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      • Litanies Laurentanae (Litany of Loreto)
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      • Oratio Sancti Thomae Aquinatis (Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas)
      • Oratio ad Joseph (Prayer to St. Joseph)
      • Pater Noster (Our Father)
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      • Tantum Ergo (Down in Adoration Falling)
      • Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come O Holy Spirit)
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    • Marian Prayers >
      • The Angelus
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  • Novenas
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  • Early Church Fathers
    • Vol. 1 - Preface and Introduction >
      • The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians
      • The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus
      • The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
      • The Epistle Concerning the Martyrdom of Polycarp
      • The Epistles of Ignatius - Introduction >
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnæans
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp
      • The Ignatian Epistles (Syriac Version) >
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp (Syriac Version)
        • The Second Epistle Of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Syriac Version)
        • The Third Epistle of the Same St. Igantius (Syriac Version)
      • Introductory to the Spurious Epistles of Ignatius >
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Tarsians (Spurious)
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians (Spurious)
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to Hero, a Deacon of Antioch (Spurious)
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians (Spurious)
        • The Epistle of Maria the Proselyte to Ignatius (Spurious)
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to Mary at Nepalis, Near Zarbus (Spurious)
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to St. John the Apostle (Spurious)
        • A Second Epistle of Ignatius to St. John (Spurious)
        • The Epistle of Ignatius to the Virgin Mary (Spurious)
      • Introductory Note to the Martyrdom of Ignatius >
        • The Martyrdom of Ignatius
      • The Epistle of Barnabas
      • The Fragments of Papias
      • Introduction to the Writings of Justin Martyr >
        • The First Apology of Justin Martyr >
          • Epistle of Adrian in behalf of the Christians
          • Epistle of Antoninus to the common assembly of Asia
          • Epistle of Marcus Aurelius to the senate, in which he testifies that the Christians were the cause of his victory
        • The Second Apology of Justin for the Christians Addressed to the Roman Senate
        • Dialogue of Justin, Philosopher and Martyr, with Trypho, a Jew
        • The Discourse to the Greeks - Justin Martyr
        • Justin's Hortatory Address to the Greeks
        • Justin on the Sole Government of God
        • Fragments of the Lost Work of Justin on the Resurrection
        • Other Fragments from the Lost Writings of Justin
        • The Martyrdom of the Holy Martyrs Justin, Chariton, Charites, Pæon, and Liberianus, who Suffered at Rome
      • Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies >
        • Against Heresies: Book 1 - Irenaeus
        • Against Heresies: Book 2 - Irenaeus
        • Against Heresies: Book 3 - Irenaeus
        • Against Heresies: Book 4 - Irenaeus
        • Against Heresies: Book 5 - Irenaeus
        • Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus
    • Vol. 2 - Fathers of the Second Century >
      • The Pastor of Hermas - Introduction >
        • The Pastor of Hermas: Book 1
        • The Pastor of Hermas: Book 2
        • The Pastor of Hermas: Book 3
      • Tatian the Assyrian's Address to the Greeks >
        • Fragments - Tatian the Assyrian
      • Theophilus of Antioch - Introduction >
        • Theophilus of Antioch to Autolycus: Book 1
        • Theophilus of Antioch to Autolycus: Book 2
        • Theophilus of Antioch to Autolycus: Book 3
      • Athenagoras >
        • A Plea For the Christians By Athenagoras the Athenian: Philosopher and Christian
        • The Treatise of Athenagoras the Athenian, Philosopher and Christian, on the Resurrection of the Dead
      • Clement of Alexandria - Introductory Note >
        • Exhortation to the Heathen
        • The Instructor (Paedagogus) - Book 1
        • The Instructor (Paedagogus) - Book 2
        • The Instructor (Paedagogus) - Book 3
        • Elucidations - Clement of Alexandria
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 1
        • Elucidations - Purpose of the Stromata
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 2
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 2
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 3
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 4
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 4
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 5
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 5
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 6
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 6
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 7
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 7
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 8
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 8
        • Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus
        • Clemens Alexandrinus on the Salvation of the Rich Man
        • Elucidations - Clemens Alexandrinus on the Salvation of the Rich Man
    • Vol. 3 - Tertullian >
      • Section 1 - Apologetic - Tertullian >
        • The Apology
        • On Idolatry
        • The Shows, or De Spectaculis
        • The Chaplet, or De Corona
        • To Scapula
        • Ad Nationes - Book 1
        • Ad Nationes - Book 2
        • A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen
        • An Answer to the Jews
        • The Soul's Testimony
        • A Treatise on the Soul
      • Section 2 - Anti-Marcion - Tertullian >
        • The Prescription Against Heretics
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 1
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 2
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 3
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 4
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 5
        • Against Hermogenes - Containing an Argument Against His Opinion that Matter is Eternal
        • Against the Valentinians
        • On the Flesh of Christ
        • On the Resurrection of the Flesh
        • Against Praxeas
        • Scorpiace
        • Against all Heresies
      • Section 3 - Ethical - Tertullian >
        • On Repentance
        • On Baptism
        • On Prayer
        • Ad Martyras
        • Introductory Notice to the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas
        • The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas
        • Of Patience
    • Vol. 4 - Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, Origen >
      • Tertullian >
        • On the Pallium
        • On the Apparel of Women
        • On the Veiling of Virgins
        • To His Wife
        • On Exhortation to Chastity
        • On Monogamy
        • On Modesty
        • On Fasting (In Opposition to the Psychics)
        • De Fuga in Persecutione
        • Appendix
      • Minucius Felix >
        • The Octavius of Minucius Felix
  • Books
    • John Henry Cardinal Newman >
      • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine by John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1: Doctrinal Developments Viewed in Themselves >
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 1: On the Development of Ideas
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 2: On the Antecedent Argument in Behalf of Developments in Christian Doctrine
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 3: On the Historical Argument in Behalf of the Existing Developments
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 4: Instances in Illustration
        • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2: Doctrinal Developments Viewed Relatively to Doctrinal Corruptions >
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 5: Genuine Developments Contrasted with Corruptions
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 6: Application of the Seven Notes to the Existing Developments of Christian Doctrine
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 7: Application of the Second Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 8: Application of the Third Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 9: Application of the Fourth Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 10: Application of the Fifth Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 11: Application of the Sixth Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 12: Application of the Seventh Note of a True Development
      • Apologia Pro Vita Sua By John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 1: Mr. Kingsley's Method of Disputation
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 2: True Mode of Meeting Mr. Kingsley
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 3: History of My Religious Opinions
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 4: History of My Religious Opinions--1833 - 1839
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 5: History of My Religious Opinions--1839 - 1841
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 6: History of My Religious Opinions--1841 - 1845
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 7: General Answer to Mr. Kingsley
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Appendix: Answer in Detail to Mr. Kingsley's Accusations
      • The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated by John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 1: Introductory
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 2: Theology A Branch Of Knowledge
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 3: Bearing Of Theology On Other Branches Of Knowledge
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 4: Bearing Of Other Branches Of Knowledge On Theology
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 5: Knowledge Its Own End
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 6: Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Learning
