarism4  ,christianity 
arose in the thick of a brilliant and   
bustling  cosmopolitan civilization4    
,long sea voyages were not so quick1 but
 were  quite as incessant as to-day2 and

 though in the nature of things ,christ 
had not many rich followers1 it is not  
unnatural to suppose that ,he had  some4
 ,and a ,joseph of ,arimathea may easily
 have been a ,roman citizen  with a     
yacht that could visit ,britain4 ,the   
same fallacy is employed  with the same 
partisan motive in the case of the      
,gospel of ,st4 ,john2  which critics   
say could not have been written by one  
of the first few  ,christians because of
 its ,greek transcendentalism and its   
,platonic  tone4 ,i am no judge of the  
philology1 but every human being is a   
divinely appointed judge of the         
philosophy3 and the ,platonic tone seems
  to me to prove nothing at all4        
',daily ,news4'      ,,november #bdth   
,sometimes the best business of an age  
is to resist some alien  invasion2      
sometimes to preach practical           
self-control in a world too             
self-indulgent and diffuse2 sometimes to
 prevent the growth in the  state of    
great new private enterprises that would

 poison or oppress it4  ,above all1 it  
may happen that the highest task of a   
thinking citizen  may be to do the exact
 opposite of the work the ,radicals had 
to do4 ,it  may be his highest duty to  
cling on to every scrap of the past that
 he  can find1 if he feels that the     
ground is giving way beneath him and    
sinking into mere savagery and          
forgetfulness of all human culture4     
,introduction to ',a ,child's ,history  
of ,england4'      ,,november #beth     
,science in the modern world has many   
uses2 its chief use1 however1 is  to    
provide long words to cover the errors  
of the rich4      ',heretics4'          
,,november #bfth    ,we talk of art as  
something artificial in comparison with 
life4 ,but  ,i sometimes fancy that the 
very highest art is more real than life 
itself4 ,at least this is true3 that in 
proportion as passions become  real they
 become poetical2 the lover is always   
trying to be the poet4  ,all real energy
 is an attempt at harmony and a high    

swing of rhythm2  and if we were only   
real enough we should all talk in rhyme4
 ,however  this may be1 it is           
unquestionable in the case of great     
public affairs4  ,whenever you have real
 practical politics you have poetical   
politics4  ,whenever men have succeeded 
in wars they have sung war-songs2       
whenever  you have the useful triumph   
you have also the useless trophy4       
,but the thing is more strongly apparent
 exactly where the great  ,fabian falls 
foul of it--in the open scenes of       
history and the actual  operation of    
events4 ,the things that actually did   
happen all over the  world are precisely
 the things which he thinks could not   
have happened  in ,galilee1 the artistic
 isolations1 the dreadful dialogues in  
which  each speaker was dramatic1 the   
prophecies flung down like gauntlets1   
the high invocations of history1 the    
marching and mounting excitement  of the
 story1 the pulverizing and appropriate 
repartees4 ,these things  do happen2    

they have happened2 they are attested1  
in all the cases  where the soul of man 
had become poetic in its very peril4 ,at
 every one  of its important moments the
 most certain and solid history reads   
like  an historical novel4      ',daily 
,news4'      ,,november #bgth    ,anyone
 could easily excuse the ill-humour of  
the poor4 ,but great  masses of the poor
 have not even any ill-humour to be     
excused4 ,their  cheeriness is startling
 enough to be the foundation of a       
miracle play2  and certainly is         
startling enough to be the foundation of
 a romance4      ,introduction to       
',christmas ,stories4'      ,,november  
#bhth        ,lo6 ,i am come to autumn1 
,when all the leaves are gold2          
,grey hairs and golden leaves cry out   
,the year and ,i are old4        ,in    
youth ,i sought the prince of men       
,captain in cosmic wars4      ,our      
,titan even the weeds would show        
,defiant1 to the stars4        ,but now 
a great thing in the street             

