"By the Babe Unborn" by G.K. Chesterton

               

                 If trees were tall and grasses short,

                  As in some crazy tale,

                If here and there a sea were blue

                  Beyond the breaking pale,

               

                If a fixed fire hung in the air

                  To warm me one day through,

                If deep green hair grew on great hills,

                  I know what I should do.

               

                In dark I lie; dreaming that there

                  Are great eyes cold or kind,

                And twisted streets and silent doors,

                  And living men behind.

               

                Let storm clouds come: better an hour,

                  And leave to weep and fight,

                Than all the ages I have ruled

                  The empires of the night.

               

                I think that if they gave me leave

                  Within the world to stand,

                I would be good through all the day

                  I spent in fairyland.

               

                They should not hear a word from me

                  Of selfishness or scorn,

                If only I could find the door,

                  If only I were born.

Today is the 53rd Anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act in the UK, since then over nine million babies have lost they lives as a result of this. Please support The Good Counsel Network. You could also buy some Pro-Life, Chesterton and other badges here.

GK Chesterton on Nietzsche on Nietzsche's Birthday

"Other vague modern people take refuge in material metaphors; in fact, this is the chief mark of vague modern people. Not daring to define their doctrine of what is good, they use physical figures of speech without stint or shame, and , what is worst of all, seem to think these cheap analogies are exquisitely spiritual and superior to the old morality. Thus they think it intellectual to talk about things being 'high.' It is at least the reverse of intellectual; it is a mere phrase from a steeple or a weathercock. 'Tommy was a good boy' is a pure philosophical statement, worthy of Plato or Aquinas. 'Tommy lived the higher life' is a gross metaphor from a ten-foot rule.

This, incidentally, is almost the whole weakness of Nietzsche, whom some are representing as a bold and strong thinker. No one will deny that he was a poetical and suggestive thinker; but he was quite the reverse of strong. He was not at all bold. He never put his own meaning before himself in bald abstract words: as did Aristotle and Calvin, and even Karl Marx, the hard, fearless men of thought. Nietzsche always escaped a question by a physical metaphor, like a cheery minor port. He said, 'beyond good and evil,' because he had not the courage to say, 'more good than good and evil,' or, 'more evil than good and evil.' Had he faced his thought without metaphors, he would have seen that it was nonsense. So, when he describes his hero, he does not dare to say, 'the purer man,' or 'the happier man,' or 'the sadder man,' for all these are ideas; and ideas are alarming. He says 'the upper man.' or 'over man,' a physical metaphor from acrobats or alpine climbers. Nietzsche is truly a very timid thinker. He does not really know in the least what sort of man he wants evolution to produce" -- G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy", Chapter 7

Both of the 1 inch [2.5cm] button badges above, are available here; https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?sid=stuartmcc1927 

Happy Birthday Mahatma Gandhi, Pro-Lifer inspired by GK Chesterton!

"Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on this day in 1869 and was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and in turn inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world." Or so the internet says.

I only know that he was inspired by an article written by GK Chesterton, see Father Ian Ker's biography for details [see last post]. So wear Chesterton and Gandhi badges to inspire others. 

Without Chesterton Would You Have Heard of Gandhi?

“In his Illustrated London News column of 2 October 1909, Chesterton addressed the question of Indian nationalism. “The test of a democracy is not whether the people vote,’ he argued, ‘but whether the people rule. The essence of a democracy is that the national tone and spirit of the typical citizen is apparent and striking in the actions of the state.’ And he thought that the principal weakness’ of Indian nationalists seeking independence was that their nationalism was not very Indian and not very national’. There is a difference between a conquered people demanding its own institutions and the same people demanding the institutions  of the conqueror. The article was read by Gandhi, who was in London at the time to press for ‘freer rights of residence, travel and trade  to members of the Indian diaspora in South Africa’, where he was then living He referred to the article in a dispatch he sent to the paper he had founded in Durban, Indian Opinion. This article for some reason did not appear until January of the following year. In the meantime Gandhi had responded to Chesterton’s criticism by completing in ten days, on board the ship that carried him back to South Africa, ‘an extended defence of the virtues of ancient Indian civilisation’. Written in Gandhi’s mother tongue, it was published under the title Hind Swaraj, and also in English under the title Indian Home Rule, in Durban in 1910. Apart from Gandhi’s two-volume autobiography and collections of articles and speeches, it was the only book qua book that Gandhi ever published.” From Fr Ian Ker's Biography, 'GK Chesterton', page 249 

I just noticed that this GKC article, that had such an impact on Gandhi was published on Gandhi's Birthday. See tomorrow's post. Chesterton and Gandhi badges here; https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/stuartmcc1927/m.html