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 7: Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Professional Skill
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 8: Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Religion
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 9: Duties Of The Church Towards Knowledge
        • University Subjects, Discussed in Occasional Lectures and Essays >
          • Lecture 1 - Christianity And Letters. A Lecture in the School of Philosophy and Letters
          • Lecture 2 - Literature. A Lecture in the School of Philosophy and Letters
          • Lecture 3 - English Catholic Literature
          • Lecture 4 - Elementary Studies
          • Lecture 5 - A Form Of Infidelity Of The Day
          • Lecture 6 - University Preaching
          • Lecture 7 - Christianity and Physical Science. A Lecture in the School of Medicine
          • Lecture 8 - Christianity And Scientific Investigation. A Lecture Written for the School of Science
          • Lecture 9 - Discipline Of Mind. An Address To The Evening Classes
          • Lecture 10 - Christianity And Medical Science. An Address to the Students Of Medicine
      • Loss and Gain: The Story of a Convert by John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 1 >
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 2
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 3
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 4
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 5
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 6
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 7
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 8
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 9
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 10
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 11
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 12
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 13
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 14
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 15
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 16
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 17
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 18
        • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 1 >
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 2
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 3
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 4
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 5
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 6
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 7
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 8
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 9
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 10
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 11
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 12
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 13
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 14
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 15
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 16
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 17
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 18
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 19
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 20
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 21
        • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 1 >
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 2
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 3
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 4
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 5
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 6
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 7
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 8
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 9
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 10
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 11
    • Saint Augustine of Hippo >
      • The Confessions of Saint Augustine by Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo >
        • Book 1 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 2 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 3 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 4 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 5 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 6 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 7 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 8 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 9 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 10 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 11 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 12 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 13 - Confessions by St. Augustine
    • G K Chesterton >
      • Heretics by G.K. Chesterton >
        • Heretics, Chapter 1: Introductory Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy
        • Heretics, Chapter 2: On the Negative Spirit
        • Heretics, Chapter 3: On Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Making the World Small
        • Heretics, Chapter 4: Mr. Bernard Shaw
        • Heretics, Chapter 5: Mr. H.G. Wells and the Giants
        • Heretics, Chapter 6: Christmas and the Aesthetes
        • Heretics, Chapter 7: Omar and the Sacred Vine
        • Heretics, Chapter 8: The Mildness of the Yellow Press
        • Heretics, Chapter 9: The Moods of Mr. George Moore
        • Heretics, Chapter 10: On Sandals and Simplicity
        • Heretics, Chapter 11: Science and the Savages
        • Heretics, Chapter 12: Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson
        • Heretics, Chapter 13: Celts and Celtophiles
        • Heretics, Chapter 14: On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family
        • Heretics, Chapter 15: On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set
        • Heretics, Chapter 16: On Mr. McCabe and a Divine Frivolity
        • Heretics, Chapter 17: On the Wit of Whistler
        • Heretics, Chapter 18: The Fallacy of the Young Nation
        • Heretics, Chapter 19: Slum Novelists and the Slums
        • Heretics, Chapter 20: Concluding Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy
      • Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton >
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 1: Introduction in Defense of Everything Else
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 2: The Maniac
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 3: The Suicide of Thought
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 4: The Ethics of Elfland
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 5: The Flag of the World
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 6: The Paradoxes of Christianity
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 7: The Eternal Revolution
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 8: The Romance of Orthodoxy
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 9: Authority and the Adventurer
    • Saint Thomas Aquinas >
      • On Prayer and the Contemplative Life by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • On Prayer, Question LXXXI: Of the Virtue of Religion
        • On Prayer, Question LXXXII: Of Devotion
        • On Prayer, Question LXXXIII: Of Prayer
        • On Prayer, Question LXXII: Of the Prayers of the Saints who are in Heaven
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXIX: Of the Division of Life into the Active and the Contemplative
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXX: Of the Contemplative Life
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXXI: Of the Active Life
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXXII: Of the Comparison between the Active and the Contemplative Life
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXXVI: On the Religious State
      • Summa Theologica Part 1 ("Prima Pars") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica (Questions 1 - 26)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Most Holy Trinity (Questions 27 - 43)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Creation (Questions 44 - 49)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Angels (Questions 50 - 64)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Work of the Six Days (Questions 65 - 74)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on Man (Questions 75 - 102)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Conservation and Government of Creatures (Questions 103 - 119)
      • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on the Last End (Questions 1 - 5)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Human Acts: Acts Peculiar to Man (Questions 6 - 21)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on the Passions (Questions 22 - 48)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Habits (Questions 49 - 54)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Habits in Particular (Questions 55 - 89): Good Habits, i.e., Virtues (Questions 55 - 70)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Habits in Particular (Questions 55 - 89): Evil Habits, i.e., Vices and Sin (Questions 71 - 89)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Law (Questions 90 - 108)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Grace (Questions 109 - 114)
      • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on the Theological Virtues (Questions 1 - 46)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on the Cardinal Virtues (Questions 47 - 122)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on Fortitude and Temperance (Questions 123 - 170)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on Gratuitous Graces (Questions 171 - 182)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on the States of Life (Questions 183 - 189)
      • Summa Theologica Third Part ("Tertia Pars") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica Third Part ("Tertia Pars"): Treatise on the Incarnation (Questions 1 - 59)
        • Summa Theologica Third Part ("Tertia Pars"): Treatise on the Sacraments (Questions 60 - 90)
    • The Baltimore Catechism >
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 1
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 2
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 3
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 4
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Heretics
Chapter 14: On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family


