Orthodoxy

From the text

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.”

1. IIntroduction in Defence of Everything Else~8 min read

   THE only possible excuse for this book is that it is an answer to a challenge. Even a bad shot is dignified when he accepts a duel. When some time ago I published a series of hasty but sincere papers, under the name of…

2. IIThe Maniac~29 min read

   Thoroughly worldly people never understand even the world; they rely altogether on a few cynical maxims which are not true. Once I remember walking with a prosperous publisher, who made a remark which I had often heard…

3. IIIThe Suicide of Thought~28 min read

   The phrases of the street are not only forcible but subtle: for a figure of speech can often get into a crack too small for a definition. Phrases like "put out" or "off colour" might have been coined by Mr. Henry James…

4. IVThe Ethics of Elfland~37 min read

   When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: "Ah, yes, when one is young, one has these ideals in the abstract and these castles in the air; but in middle age…

5. VThe Flag of the World~28 min read

   When I was a boy there were two curious men running about who were called the optimist and the pessimist. I constantly used the words myself, but I cheerfully confess that I never had any very special idea of what they…

6. VIThe Paradoxes of Christianity~38 min read

   The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an…

7. VIIThe Eternal Revolution~41 min read

   The following propositions have been urged: First, that some faith in our life is required even to improve it; second, that some dissatisfaction with things as they are is necessary even in order to be satisfied; third,…

8. VIIIThe Romance of Orthodoxy~30 min read

   It is customary to complain of the bustle and strenuousness of our epoch. But in truth the chief mark of our epoch is a profound laziness and fatigue; and the fact is that the real laziness is the cause of the apparent…

9. IXAuthority and the Adventurer~37 min read

   The last chapter has been concerned with the contention that orthodoxy is not only (as is often urged) the only safe guardian of morality or order, but is also the only logical guardian of liberty, innovation and…