,seems any human nod1      ,where shift 
in strange democracy        ,the million
 masks of ,god4        ,in youth ,i     
sought the golden flower        ,hidden 
in wood or wold1      ,but ,i am come to
 autumn1        ,when all the leaves are
 gold4        ',the ,wild ,knight4'     
,,november #bith    ,there is a noble   
instinct for giving the right touch of  
beauty to  common and necessary things1 
but the things that are so touched are  
the ancient things1 the things that     
always1 to some extent1 commended       
themselves to the lover of beauty4 ,the 
spirit of ,william ,morris has not      
seized hold of the century and made its 
humblest necessities beautiful4  ,and   
this was because1 with all his          
healthiness and energy1 he had not  the 
supreme courage to face the ugliness of 
things2 ,beauty shrank from  the ,beast 
and the fairy tale had a different      
ending4      ',twelve ,types4'          
,,november #cjth ,,st4 ,,andrew',s ,,day
    ,i am quite certain that ,scotland  

is a nation2 ,i am quite certain that   
nationality is the key of ,scotland2 ,i 
am quite certain that all our  success  
with ,scotland has been due to the fact 
that we have in spirit  treated it as a 
nation4 ,i am quite certain that        
,ireland is a nation4  ,i am quite      
certain that nationality is the key of  
,ireland2 ,i am quite  certain that all 
our failure in ,ireland arose from the  
fact that we  would not in spirit treat 
it as a nation4 ,it would be difficult  
to  find1 even among the innumerable    
examples that exist1 a stronger  example
 of the immensely superior importance of
 sentiment1 to what is  called          
practicality1 than this case of the two 
sister nations4 ,it is  not that we have
 encouraged a ,scotchman to be rich2 it 
is not that  we have encouraged a       
,scotchman to be active2 it is not that 
we have  encouraged a ,scotchman to be  
free4 ,it is that we have quite         
definitely  encouraged a ,scotchman to  
be ,scotch4      ',all ,things          

,considered4'          ,,december       
,,december #ast    ,in this world of    
ours we do not so much go on and        
discover small  things3 rather we go on 
and discover big things4 ,it is the     
detail  that we see first2 it is the    
design that we only see very slowly1 and
  some men die never having seen it at  
all4 ,we see certain squadrons in       
certain uniforms gallop past2 we take an
 arbitrary fancy to this or  that       
colour1 to this or that plume4 ,but it  
often takes us a long time  to realize  
what the fight is about or even who is  
fighting whom4    ,so in the modern     
intellectual world we can see flags of  
many colours1  deeds of manifold        
interest2 the one thing we cannot see is
 the map4 ,we  cannot see the simplified
 statement which tells us what is the   
origin  of all the trouble4             
',william ,blake4'      ,,december #bnd 
,our wisdom1 whether expressed in       
private or public1 belongs to the       
world1 but our folly belongs to those we

 love4      ',browning4'      ,,december
 #crd    ,our fathers were large and    
healthy enough to make a thing humane1  
and  not worry about whether it was     
hygienic4 ,they were big enough to get  
into small rooms4      ',charles        
,dickens4'      ,,december #dth    ,a   
cosmic philosophy is not constructed to 
fit a man2 a cosmic  philosophy is      
constructed to fit a cosmos4 ,a man can 
no more possess a  private religion than
 he can possess a private sun and moon4 
,introduction to ',book of ,job4'       
,,december #eth    ,that ,christianity  
is identical with democracy1 is the     
hardest of  gospels2 there is nothing   
that so strikes men with fear as the    
saying  that they are all the sons of   
,god4      ',twelve ,types4'            
,,december #fth ,,st4 ,,nicholas',s     
,,day    ,all the old wholesome customs 
in connexion with ,christmas were to the
  effect that one should not touch or   
see or know or speak of something       
before the actual coming of ,christmas  

,day4 ,thus1 for instance1  children    
were never given their presents until   
the actual coming of  the appointed     
hour4 ,the presents were kept tied up in
 brown-paper  parcels1 out of which an  
arm of a doll or the leg of a donkey    
sometimes  accidentally stuck4 ,i wish  
this principle were adopted in respect  
of modern ,christmas ceremonies and     
publications4 ,the editors of the       
magazines bring out their ,christmas    
numbers so long before the time  that   
the reader is more likely to be         
lamenting for the turkey of last  year  
than to have seriously settled down to a
 solid anticipation of the  turkey which
 is to come4 ,christmas numbers of      
magazines ought to be  tied up in brown 
paper and kept for ,christmas ,day4 ,on 
consideration1  ,i should favour the    
editors being tied up in brown paper4   
,whether the  leg or arm of an editor   
should ever be allowed to protrude ,i   
leave to  individual choice4      ',all 
,things ,considered4'      ,,december   