XIV. On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family

The family may fairly be considered, one would think, an ultimate human institution.  Every one would admit that it has been the main cell and central unit of almost all societies hitherto, except, indeed, such societies as that of Lacedaemon, which went in for "efficiency," and has, therefore, perished, and left not a trace behind.  Christianity, even enormous as was its revolution, did not alter this ancient and savage sanctity; it merely reversed it. It did not deny the trinity of father, mother, and child. It merely read it backwards, making it run child, mother, father. This it called, not the family, but the Holy Family, for many things are made holy by being turned upside down. But some sages of our own decadence have made a serious attack on the family.  They have impugned it, as I think wrongly; and its defenders have defended it, and defended it wrongly. The common defence of the family is that, amid the stress and fickleness of life, it is peaceful, pleasant, and at one. But there is another defence of the family which is possible, and to me evident; this defence is that the family is not peaceful and not pleasant and not at one.

It is not fashionable to say much nowadays of the advantages of the small community.  We are told that we must go in for large empires and large ideas.  There is one advantage, however, in the small state, the city, or the village, which only the wilfully blind can overlook. The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce varieties and uncompromising divergences of men.  The reason is obvious.  In a large community we can choose our companions.  In a small community our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized societies groups come into existence founded upon what is called sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique.  The men of the clan live together because they all wear the same tartan or are all descended from the same sacred cow; but in their souls, by the divine luck of things, there will always be more colours than in any tartan. But the men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell. A big society exists in order to form cliques.  A big society is a society for the promotion of narrowness.  It is a machinery for the purpose of guarding the solitary and sensitive individual from all experience of the bitter and bracing human compromises. It is, in the most literal sense of the words, a society for the prevention of Christian knowledge.

