Two Thousand Times One

“There are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one.” ― G. K. Chesterton

We Men

It is in the nature of man to find symbols outside himself of the qualities within himself. Thus, for instance, he has divided his virtues among the beasts of the field. He makes the lion represent bravery; yet men are braver than lions. No lions are ever burnt for their opinions. He makes the fox …

The Mortal Answers

“...Come away—With the fairies, hand in hand,For the world is more full of weeping Than you can understand.”—W.B. Yeats From the Wood of the Old Wives’ Fables      They glittered out of the grey, And with all the Armies of Elf-land I strove like a beast at bay; With only a right arm wearied, …

Bowing Down to See

"Bowing down one's head in the dust is a very good thing, the humble beginning of all happiness. When we have bowed our heads in the dust for a little time, the happiness comes; and then (leaving our heads in the humble and reverent position) we kick up our heels behind in the air. That …

THE WISE MEN

Step softly, under snow or rain,    To find the place where men can pray;The way is all so very plain    That we may lose the way. Oh, we have learnt to peer and pore    On tortured puzzles from our youth,We know all the labyrinthine lore,We are the three wise men of yore,    And we know all things but truth. …

This Much – O Heaven

THIS much, O heaven—if I should brood or rave, Pity me not; but let the world be fed, Yea, in my madness if I strike me dead, Heed you the grass that grows upon my grave. If I dare snarl between this sun and sod, Whimper and clamour, give me grace to own, In sun …

That Painful Pleasure of the Soul

"[George MacDonald] was what is called a Celt and what is called a mystic. But nobody could conceivably have been more different from the Celtic mystics of to-day. First of all, of course, some of the modern Celts profess to have abandoned the moral battle, the old antithesis of sin and judgment, in favour of …

The Vigilance of the Universal Power

"Dr. Macdonald enters fairyland like a citizen returning to his home. But though a genuine mystic and a genuine Celt, he has not reappeared in the movement of Celtic mysticism which has taken place in our time, chiefly because of that singular idea which has taken possession of it, that it is the duty of …

Unlimited, Undefined and Undefended

Liberty has produced scepticism, and scepticism has destroyed liberty. The lovers of liberty thought they were leaving it unlimited, when they were only leaving it undefined. They thought they were only leaving it undefined, when they were really leaving it undefended. ~G.K. Chesterton: "Eugenics and Other Evils."

The Idea of Liberty

"The idea of liberty has ultimately a religious root; that is why men find it so easy to die for and so difficult to define. It refers finally to the fact that, while the oyster and the palm tree have to save their lives by law, man has to save his soul by choice." —GK …