And in any case there are degrees of seriousness in
the mostnatural make-believe. The difference is only that which divides a portrait
of Queen Elizabethfrom Queen Elizabeth.
It is no very genial understandingof youth to argue
that hope destroys the need for happiness. They were too closely imprisoned by the
white winter and theendless dark. They are acting like a Parisian decadentat a Black
Mass.
They are too inhuman even to be
indecent.
It is by no means clear, so far as I know, that the
Eskimos everindulged in human sacrifice.
Henceforth anything that tookaway the gesture of
worship would stunt and even maim him for ever.
A man did not stand up and say Ibelieve in Jupiter
and Juno and Neptune, etc.
We know the last secret revealed to the perfect
initiate.
It is as unfair as going out of ones way to say
that Jeremy Benthamwas not a Christian martyr. We may truly call these
foreshadowing; so long as we rememberthat foreshadowings are shadows. The crude
fancy is no more a creed than the ideal fancy is a creed.
A certain type, perhaps too littlenoticed in
history, may really be called the royal philosopher.
There seems a disproportionbetween the priest and
the altar or between the altar and the god.
In their dealings with their god Moloch,they
themselves were always careful to deliver the goods.
Their enormous images could be set up in public
templesin the centre of populous cities. It is no very human tenderness for the
hungry to provethat hunger is the same as food.
In the ancient world the demons often wandered
abroad like dragons. I was the only person present who had neglected to
providehimself with a fetish.
It was not only because therewas something a little
frivolous about the mythology. They differed from the reality not in what they
looked likebut in what they were.
This is true; and yet it is not all the truth. It
has taken intellect seriously; and it may be that it stands alonein the world. It is
by no means clear, so far as I know, that the Eskimos everindulged in human
sacrifice.
It is as unfair as going out of ones way to say
that Jeremy Benthamwas not a Christian martyr.
It is artificial and even artistic, a sort of art
for arts sake.
In their dealings with their god Moloch,they
themselves were always careful to deliver the goods. Paul declared to them whomthey
had ignorantly worshipped. He knows he is doing one of the things for which a man
was made. The crude fancy is no more a creed than the ideal fancy is a
creed.
But he very seldom thought of pitting his nature of
the godsagainst the gods of nature. China is a society that has really chosen to
believe in intellect. It was in brighter days and broaderdaylight that the noble
rage is found unmistakably raging.
About sex especially menare born unbalanced; we
might almost say men are born mad.