We can see this change, for instance, in the modern transformation of the thing called a club.  When London was smaller, and the parts of London more self-contained and parochial, the club was what it still is in villages, the opposite of what it is now in great cities. Then the club was valued as a place where a man could be sociable. Now the club is valued as a place where a man can be unsociable. The more the enlargement and elaboration of our civilization goes on the more the club ceases to be a place where a man can have a noisy argument, and becomes more and more a place where a man can have what is somewhat fantastically called a quiet chop. Its aim is to make a man comfortable, and to make a man comfortable is to make him the opposite of sociable.  Sociability, like all good things, is full of discomforts, dangers, and renunciations. The club tends to produce the most degraded of all combinations--the luxurious anchorite, the man who combines the self-indulgence of Lucullus with the insane loneliness of St. Simeon Stylites.

If we were to-morrow morning snowed up in the street in which we live, we should step suddenly into a much larger and much wilder world than we have ever known.  And it is the whole effort of the typically modern person to escape from the street in which he lives. First he invents modern hygiene and goes to Margate. Then he invents modern culture and goes to Florence. Then he invents modern imperialism and goes to Timbuctoo.  He goes to the fantastic borders of the earth.  He pretends to shoot tigers. He almost rides on a camel.  And in all this he is still essentially fleeing from the street in which he was born; and of this flight he is always ready with his own explanation.  He says he is fleeing from his street because it is dull; he is lying.  He is really fleeing from his street because it is a great deal too exciting. It is exciting because it is exacting; it is exacting because it is alive. He can visit Venice because to him the Venetians are only Venetians; the people in his own street are men.  He can stare at the Chinese because for him the Chinese are a passive thing to be stared at; if he stares at the old lady in the next garden, she becomes active. He is forced to flee, in short, from the too stimulating society of his equals--of free men, perverse, personal, deliberately different from himself.  The street in Brixton is too glowing and overpowering. He has to soothe and quiet himself among tigers and vultures, camels and crocodiles.  These creatures are indeed very different from himself.  But they do not put their shape or colour or custom into a decisive intellectual competition with his own. They do not seek to destroy his principles and assert their own; the stranger monsters of the suburban street do seek to do this. The camel does not contort his features into a fine sneer because Mr. Robinson has not got a hump; the cultured gentleman at No. 5 does exhibit a sneer because Robinson has not got a dado. The vulture will not roar with laughter because a man does not fly; but the major at No. 9 will roar with laughter because a man does not smoke. The complaint we commonly have to make of our neighbours is that they will not, as we express it, mind their own business. We do not really mean that they will not mind their own business. If our neighbours did not mind their own business they would be asked abruptly for their rent, and would rapidly cease to be our neighbours. What we really mean when we say that they cannot mind their own business is something much deeper.  We do not dislike them because they have so little force and fire that they cannot be interested in themselves.  We dislike them because they have so much force and fire that they can be interested in us as well. What we dread about our neighbours, in short, is not the narrowness of their horizon, but their superb tendency to broaden it. And all aversions to ordinary humanity have this general character. They are not aversions to its feebleness (as is pretended), but to its energy. The misanthropes pretend that they despise humanity for its weakness. As a matter of fact, they hate it for its strength.

Of course, this shrinking from the brutal vivacity and brutal variety of common men is a perfectly reasonable and excusable thing as long as it does not pretend to any point of superiority. It is when it calls itself aristocracy or aestheticism or a superiority to the bourgeoisie that its inherent weakness has in justice to be pointed out. Fastidiousness is the most pardonable of vices; but it is the most unpardonable of virtues.  Nietzsche, who represents most prominently this pretentious claim of the fastidious, has a description somewhere--a very powerful description in the purely literary sense--of the disgust and disdain which consume him at the sight of the common people with their common faces, their common voices, and their common minds.  As I have said, this attitude is almost beautiful if we may regard it as pathetic. Nietzsche's aristocracy has about it all the sacredness that belongs to the weak.  When he makes us feel that he cannot endure the innumerable faces, the incessant voices, the overpowering omnipresence which belongs to the mob, he will have the sympathy of anybody who has ever been sick on a steamer or tired in a crowded omnibus. Every man has hated mankind when he was less than a man. Every man has had humanity in his eyes like a blinding fog, humanity in his nostrils like a suffocating smell.  But when Nietzsche has the incredible lack of humour and lack of imagination to ask us to believe that his aristocracy is an aristocracy of strong muscles or an aristocracy of strong wills, it is necessary to point out the truth. It is an aristocracy of weak nerves.

