nfinite; this mortal has put on immortality."

Here we begin to see the immense value of paradox in the matter of
faith. Mr. Chesterton is an optimist, not because he fits into this
world, but because he does not fit into it. Pagan optimism is content
with the world, and subsists entirely in virtue of its power to fit into
it and find it sufficient. This is that optimism of which Browning
speaks with scorn--

"Tame in earth's paddock as her prize,"

and which he repudiates in the famous lines,

"Then, welcome each rebuff
That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!
Be our joys three parts pain!
Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!"

Mr. Chesterton insists that beyond the things which surround us here on
the earth there are other things which claim us from beyond. The higher
instincts which discover these are not tools to be used for making the
most of earthly treasures, but sacred relics to be guarded. He is an
idealist who has been out beyond the world. There he has found a whole
universe of mysterious but commanding facts, and has discovered that
these and these alone can satisfy human nature.

The question must, however, arise, as to the validity of those spiritual
claims. How can we be sure that the ideals which claim us from beyond
are realities, and not mere dream shapes? There is no answer but this,
that if we question the validity of our own convictions and the reality
of our most pressing needs, we have simply committed spiritual suicide,
and arrived prematurely at the end of all things. With the habit of
questioning ultimate convictions Mr. Chesterton has little patience.
Modesty, he tells us, has settled in the wrong place. We believe in
ourselves and we doubt the truth that is in us. But we ourselves, the
crude reality which we actually are, are altogether unreliable; while
the vision is always trustworthy. We are for ever changing the vision to
suit the world as we find it, whereas we ought to be changing the world
to bring it into conformity with the unchanging vision. The very essence
of orthodoxy is a profound and reverent conviction of ideals that cannot
be changed--ideals which were the first, and shall be the last.

If Mr. Chesterton often strains his readers' powers of attention by
rapid and surprising movements among very difficult themes, he certainly