#gth    ,we had talked for about half an
 hour about politics and ,god2 for men  
always talk about the most important    
things to total strangers4 ,it is       
because in the total stranger we        
perceive man himself2 the image of ,god 
is not disguised by resemblances to an  
uncle or doubts of the wisdom of  a     
moustache4      ',the ,club of ,queer   
,trades4'      ,,december #hth    ,he   
had found the thing which the modern    
people call ,impressionism1  which is   
another name for that final scepticism  
which can find no floor  to the         
universe4      ',the ,man who was       
,thursday4'      ,,december #ith        
,there was a time when you and ,i and   
all of us were all very close to  ,god2 
so that even now the colour of a pebble 
7or a paint71 the smell of  a flower 7or
 a firework7 comes to our hearts with a 
kind of authority  and certainty2 as if 
they were fragments of a muddled        
message1 or  features of a forgotten    
face4 ,to pour that fiery simplicity    

upon the  whole of life is the only real
 aim of education2 and closest to the   
child comes the woman--she understands4 
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,december #ajth    ,a man must love a  
thing very much if he not only practises
 it without  any hope of fame or money1 
but even practises it without any hope  
of  doing it well4 ,such a man must love
 the toils of the work more than any    
other man can love the rewards of it4   
',browning4'      ,,december #aath      
,among all the strange things that men  
have forgotten1 the most  universal and 
catastrophic lapse of memory is that by 
which they have  forgotten that they are
 living on a star4      ',defendant4'   
,,december #abth ,,browning ,,died      
,the poem1 ',old ,pictures in           
,florence1' suggests admirably that a   
sense  of incompleteness may easily be a
 great advance upon a sense of          
completeness3 that the part may easily  
and obviously be greater than  the      
whole4 ,and from this ,browning draws1  

as he is fully justified in  drawing1 a 
definite hope for immortality and the   
larger scale of life4  ,for nothing is  
more certain than that though this world
 is the only  world that we have known1 
or of which we could ever dream1 the    
fact  does remain that we have named it 
'a strange world4' ,in other words1  we 
have certainly felt that this world did 
not explain itself1 that  something in  
its complete and patent picture has been
 omitted4 ,and  ,browning was right in  
saying that in a cosmos where           
incompleteness  implies completeness1   
life implies immortality4 ,the second of
 the  great ,browning doctrines requires
 some audacity to express4 ,it can  only
 be properly stated as the hope that    
lies in the imperfection of  ,god--that 
is to say1 that ,browning held that     
sorrow and self-denial1 if  they were   
the burdens of man1 were also his       
privileges4 ,he held that  these        
stubborn sorrows and obscure valours    
might--to use a yet more  strange       

expression--have provoked the envy of   
the ,almighty4 ,if man has              
self-sacrifice and ,god has none1 then  
man has in the universe a secret  and   
blasphemous superiority4 ,and this      
tremendous story of a divine  jealousy  
,browning reads into the story of the   
,crucifixion4 ,these are  emphatically  
the two main doctrines or opinions of   
,browning1 which ,i  have ventured to   
characterize roughly as the hope in the 
imperfection  of man1 and more boldly as
 the hope in the imperfection of ,god4  
,they  are great thoughts1 thoughts     
written by a great man1 and they raise  
noble and beautiful doubts on behalf of 
faith which the human spirit  will never
 answer or exhaust4      ',robert       
,browning4'      ,,december #acth       
,elder father1 though thine eyes        
,shine with hoary mysteries1      ,canst
 thou tell what in the heart      ,of a 
cowslip blossom lies8        ,smaller   
than all lives that be1      ,secret as 
the deepest sea1      ,stands a little  