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour.  Hence he comes to us clad in all the careless terrors of nature; he is as strange as the stars, as reckless and indifferent as the rain.  He is Man, the most terrible of the beasts. That is why the old religions and the old scriptural language showed so sharp a wisdom when they spoke, not of one's duty towards humanity, but one's duty towards one's neighbour.  The duty towards humanity may often take the form of some choice which is personal or even pleasurable. That duty may be a hobby; it may even be a dissipation. We may work in the East End because we are peculiarly fitted to work in the East End, or because we think we are; we may fight for the cause of international peace because we are very fond of fighting. The most monstrous martyrdom, the most repulsive experience, may be the result of choice or a kind of taste.  We may be so made as to be particularly fond of lunatics or specially interested in leprosy. We may love negroes because they are black or German Socialists because they are pedantic. But we have to love our neighbour because he is there--a much more alarming reason for a much more serious operation. He is the sample of humanity which is actually given us. Precisely because he may be anybody he is everybody. He is a symbol because he is an accident.

Doubtless men flee from small environments into lands that are very deadly.  But this is natural enough; for they are not fleeing from death.  They are fleeing from life.  And this principle applies to ring within ring of the social system of humanity. It is perfectly reasonable that men should seek for some particular variety of the human type, so long as they are seeking for that variety of the human type, and not for mere human variety. It is quite proper that a British diplomatist should seek the society of Japanese generals, if what he wants is Japanese generals. But if what he wants is people different from himself, he had much better stop at home and discuss religion with the housemaid. It is quite reasonable that the village genius should come up to conquer London if what he wants is to conquer London.  But if he wants to conquer something fundamentally and symbolically hostile and also very strong, he had much better remain where he is and have a row with the rector. The man in the suburban street is quite right if he goes to Ramsgate for the sake of Ramsgate--a difficult thing to imagine. But if, as he expresses it, he goes to Ramsgate "for a change," then he would have a much more romantic and even melodramatic change if he jumped over the wall into his neighbours garden. The consequences would be bracing in a sense far beyond the possibilities of Ramsgate hygiene.

Now, exactly as this principle applies to the empire, to the nation within the empire, to the city within the nation, to the street within the city, so it applies to the home within the street. The institution of the family is to be commended for precisely the same reasons that the institution of the nation, or the institution of the city, are in this matter to be commended. It is a good thing for a man to live in a family for the same reason that it is a good thing for a man to be besieged in a city. It is a good thing for a man to live in a family in the same sense that it is a beautiful and delightful thing for a man to be snowed up in a street. They all force him to realize that life is not a thing from outside, but a thing from inside.  Above all, they all insist upon the fact that life, if it be a truly stimulating and fascinating life, is a thing which, of its nature, exists in spite of ourselves. The modern writers who have suggested, in a more or less open manner, that the family is a bad institution, have generally confined themselves to suggesting, with much sharpness, bitterness, or pathos, that perhaps the family is not always very congenial. Of course the family is a good institution because it is uncongenial. It is wholesome precisely because it contains so many divergencies and varieties.  It is, as the sentimentalists say, like a little kingdom, and, like most other little kingdoms, is generally in a state of something resembling anarchy. It is exactly because our brother George is not interested in our religious difficulties, but is interested in the Trocadero Restaurant, that the family has some of the bracing qualities of the commonwealth. It is precisely because our uncle Henry does not approve of the theatrical ambitions of our sister Sarah that the family is like humanity. The men and women who, for good reasons and bad, revolt against the family, are, for good reasons and bad, simply revolting against mankind. Aunt Elizabeth is unreasonable, like mankind.  Papa is excitable, like mankind Our youngest brother is mischievous, like mankind. Grandpapa is stupid, like the world; he is old, like the world.

Those who wish, rightly or wrongly, to step out of all this, do definitely wish to step into a narrower world.  They are dismayed and terrified by the largeness and variety of the family. Sarah wishes to find a world wholly consisting of private theatricals; George wishes to think the Trocadero a cosmos.  I do not say, for a moment, that the flight to this narrower life may not be the right thing for the individual, any more than I say the same thing about flight into a monastery.  But I do say that anything is bad and artificial which tends to make these people succumb to the strange delusion that they are stepping into a world which is actually larger and more varied than their own. The best way that a man could test his readiness to encounter the common variety of mankind would be to climb down a chimney into any house at random, and get on as well as possible with the people inside. And that is essentially what each one of us did on the day that he was born.

This is, indeed, the sublime and special romance of the family.  It is romantic because it is a toss-up. It is romantic because it is everything that its enemies call it.  It is romantic because it is arbitrary. It is romantic because it is there.  So long as you have groups of men chosen rationally, you have some special or sectarian atmosphere. It is when you have groups of men chosen irrationally that you have men. The element of adventure begins to exist; for an adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us.  It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose.  Falling in love has been often regarded as the supreme adventure, the supreme romantic accident. In so much as there is in it something outside ourselves, something of a sort of merry fatalism, this is very true. Love does take us and transfigure and torture us.  It does break our hearts with an unbearable beauty, like the unbearable beauty of music. But in so far as we have certainly something to do with the matter; in so far as we are in some sense prepared to fall in love and in some sense jump into it; in so far as we do to some extent choose and to some extent even judge--in all this falling in love is not truly romantic, is not truly adventurous at all.  In this degree the supreme adventure is not falling in love.  The supreme adventure is being born. There we do walk suddenly into a splendid and startling trap. There we do see something of which we have not dreamed before. Our father and mother do lie in wait for us and leap out on us, like brigands from a bush.  Our uncle is a surprise.  Our aunt is, in the beautiful common expression, a bolt from the blue. When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made.  In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.

