The Uses of Diversity. Гилберт Кит Честертон

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       G. K. Chesterton

      The Uses of Diversity

      A book of essays

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664107503

       THE USES OF DIVERSITY

       On Seriousness

       Lamp-Posts

       The Spirits

       Tennyson

       The Domesticity of Detectives

       George Meredith

       The Irishman

       Ireland and the Domestic Drama

       The Japanese

       Christian Science

       The Lawlessness of Lawyers

       Our Latin Relations

       On Pigs as Pets

       The Romance of Rostand

       Wishes

       The Futurists

       The Evolution of Emma

       The Pseudo-Scientific Books

       The Humour of King Herod

       The Silver Goblets

       The Duty of the Historian

       Questions of Divorce

       Mormonism

       Pageants and Dress

       On Stage Costume

       The Yule Log and the Democrat

       More Thoughts on Christmas

       Dickens Again

       Taffy

       “Ego et Shavius Meus”

       The Plan for a New Universe

       George Wyndham

       Four Stupidities

       On Historical Novels

       On Monsters

      THE USES OF DIVERSITY

       Table of Contents

      On Seriousness

       Table of Contents

      I do not like seriousness. I think it is irreligious. Or, if you prefer the phrase, it is the fashion of all false religions. The man who takes everything seriously is the man who makes an idol of everything: he bows down to wood and stone until his limbs are as rooted as the roots of the tree or his head as fallen as the stone sunken by the roadside. It has often been discussed whether animals can laugh. The hyena is said to laugh: but it is rather in the sense in which the M.P. is said to utter “an ironical cheer.” At the best, the hyena utters an ironical laugh. Broadly, it is true that all animals except Man are serious. And I think it is further demonstrated by the fact that all human beings who concern themselves in a concentrated way with animals are also serious; serious in a sense far beyond that of human beings concerned with anything else. Horses are serious; they have long, solemn faces. But horsey men are also serious—jockeys or trainers or grooms: they also have long, solemn faces. Dogs are serious: they have exactly that combination of moderate conscientiousness with monstrous conceit which is the make-up of most modern religions. But, however serious dogs may be, they can hardly be more serious than dog-fanciers—or dog-stealers. Dog-stealers, indeed, have to be particularly serious, because they have to come back and say they have found the dog. The faintest shade of irony, not to say levity, on their features, would evidently be fatal to their plans. I will not carry the comparison through all the kingdoms of natural history: but it is true of all who fix their affection or intelligence on the lower animals. Cats are as serious as the Sphinx, who must have been some kind of cat, to judge by the attitude. But the rich old ladies who love cats are quite equally serious, about cats and about themselves. So also the ancient Egyptians worshipped cats, also crocodiles and beetles and all kinds of things; but they were all serious and made their worshippers serious. Egyptian art was intentionally harsh, clear, and conventional; but it could very vividly represent men driving, hunting, fighting, feasting, praying. Yet I think you will pass along many corridors of that coloured and almost cruel art before you see a man laughing. Their gods did not encourage them to laugh. I am told by housewives that beetles seldom laugh. Cats do not laugh—except the Cheshire Cat (which is not found in Egypt); and even he can only grin. And crocodiles do not laugh. They weep.

      This


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