house of seeds      ,like an elfin's    
granary4        ,speller of the stones  
and weeds1      ,skilled in ,nature's   
crafts and creeds1      ,tell me what is
 in the heart      ,of the smallest of  
the seeds4        ,god ,almighty1 and   
with ,him      ,cherubim and ,seraphim  
,filling all ,eternity--      ,adonai   
,elohim4        ',the ,wild ,knight4'   
,,december #adth    ,the rare strange   
thing is to hit the mark2 the gross     
obvious thing  is to miss it4 ,chaos is 
dull2 because in chaos a train might go 
anywhere--to ,baker ,street or ,bagdad4 
,but man is a magician and his  whole   
magic is in this that he does say       
',victoria1' and lo6 it is  ,victoria4  
',the ,man who was ,thursday4'          
,,december #aeth    ,men talk of        
philosophy and theology as if they were 
something  specialistic and arid and    
academic4 ,but philosophy and theology  
are not  only the only democratic       
things1 they are democratic to the point
 of  being vulgar1 to the point1 ,i was 

going to say1 of being rowdy4 ,they     
alone admit all matters3 they alone lie 
open to all attacks4444 ,there  is no   
detail from buttons to kangaroos that   
does not enter into the gay  confusion  
of philosophy4 ,there is no fact of     
life1 from the death of a  donkey to the
 ,general ,post ,office1 which has not  
its place to dance and  sing in1 in the 
glorious carnival of theology4      ',g4
 ,f4 ,watts4'      ,,december #afth     
,the ,duke of ,chester1 the             
vice-president1 was a young and rising  
politician--that is to say1 he was a    
pleasant youth with flat fair hair  and 
a freckled face1 with moderate          
intelligence and enormous estates4  ,in 
public his appearances were always      
successful and his principle was  simple
 enough4 ,when he thought of a joke he  
made it and was called  brilliant4 ,when
 he could not think of a joke he said   
that this was  no time for trifling1 and
 was called able4 ,in private1 in a club
 of  his own class1 he was simply quite 

pleasantly frank and silly like a       
schoolboy4      ',the ,innocence of     
,father ,brown4'      ,,december #agth  
,the personal is not a mere figure for  
the impersonal3 rather the  impersonal  
is a clumsy term for something more     
personal than common  personality4 ,god 
is not a symbol of goodness4 ,goodness  
is a symbol of  ,god4      ',william    
,blake4'      ,,december #ahth    ,the  
world is not to be justified as it is   
justified by the mechanical  optimists2 
it is not to be justified as the best of
 all possible  worlds4444 ,its merit is 
precisely that none of us could have    
conceived  such a thing2 that we should 
have rejected the bare idea of it as    
miracle and unreason4 ,it is the best of
 all impossible worlds4      ',charles  
,dickens4'      ,,december #aith    ,the
 educated classes have adopted a hideous
 and heathen custom of  considering     
death as too dreadful to talk about1 and
 letting it remain  a secret for each   
person1 like some private malformation4 

,the poor1 on  the contrary1 make a     
great gossip and display about          
bereavement2 and  they are right4 ,they 
have hold of a truth of psychology which
 is at  the back of all the funeral     
customs of the children of men4 ,the way
  to lessen sorrow is to make a lot of  
it4 ,the way to endure a painful  crisis
 is to insist very much that it is a    
crisis2 to permit people who  must feel 
sad at least to feel important4 ,in this
 the poor are simply  the priests of the
 universal civilization2 and in their   
stuffy feasts  and solemn chattering    
there is the smell of the baked meats of
 ,hamlet  and the dust and echo of the  
funeral games of ,patroclus4            
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,december #bjth    ,a crime is like any
 other work of art4 ,don't look         
surprised2 crimes are  by no means the  
only works of art that come from an     
infernal workshop4  ,but every work of  
art1 divine or diabolic1 has one        
indispensable  mark--,i mean that the   

centre of it is simple1 however the     
entourage may  be complicated4          
',the ,innocence of ,father ,brown4'    
,,december #bast ,,st4 ,,thomas',s ,,day
    ,it was ,huxley and ,herbert        
,spencer and ,bradlaugh who brought me  
back  to orthodox theology4 ,they sowed 
in my mind my first wild doubts of      
doubt4 ,our grandmothers were quite     
right when they said that ,tom ,paine   
and the ,freethinkers unsettled the     
mind4 ,they do4 ,they unsettled mine    
horribly4 ,the rationalists made me     
question whether reason was of any  use 
whatever2 and when ,i had finished      
,herbert ,spencer ,i had got as far  as 
doubting 7for the first time7 whether   
evolution had occurred at all4  ,as ,i  
laid down the last of ,colonel          
,ingersoll's atheistic lectures1 the    
dreadful thought broke into my mind1    
',almost thou persuadest me to be a     
,christian4'      ',orthodoxy4'         
,,december #bbnd    ,pure and exalted   
atheists talk themselves into believing 