This colour as of a fantastic narrative ought to cling to the family and to our relations with it throughout life. Romance is the deepest thing in life; romance is deeper even than reality.  For even if reality could be proved to be misleading, it still could not be proved to be unimportant or unimpressive. Even if the facts are false, they are still very strange. And this strangeness of life, this unexpected and even perverse element of things as they fall out, remains incurably interesting. The circumstances we can regulate may become tame or pessimistic; but the "circumstances over which we have no control" remain god-like to those who, like Mr. Micawber, can call on them and renew their strength.  People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics.  The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are. Life may sometimes legitimately appear as a book of science. Life may sometimes appear, and with a much greater legitimacy, as a book of metaphysics.  But life is always a novel.  Our existence may cease to be a song; it may cease even to be a beautiful lament. Our existence may not be an intelligible justice, or even a recognizable wrong.  But our existence is still a story.  In the fiery alphabet of every sunset is written, "to be continued in our next." If we have sufficient intellect, we can finish a philosophical and exact deduction, and be certain that we are finishing it right. With the adequate brain-power we could finish any scientific discovery, and be certain that we were finishing it right. But not with the most gigantic intellect could we finish the simplest or silliest story, and be certain that we were finishing it right. That is because a story has behind it, not merely intellect which is partly mechanical, but will, which is in its essence divine. The narrative writer can send his hero to the gallows if he likes in the last chapter but one.  He can do it by the same divine caprice whereby he, the author, can go to the gallows himself, and to hell afterwards if he chooses.  And the same civilization, the chivalric European civilization which asserted freewill in the thirteenth century, produced the thing called "fiction" in the eighteenth. When Thomas Aquinas asserted the spiritual liberty of man, he created all the bad novels in the circulating libraries.

But in order that life should be a story or romance to us, it is necessary that a great part of it, at any rate, should be settled for us without our permission.  If we wish life to be a system, this may be a nuisance; but if we wish it to be a drama, it is an essential.  It may often happen, no doubt, that a drama may be written by somebody else which we like very little. But we should like it still less if the author came before the curtain every hour or so, and forced on us the whole trouble of inventing the next act.  A man has control over many things in his life; he has control over enough things to be the hero of a novel. But if he had control over everything, there would be so much hero that there would be no novel.  And the reason why the lives of the rich are at bottom so tame and uneventful is simply that they can choose the events.  They are dull because they are omnipotent. They fail to feel adventures because they can make the adventures. The thing which keeps life romantic and full of fiery possibilities is the existence of these great plain limitations which force all of us to meet the things we do not like or do not expect.  It is vain for the supercilious moderns to talk of being in uncongenial surroundings. To be in a romance is to be in uncongenial surroundings. To be born into this earth is to be born into uncongenial surroundings, hence to be born into a romance.  Of all these great limitations and frameworks which fashion and create the poetry and variety of life, the family is the most definite and important. Hence it is misunderstood by the moderns, who imagine that romance would exist most perfectly in a complete state of what they call liberty. They think that if a man makes a gesture it would be a startling and romantic matter that the sun should fall from the sky. But the startling and romantic thing about the sun is that it does not fall from the sky.  They are seeking under every shape and form a world where there are no limitations--that is, a world where there are no outlines; that is, a world where there are no shapes. There is nothing baser than that infinity.  They say they wish to be, as strong as the universe, but they really wish the whole universe as weak as themselves.

NEXT:
Chapter 15: On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set

SUBMENU

Heretics by G.K. Chesterton

Chapter 1: Introductory Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy

Chapter 2: On the Negative Spirit

Chapter 3: On Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Making the World Small

