earth from
moment to moment, and that happier thinker who considers rather our
primary power of vision and of choice of road.

But this is a deep mistake in this alternative of the optimist and the
pessimist. The assumption of it is that a man criticises this world as
if he were house-hunting, as if he were being shown over a new suite of
apartments. If a man came to this world from some other world in full
possession of his powers he might discuss whether the advantage of
midsummer woods made up for the disadvantage of mad dogs, just as a man
looking for lodgings might balance the presence of a telephone against
the absence of a sea view. But no man is in that position. A man belongs
to this world before he begins to ask if it is nice to belong to it. He
has fought for the flag, and often won heroic victories for the flag
long before he has ever enlisted. To put shortly what seems the
essential matter, he has a loyalty long before he has any admiration.

In the last chapter it has been said that the primary feeling that this
world is strange and yet attractive is best expressed in fairy tales.
The reader may, if he likes, put down the next stage to that bellicose
and even jingo literature which commonly comes next in the history of a
boy. We all owe much sound morality to the penny dreadfuls. Whatever the
reason, it seemed and still seems to me that our attitude towards life
can be better expressed in terms of a kind of military loyalty than in
terms of criticism and approval. My acceptance of the universe is not
optimism, it is more like patriotism. It is a matter of primary loyalty.
The world is not a lodging-house at Brighton, which we are to leave
because it is miserable. It is the fortress of our family, with the flag
flying on the turret, and the more miserable it is the less we should
leave it. The point is not that this world is too sad to love or too
glad not to love; the point is that when you do love a thing, its
gladness is a reason for loving it, and its sadness a reason for loving
it more. All optimistic thoughts about England and all pessimistic
thoughts about her are alike reasons for the English patriot. Similarly,
optimism and pessimism are alike arguments for the cosmic patriot.

Let us suppose we are confronted with a desperate thing--say Pimlico.
If we think what is really best for Pimlico we shall find the thread of
thought leads to the throne of the mystic and the arbitary. It is not
enough fo