that the  working classes are turning   
with indignant scorn from the churches4 
,the working classes are not indignant  
against the churches in the  least4 ,the
 things the working classes really are  
indignant against are  the hospitals4   
,the people has no definite disbelief in
 the temples of  theology4 ,the people  
has a very fiery and practical disbelief
 in the  temples of physical science4   
',charles ,dickens4'      ,,december    
#bcrd    ,a turkey is more occult and   
awful than all the angels and           
archangels4  ,in so far as ,god has     
partly revealed to us an angelic world1 
,he has  partly told us what an angel   
means4 ,but ,god has never told us what 
a  turkey means4 ,and if you go and     
stare at a live turkey for an hour  or  
two1 you will find by the end of it that
 the enigma has rather  increased than  
diminished4      ',all ,things          
,considered4'      ,,december #bdth     
,,christmas ,,eve    ,,the ,,truce ,,of 
,,christmas        ,passionate peace is 

in the sky--      ,and in the snow in   
silver sealed      ,the beasts are      
perfect in the field1      ,and men seem
 men so suddenly--        7,but take ten
 swords and ten times ten        ,and   
blow the bugle in praising men2         
,for we are for all men under the sun1  
,and they are against us every one2     
,and misers haggle and madmen clutch    
,and there is peril in praising much1   
,and we have the terrible tongues       
uncurled        ,that praise the world  
to the sons of the world74        ,the  
idle humble hill and wood      ,are     
bowed about the sacred birth1      ,and 
for one little hour the earth      ,is  
lazy with the love of good--            
7,but ready are you1 and ready am ,i1   
,if the battle blow and the guns go by2 
,for we are for all men under the sun1  
,and they are against us every one2     
,and the men that hate herd all         
together1        ,to pride and gold1 and
 the great white feather1        ,and   
the thing is graven in star and stone   

,that the men who love are all alone74  
,hunger is hard and time is tough1      
,but bless the beggars and kiss the     
kings1      ,for hope has broken the    
heart of things1      ,and nothing was  
ever praised enough4        7,but hold  
the shield for a sudden swing           
,and point the sword when you praise a  
thing1        ,for we are for all men   
under the sun1        ,and they are     
against us every one1        ,and mime  
and merchant1 thane and thrall          
,hate us because we love them all1      
,only till ,christmastide go by         
,passionate peace is in the sky74       
',the ,commonwealth4'      ,,december   
#beth ,,christmas ,,day        ,there   
fared a mother driven forth      ,out of
 an inn to roam2      ,in the place     
where she was homeless      ,all men are
 at home4      ,the crazy stable close  
at hand1      ,with shaking timber and  
shifting sand1      ,grew a stronger    
thing to abide and stand      ,than the 
square stones of ,rome4        ,for men 

are homesick in their homes1      ,and  
strangers under the sun1      ,and they 
lay their heads in a foreign land       
,whenever the day is done4      ,here we
 have battle and blazing eyes1      ,and
 chance and honour and high surprise1   
,but our homes are under miraculous     
skies      ,where the ,yule tale was    
begun4        ,a ,child in a foul       
stable1      ,where the beasts feed and 
foam1      ,only where ,he was homeless 
,are you and ,i at home3      ,we have  
hands that fashion and heads that know1 
,but our hearts we lost--how long ago6  
,in a place no chart nor ship can show  
,under the sky's dome4        ,this     
world is wild as an old wives' tale1    
,and strange the plain things are1      
,the earth is enough and the air is     
enough      ,for our wonder and our war2
      ,but our rest is as far as the    
fire-drake swings      ,and our peace is
 put in impossible things      ,where   
clashed and thundered unthinkable wings 
,round an incredible star4        ,to an

