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Unit 32: G.K. Chesterton-On Lying In Bed ...

something else, apparently out of all possible connection with it, and instantly discovering some Notes
clever idea, the introduction of which will bring the two together. Christianity “is not a mixture
like russet or purple; it is rather like a shot silk, for a shot silk is always at right angles, and is in
the pattern of the cross.”
In all this there are certain familiar mechanisms which constitute almost a routine of manipulation
for the manufacture of paradoxes. One such mechanical process is the play with the derivatives of
words. Thus he reminds us that the journalist is, in the literal and derivative sense, a journalist,
while the missionary is an eternalist. Similarly “lunatic,” “evolution,” “progress,” “reform,” are
etymologically tortured into the utterance of the most forcible and surprising truths. This curious
word-play was a favourite method with Ruskin; and it has the disadvantage in Mr. Chesterton
which it had in the earlier critic. It appears too clever to be really sound, although it must be
confessed that it frequently has the power of startling us into thoughts that are valuable and
suggestive.
Another equally simple process is that of simply reversing sentences and ideas. “A good bush
needs no wine.” “Shakespeare (in a weak moment, I think) said that all the world is a stage. But
Shakespeare acted on the much finer principle that a stage is all the world.” Perhaps the most
brilliant example that could be quoted is the plea for the combination of gentleness and ferocity in
Christian character. When the lion lies down with the lamb, it is constantly assumed that the lion
becomes lamblike. “But that is brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb. That is
simply the lamb absorbing the lion, instead of the lion eating the lamb.”
By this process it is possible to attain results which are extraordinarily brilliant in themselves and
fruitful in suggestion. It is a process not difficult to learn, but the trouble is that you have to live
up to it afterwards, and defend many curious propositions which may have been arrived at by its
so simple means. Take, for instance, the sentence about the stage being all the world. That is
undeniably clever, and it contains an idea. But it is a haphazard idea, arrived at by a short-cut, and
not by the high road of reasonable thinking. Sometimes a truth may be reached by such a short-
cut, but such paradoxes are occasionally no better than chartered errors.
Yet even when they are that, it may be said in their favour that they startle us into thought. And
truly Mr. Chesterton is invaluable as a quickener and stimulator of the minds of his readers.
Moreover, by adopting the method of paradox, he has undoubtedly done one remarkable thing.
He has proved what an astonishing number of paradoxical surprises there actually are, lying
hidden beneath the apparent commonplace of the world. Every really clever paradox astonishes
us not merely with the sense of the cleverness of him who utters it, but with the sense of how
many strange coincidences exist around us, and how many sentences, when turned outside in,
will yield new and startling truths. However much we may suspect that the performance we are
watching is too clever to be trustworthy, yet after all the world does appear to lend itself to such
treatment.

There is, for example, the paradox of the love of the world—”Somehow one must love
the world without being worldly.”

Again, “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form
of a readiness to die.” The martyr differs from the suicide in that he cherishes a disdain of death,
while the motive of the suicide is a disdain of life. Charity, too, is a paradox, for it means “one of
two things—pardoning unpardonable acts, or loving unlovable people.” Similarly Christian
humility has a background of unheard-of arrogance, and Christian liberty is possible only to the

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