Chapter 4: Mr. Bernard Shaw

Chapter 5: Mr. H.G. Wells and the Giants

Chapter 6: Christmas and the Aesthetes

Chapter 7: Omar and the Sacred Vine

Chapter 8: The Mildness of the Yellow Press

Chapter 9: The Moods of Mr. George Moore

Chapter 10: On Sandals and Simplicity

Chapter 11: Science and the Savages

Chapter 12: Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson

Chapter 13: Celts and Celtophiles

Chapter 14: On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family

Chapter 15: On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set

Chapter 16: On Mr. McCabe and a Divine Frivolity

Chapter 17: On the Wit of Whistler

Chapter 18: The Fallacy of the Young Nation

Chapter 19: Slum Novelists and the Slums

Chapter 20: Concluding Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy

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        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 4
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 4
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 5
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 5
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 6
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 6
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 7
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 7
        • The Stromata, or Miscellanies - Book 8
        • Elucidations - The Stromata, Book 8
        • Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus
        • Clemens Alexandrinus on the Salvation of the Rich Man
        • Elucidations - Clemens Alexandrinus on the Salvation of the Rich Man
    • Vol. 3 - Tertullian >
      • Section 1 - Apologetic - Tertullian >
        • The Apology
        • On Idolatry
        • The Shows, or De Spectaculis
        • The Chaplet, or De Corona
        • To Scapula
        • Ad Nationes - Book 1
        • Ad Nationes - Book 2
        • A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen
        • An Answer to the Jews
        • The Soul's Testimony
        • A Treatise on the Soul
      • Section 2 - Anti-Marcion - Tertullian >
        • The Prescription Against Heretics
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 1
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 2
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 3
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 4
        • The Five Books Against Marcion - Book 5
        • Against Hermogenes - Containing an Argument Against His Opinion that Matter is Eternal
        • Against the Valentinians
        • On the Flesh of Christ
        • On the Resurrection of the Flesh
        • Against Praxeas
        • Scorpiace
        • Against all Heresies
      • Section 3 - Ethical - Tertullian >
        • On Repentance
        • On Baptism
        • On Prayer
        • Ad Martyras
        • Introductory Notice to the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas
        • The Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas
        • Of Patience
    • Vol. 4 - Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodianus, Origen >
      • Tertullian >
        • On the Pallium
        • On the Apparel of Women
        • On the Veiling of Virgins
        • To His Wife
        • On Exhortation to Chastity
        • On Monogamy
        • On Modesty
        • On Fasting (In Opposition to the Psychics)
        • De Fuga in Persecutione
        • Appendix
      • Minucius Felix >
        • The Octavius of Minucius Felix
  • Books
    • John Henry Cardinal Newman >
      • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine by John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1: Doctrinal Developments Viewed in Themselves >
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 1: On the Development of Ideas
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 2: On the Antecedent Argument in Behalf of Developments in Christian Doctrine
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 3: On the Historical Argument in Behalf of the Existing Developments
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 1, Chapter 4: Instances in Illustration
        • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2: Doctrinal Developments Viewed Relatively to Doctrinal Corruptions >
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 5: Genuine Developments Contrasted with Corruptions
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 6: Application of the Seven Notes to the Existing Developments of Christian Doctrine
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 7: Application of the Second Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 8: Application of the Third Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 9: Application of the Fourth Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 10: Application of the Fifth Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 11: Application of the Sixth Note of a True Development
          • An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine - Part 2, Chapter 12: Application of the Seventh Note of a True Development
      • Apologia Pro Vita Sua By John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 1: Mr. Kingsley's Method of Disputation
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 2: True Mode of Meeting Mr. Kingsley
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 3: History of My Religious Opinions
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 4: History of My Religious Opinions--1833 - 1839
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 5: History of My Religious Opinions--1839 - 1841
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 6: History of My Religious Opinions--1841 - 1845
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Part 7: General Answer to Mr. Kingsley
        • Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Appendix: Answer in Detail to Mr. Kingsley's Accusations
      • The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated by John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 1: Introductory
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 2: Theology A Branch Of Knowledge
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 3: Bearing Of Theology On Other Branches Of Knowledge
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 4: Bearing Of Other Branches Of Knowledge On Theology
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 5: Knowledge Its Own End
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 6: Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Learning
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 7: Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Professional Skill
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 8: Knowledge Viewed In Relation To Religion
        • The Idea of a University, Discourse 9: Duties Of The Church Towards Knowledge
        • University Subjects, Discussed in Occasional Lectures and Essays >
          • Lecture 1 - Christianity And Letters. A Lecture in the School of Philosophy and Letters
          • Lecture 2 - Literature. A Lecture in the School of Philosophy and Letters
          • Lecture 3 - English Catholic Literature
          • Lecture 4 - Elementary Studies
          • Lecture 5 - A Form Of Infidelity Of The Day
          • Lecture 6 - University Preaching
          • Lecture 7 - Christianity and Physical Science. A Lecture in the School of Medicine
          • Lecture 8 - Christianity And Scientific Investigation. A Lecture Written for the School of Science
          • Lecture 9 - Discipline Of Mind. An Address To The Evening Classes
          • Lecture 10 - Christianity And Medical Science. An Address to the Students Of Medicine
      • Loss and Gain: The Story of a Convert by John Henry Cardinal Newman >
        • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 1 >
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 2
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 3
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 4
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 5
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 6
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 7
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 8
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 9
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 10
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 11
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 12