 open house in the evening      ,home   
shall all men come1      ,to an older   
place than ,eden      ,and a taller town
 than ,rome4      ,to the end of the way
 of the wandering star1      ,to the    
things that cannot be and that are1     
,to the place where ,god was homeless   
,and all men are at home4        ,the   
,house of ,christmas3 ',daily ,news4'   
,,december #bfth ,,boxing ,,day         
,there are innumerable persons with     
eyeglasses and green garments who  pray 
for the return of the maypole or the    
,olympian ,games4 ,but there is  about  
these people a haunting and alarming    
something which suggests  that it is    
just possible that they do not keep     
,christmas4 ,if so1 where  is the sense 
of all their dreams of festive          
traditions8 ,here is a  solid and       
ancient festive tradition still plying a
 roaring trade in  the streets1 and they
 think it vulgar4 ,if this is so1 let   
them be very  certain of this3 that they
 are the kind of people who in the time 

of  the maypole would have thought the  
maypole vulgar2 who in the time of  the 
,canterbury pilgrimage would have       
thought the ,canterbury pilgrimage      
vulgar2 who in the time of the ,olympian
 ,games would have thought the          
,olympian ,games vulgar4 ,nor can there 
be any reasonable doubt that  they were 
vulgar4 ,let no man deceive himself2 if 
by vulgarity we mean  coarseness of     
speech1 rowdiness of behaviour1 gossip1 
horseplay1 and  some heavy drinking3    
vulgarity there always was1 wherever    
there was  joy1 wherever there was faith
 in the gods4      ',heretics4'         
,,december #bgth ,,st4 ,,john',s ,,day  
,christ did not love humanity1 ,he never
 said ,he loved humanity2 ,he loved     
men4 ,neither ,he nor anyone else can   
love humanity2 it is like loving a      
gigantic centipede4 ,and the reason that
 the ,tolstoians can even endure  to    
think of an equally distributed love is 
that their love of humanity  is a       
logical love1 a love into which they are

 coerced by their own  theories1 a love 
which would be an insult to a tom-cat4  
',twelve ,types4'      ,,december #bhth 
,,holy ,,innocents' ,,day    ,that      
little urchin with the gold-red hair    
7whom ,i have just watched  toddling    
past my house71 she shall not be lopped 
and lamed and altered2  her hair shall  
not be cut short like a convict's4 ,no2 
all the kingdoms  of the earth shall be 
hacked about and mutilated to suit her4 
,the winds  of the world shall be       
tempered to that lamb unshorn4 ,all     
crowns that  cannot fit her head shall  
be broken2 all raiment and building that
 does  not harmonize with her glory     
shall waste away4 ,her mother may bid   
her  bind her hair1 for that is natural 
authority2 but the ,emperor of the      
,planet shall not bid her cut it off4   
,she is the human and sacred image2  all
 around her the social fabric shall sway
 and split and fall2 the  pillars of    
society shall be shaken and the roofs of
 ages come rushing  down2 and not one   

hair of her head shall be harmed4       
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,december #bith ,,st4 ,,thomas         
,,becket    ,when four knights scattered
 the blood and brains of ,st4 ,thomas of
  ,canterbury it was not only a sign of 
anger but a sort of black  admiration4  
,they wished for his blood1 but they    
wished even more for  his brains4 ,such 
a blow will remain for ever             
unintelligible unless we  realize what  
the brains of ,st4 ,thomas were thinking
 about just before  they were           
distributed over the floor4 ,they were  
thinking about the  great medieval      
conception that the ,church is the judge
 of the world4  ,becket objected to a   
priest being tried even by the ,lord    
,chief ,justice4  ,and his reason was   
simple3 because the ,lord ,chief        
,justice was being  tried by the priest4
 ,the judiciary was itself sub judice4  
,the kings  were themselves in the dock4
 ,the idea was to create an invisible   
kingdom without armies or prisons1 but  

with complete freedom to condemn        
publicly all the kingdoms of the earth4 
',what's ,wrong with the ,world4'       
,,december #cjth    ,progress is not an 
illegitimate word1 but it is logically  
evident that  it is illegitimate for us4
 ,it is a sacred word1 a word that could
 only  rightly be used by rigid         
believers and in the ages of faith4     
',heretics4'      ,,december #cast      
,with all the multiplicity of knowledge 
there is one thing happily that  no man 
knows3 whether the world is old or      
young4      ',the ,defendant4'          
,,the ,,moveable ,,feasts      ,,advent 
,,sunday      ,people1 if you have any  
prayers1    ,say prayers for me2    ,and
 lay me under a ,christian stone    ,in 
this lost land ,i thought my own1    ,to
 wait till the holy horn be blown       
,and all poor men are free4             
',ballad of ,alfred4'      ,,shrove     
,,tuesday        ,why should ,i care for
 the ,ages        ,because they are old 
and grey8      ,to me like sudden       

