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"I Say As Do All Christian Men..."
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“I Say As Do All Christian Men .l.l.” A friend in Berkeley Springs had mentioned a new edition of Chesterton’s Ballad of theWhite Horse.Though I naturally coveted this book, I never made any effort to buy, borrow, or steal it. Such are the designs of gods and men, however, that for Christmas, John Peterson, as is his kindly wont, sent me a present. I received it before Christmas. But as I am loathe to open presents before Christmas, I waited till after my California visit with the family to unwrap it.Yes, to my delight, it was this very book—edited by Sister Bernadette Sheridan and published in Detroit by the Marygrove College Press in . The illustrations in this edition are by Robert Austin. I was immediately struck by the first woodcut, which shows a mounted King Alfred of England riding behind his spear-carrying troops. Beneath this engraving are these mighty words:“I say as do all Christian men, that it is a divine purpose that rules, and not fate.”We defy all philosophical pessimism with this one cry. This passage is said to be King Alfred’s addition to Boethius— and Boethius is a very great man—the last of the philosophical Romans, the first of the philosophical Christians in the very late Empire. But Albert’s addition is the most important thing that can be said, yes, even to men of our time.We are ruled by a divine purpose, not by fate. As I read this text, not recalling that I had ever read it before, I kept coming across passages I well knew. Indeed, I saw a couple of book titles, books I had on my shelves. JoyWithout a Cause, by Christopher Derrick, TheWise Men KnowWhatWickedThings Are Written on the Sky, by Russell Kirk.1 I went back and read some Derrick; his first essay was an ef108 fort to compare The Ballad of the White Horse with the meaning and movement of World War II. And Kirk tells us that what Chesterton really had in mind was “those people in the twentieth century who declare that our culture is doomed for destruction .” Here is the recurring problem of Eastern fatalism and Christian hope.We are doomed for glory, but, in the divine purpose , we must choose it. Nor could I help wondering, furthermore, if there were any relation between Chesterton’s phrase on joy and C. S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy. Do I not recall that one of the petitions in the Litany of Loretto is “causa nostrae laetitiae,” the cause of our joy? So what is this joy without a cause? this being surprised by joy? I also have C. S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy. I had not read it for some time. Looking through my shelf, I found in this book some notes I had taken when I read an earlier edition from a library. Someplace, in the meantime, I had acquired, but not reread, the Harvest edition of Surprised by Joy. Looking at my notes, I saw that Lewis did talk about Chesterton. Lewis did reflect much on this curious nature of joy, of its being somehow more than we might expect. Lewis tells of first coming across a book of Chesterton, a man at the time he had never heard of. On reading him, Lewis could not understand why he made such an impression on him. The book was a book of essays, not The Ballad of aWhite Horse.2 As he thought it over, Lewis became very protective, almost, of Chesterton .“For critics who think Chesterton frivolous or ‘paradoxical ’, I have to work hard to feel even pity; sympathy is out of the question.”3 Chesterton’s humor, like Aristotle’s definition of pleasure , to which Lewis actually refers, arose out of the reality of the thing he was dealing with. Lewis concluded of Chesterton that,“strange as it may seem, I liked him for his goodness.”This is a remarkably right statement about Chesterton, I think. Lewis then warned young men, po- “I Say As Do All Christian Men . . .” 109 [18.191.238.119] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 19:06 GMT) tential philosophers, to be very wary of Chesterton:“In reading Chesterton, as in reading George MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for.A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.”4 Indeed . What are we...