They try to stab their nerves to life, if it were
with the knivesof the priests of Baal.
Something like it might have been attempted in the
more archaicand decorative medieval art. But this is oneof those complications that
always arise out of conventions. Belloc took for a test of understanding; incipe
parve puerrisu cognoscere matrem.
Here begins, it is needless to say, another mighty
influencefor the humanisation of Christendom.
It is not merely a theological
difference.
Indeed it involvesa curiosity of language almost in
the nature of a joke. But the wave wasalready stooping; for it was only the wave of
the world.
We have entirely missed all that our fathers meant
by lookingat the externals of what they wrote.
People became suddenly silent about them and walked
stiffly past them.
Belloc took for a test of understanding; incipe
parve puerrisu cognoscere matrem. All sortsof people thought it the most superb sort
of heraldry to claimto be descended from Hector.
Atheism became really possible in that abnormal
time; for atheismis abnormality. New tortures have been invented for the madmen who
have broughtgood news.
Pessimism is not in being tired of evil but in
being tired of good. Whichever ideal we might prefer, we should surely see that
theyare contrary ideals. But this is oneof those complications that always arise out
of conventions. It is a psychologicaldifference which can outlast any theologies.
Moreover, not only did the poetrygrow more immoral, but the immorality grew more
indefensible. The Roman stoics did not need any Chinamen to teach them stoicism. As
the philosopher is already a society entertainer, he mayas well also be a
conjurer.
After much controversy,they compromised by taking
away the Child. Nor is it false to conceive the Arcadianshepherd of the Eclogues as
rejoicing in what did happen.
All the rest of the world was a welter of
barbarism. Because it was creative to any extent it was credulous to any extent.
They are walking in their sleep and tryto wake themselves up with
nightmares.
But in the case of many othersI fancy there entered
at this point a new negation.
They seek after mad oriental religions for the same
reason. Here begins, it is needless to say, another mighty influencefor the
humanisation of Christendom.
One of the Eclogues has even been claimed as a
prophecy of whatdid happen. It was the strongest thing thatwas growing weak. It was
the strongest thing thatwas growing weak.
Nobody seems to have wanted to bedescended from
Achilles.
And it was a legendof the almost divine dignity
that belongs to the defeated. Those who touchedtheir foundation fancied they had
struck a rock.