laughter        ,the stars are fresh and
 gay2      ,the world is a daring fancy 
,and finished yesterday4        ,why    
should ,i bow to the ,ages              
,because they are drear and dry8        
,slow trees and ripening meadows        
,for me go roaring by1      ,a living   
charge1 a struggle        ,to escalade  
the sky4        ,the eternal suns and   
systems1        ,solid and silent all1  
,to me are stars of an instant1         
,only the fires that fall      ,from    
,god's good rocket rising        ,on    
this night of carnival4        ',a      
,novelty' 7',the ,wild ,knight'74       
,,ash ,,wednesday        ,nor shall all 
iron doors make dumb      ,men wondering
 ceaselessly1      ,if it be not better 
to fast for joy      ,than feast for    
misery8        ',ballad of ,alfred4'    
,,palm ,,sunday        ,when fishes flew
 and forests walked      ,and figs grew 
upon thorn1      ,some moment when the  
moon was blood      ,then surely ,i was 
born4        ,with monstrous head and   

sickening cry      ,and ears like errant
 wings1      ,the devil's walking parody
      ,on all four-footed things4       
,the tattered outlaw of the earth1      
,of ancient crooked will1      ,starve1 
scourge1 deride me3 ,i am dumb1      ,i 
keep my secret still4        ,fools1 for
 ,i also had my hour1      ,one far     
fierce hour and sweet1      ,there was a
 shout about my ears      ,and palms    
before my feet4        ',the ,donkey'   
7',the ,wild ,knight'74      ,,maunday  
,,thursday    ,jesus ,christ made wine1 
not a medicine1 but a sacrament4 ,but   
,omar makes  it1 not a sacrament1 but a 
medicine4 ,he feasts because life is not
  joyful2 he revels because he is not   
glad4 ',drink1' he says1 'for you  know 
not whence you come nor why4 ,drink1 for
 you know not when you go  nor where4   
,drink1 because the stars are cruel and 
the world as idle as  a humming-top4    
,drink1 because there is nothing worth  
trusting1 nothing  worth fighting for4  
,drink1 because all things are lapsed in

 a base  equality and an evil peace4'   
,so he stands offering us the cup in his
  hands4 ,and in the high altar of      
,christianity stands another figure in  
whose hand also is the cup of the vine4 
',drink1' he says1 'for  the whole world
 is as red as this wine with the crimson
 of the love and  wrath of ,god4 ,drink1
 for the trumpets are blowing for       
battle1 and this  is the stirrup cup4   
,drink1 for this is my blood of the ,new
 ,testament  that is shed for you4      
,drink1 for ,i know whence you come and 
why4 ,drink1  for ,i know when you go   
and where4'      ',heretics4'           
,,good ,,friday        ,and well may    
,god with the serving folk      ,cast in
 ,his dreadful lot4      ,is not ,he too
 a servant1      ,and is not ,he forgot8
        ,wherefore was ,god in ,golgotha
      ,slain as a serf is slain2        
,and hate ,he had of prince and peer1   
,and love ,he had and made good cheer1  
,of them that1 like this woman here1    
,go powerfully in pain4        ',ballad 

of ,alfred4'      ,,holy ,,saturday     
,the ,cross cannot be defeated for it is
 defeat4      ',the ,ball and the       
,cross4'      ,,easter ,,day    ,i said 
to my companion the ,dickensian1 ',do   
you see that angel over  there8 ,i think
 it must be meant for the ,angel at the 
,sepulchre4' ,he saw  that ,i was       
somewhat singularly moved1 and he raised
 his eyebrows4    ',i daresay1' he said4
 ',what is there odd about that8'       
,after a pause ,i answered1 ',do you    
remember what the ,angel at the         
,sepulchre said8'    ',not              
particularly1' ha replied2 'but where   
are you off to in such a  hurry8'    ',i
 am going1' ,i said1 'to put pennies    
into automatic machines on the  beach4  
,i am going to listen to the niggers4 ,i
 am going to have my  photograph taken4 
,i will buy some picture postcards4 ,i  
do want a boat4  ,i am ready to listen  
to a concertina1 and but for the defects
 of my  education should be ready to    
play it4 ,i am willing to ride on a     