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 13
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 14
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 15
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 16
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 17
          • Loss and Gain, Part 1, Chapter 18
        • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 1 >
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 2
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 3
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 4
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 5
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 6
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 7
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 8
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 9
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 10
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 11
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 12
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 13
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 14
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 15
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 16
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 17
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 18
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 19
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 20
          • Loss and Gain, Part 2, Chapter 21
        • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 1 >
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 2
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 3
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 4
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 5
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 6
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 7
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 8
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 9
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 10
          • Loss and Gain, Part 3, Chapter 11
    • Saint Augustine of Hippo >
      • The Confessions of Saint Augustine by Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo >
        • Book 1 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 2 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 3 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 4 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 5 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 6 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 7 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 8 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 9 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 10 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 11 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 12 - Confessions by St. Augustine
        • Book 13 - Confessions by St. Augustine
    • G K Chesterton >
      • Heretics by G.K. Chesterton >
        • Heretics, Chapter 1: Introductory Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy
        • Heretics, Chapter 2: On the Negative Spirit
        • Heretics, Chapter 3: On Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Making the World Small
        • Heretics, Chapter 4: Mr. Bernard Shaw
        • Heretics, Chapter 5: Mr. H.G. Wells and the Giants
        • Heretics, Chapter 6: Christmas and the Aesthetes
        • Heretics, Chapter 7: Omar and the Sacred Vine
        • Heretics, Chapter 8: The Mildness of the Yellow Press
        • Heretics, Chapter 9: The Moods of Mr. George Moore
        • Heretics, Chapter 10: On Sandals and Simplicity
        • Heretics, Chapter 11: Science and the Savages
        • Heretics, Chapter 12: Paganism and Mr. Lowes Dickinson
        • Heretics, Chapter 13: Celts and Celtophiles
        • Heretics, Chapter 14: On Certain Modern Writers and the Institution of the Family
        • Heretics, Chapter 15: On Smart Novelists and the Smart Set
        • Heretics, Chapter 16: On Mr. McCabe and a Divine Frivolity
        • Heretics, Chapter 17: On the Wit of Whistler
        • Heretics, Chapter 18: The Fallacy of the Young Nation
        • Heretics, Chapter 19: Slum Novelists and the Slums
        • Heretics, Chapter 20: Concluding Remarks on the Importance of Orthodoxy
      • Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton >
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 1: Introduction in Defense of Everything Else
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 2: The Maniac
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 3: The Suicide of Thought
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 4: The Ethics of Elfland
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 5: The Flag of the World
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 6: The Paradoxes of Christianity
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 7: The Eternal Revolution
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 8: The Romance of Orthodoxy
        • Orthodoxy, Chapter 9: Authority and the Adventurer
    • Saint Thomas Aquinas >
      • On Prayer and the Contemplative Life by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • On Prayer, Question LXXXI: Of the Virtue of Religion
        • On Prayer, Question LXXXII: Of Devotion
        • On Prayer, Question LXXXIII: Of Prayer
        • On Prayer, Question LXXII: Of the Prayers of the Saints who are in Heaven
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXIX: Of the Division of Life into the Active and the Contemplative
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXX: Of the Contemplative Life
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXXI: Of the Active Life
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXXII: Of the Comparison between the Active and the Contemplative Life
        • On Prayer, Question CLXXXVI: On the Religious State
      • Summa Theologica Part 1 ("Prima Pars") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica (Questions 1 - 26)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Most Holy Trinity (Questions 27 - 43)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Creation (Questions 44 - 49)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Angels (Questions 50 - 64)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Work of the Six Days (Questions 65 - 74)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on Man (Questions 75 - 102)
        • Summa Theologica: Treatise on the Conservation and Government of Creatures (Questions 103 - 119)
      • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on the Last End (Questions 1 - 5)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Human Acts: Acts Peculiar to Man (Questions 6 - 21)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on the Passions (Questions 22 - 48)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Habits (Questions 49 - 54)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Habits in Particular (Questions 55 - 89): Good Habits, i.e., Virtues (Questions 55 - 70)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Habits in Particular (Questions 55 - 89): Evil Habits, i.e., Vices and Sin (Questions 71 - 89)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Law (Questions 90 - 108)
        • Summa Theologica Part 1-2 ("Prima Secundae"): Treatise on Grace (Questions 109 - 114)
      • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on the Theological Virtues (Questions 1 - 46)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on the Cardinal Virtues (Questions 47 - 122)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on Fortitude and Temperance (Questions 123 - 170)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on Gratuitous Graces (Questions 171 - 182)
        • Summa Theologica Part 2-2 ("Second Secundae"): Treatise on the States of Life (Questions 183 - 189)
      • Summa Theologica Third Part ("Tertia Pars") by St. Thomas Aquinas >
        • Summa Theologica Third Part ("Tertia Pars"): Treatise on the Incarnation (Questions 1 - 59)
        • Summa Theologica Third Part ("Tertia Pars"): Treatise on the Sacraments (Questions 60 - 90)
    • The Baltimore Catechism >
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 1
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 2
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 3
      • The Baltimore Catechism, Vol. 4
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