donkey2  that is1 if the donkey is      
willing4 ,for all this was commanded me 
by the  angel in the stained glass      
window4'    ',i really think1' said the 
,dickensian1 'that ,i had better put you
 in  charge of your relations4'         
',sir1' ,i answered1 'there are certain 
writers to whom humanity owes  much1    
whose talent is yet of so shy and       
delicate or retrospective a  type that  
we do well to link it with certain      
quaint places or certain  perishing     
associations4 ,it would not be unnatural
 to look for the  spirit of ,horace     
,walpole at ,strawberry ,hill1 or even  
for the shade of  ,thackeray in old     
,kensington4 ,but let us have no        
antiquarianism about  ,dickens for      
,dickens is not an antiquity4 ,dickens  
looks not backward but  forward2 he     
might look at our modern mobs with      
satire1 or with fury1  but he would love
 to look at them4 ,he might lash our    
democracy1 but  it would be because1    
like a democrat1 he asked much from it4 

,we will  not have all his books bound  
up under the title ',the ,old ,curiosity
  ,shop4' ,rather we will have them all 
bound up under the title of ',great     
,expectations4' ,wherever humanity is he
 would have us face it and make         
something of it1 swallow it with a holy 
cannibalism and assimilate it  with the 
digestion of a giant4 ,we must take     
these trippers as he would  have taken  
them and tear out of them their tragedy 
and their farce4 ,do  you remember now  
what the ,angel said at the ,sepulchre8 
',why seek ye the  living among the     
dead8 ,he is not here2 ,he is risen4'   
',tremendous ,trifles4'      ,,ascension
 ,,day    ,what is the difference       
between ,christ and ,satan8    ,it is   
quite simple4 ,christ descended into    
hell2 ,satan fell into it4 ,one  of them
 wanted to go up and went down2 the     
other wanted to go down and  went up4   
',the ,ball and the ,cross4'            
,,whitsunday    ,i have a far more solid
 and central ground for submitting to   

,christianity as a faith1 instead of    
merely picking up hints from it as  a   
scheme4 ,and that is this2 that the     
,christian ,church in its practical     
relation to my soul is a living teacher1
 not a dead one4 ,it not only  certainly
 taught me yesterday1 but will almost   
certainly teach me  to-morrow4 ,once ,i 
saw suddenly the meaning of the shape of
 the cross2  some day ,i may see        
suddenly the meaning of the shape of the
 mitre4 ,one  fine morning ,i saw why   
windows were pointed2 some fine morning 
,i may  see why priests were shaven4    
,plato has told you a truth2 but ,plato 
is  dead4 ,shakespeare has startled you 
with an image2 but ,shakespeare will    
not startle you with any more4 ,but     
imagine what it would be to live  with  
such men still living4 ,to know that    
,plato might break out with an  original
 lecture to-morrow1 or that at any      
moment ,shakespeare might  shatter      
everything with a single song4 ,the man 
who lives in contact  with what he      

believes to be a living ,church is a man
 always expecting  to meet ,plato and   
,shakespeare to-morrow at breakfast4 ,he
 is always  expecting to see some truth 
that he has never seen before4          
',orthodoxy4'      ,,trinity ,,sunday   
,the meanest man in grey fields gone    
,behind the set of sun1      ,heareth   
between star and other star1            
,through the door of the darkness fallen
 ajar1      ,the ,council eldest of     
things that are1      ,the talk of the  
,three in ,one4        ',ballad of      
,alfred4'      ,,corpus ,,christi       
,all great spiritual ,scriptures are    
full of the invitation not to test  but 
to taste2 not to examine but to eat4    
,their phrases are full of  living water
 and heavenly bread1 mysterious manna   
and dreadful wine4  ,worldliness and the
 polite society of the world has        
despised this  instinct of eating1 but  
religion has never despised it4         
',daily ,news4'        ,,printed ,,by   
,,spottiswoode ,,and ,,co4 ,,ltd41      

,,colchester    ,,london ,,and ,,eton