ht angles, and is in the pattern of the cross.

So it is also, of course, with the contradictory charges of the
anti-Christians about submission and slaughter. It _is_ true that the
Church told some men to fight and others not to fight; and it _is_ true
that those who fought were like thunderbolts and those who did not fight
were like statues. All this simply means that the Church preferred to
use its Supermen and to use its Tolstoyans. There must be _some_ good in
the life of battle, for so many good men have enjoyed being soldiers.
There must be _some_ good in the idea of non-resistance, for so many
good men seem to enjoy being Quakers. All that the Church did (so far as
that goes) was to prevent either of these good things from ousting the
other. They existed side by side. The Tolstoyans, having all the
scruples of monks, simply became monks. The Quakers became a club
instead of becoming a sect. Monks said all that Tolstoy says; they
poured out lucid lamentations about the cruelty of battles and the
vanity of revenge. But the Tolstoyans are not quite right enough to run
the whole world; and in the ages of faith they were not allowed to run
it. The world did not lose the last charge of Sir James Douglas or the
banner of Joan the Maid. And sometimes this pure gentleness and this
pure fierceness met and justified their juncture; the paradox of all the
prophets was fulfilled, and, in the soul of St. Louis, the lion lay down
with the lamb. But remember that this text is too lightly interpreted.
It is constantly assured, especially in our Tolstoyan tendencies, that
when the lion lies down with the lamb the lion becomes lamb-like. But
that is brutal annexation and imperialism on the part of the lamb. That
is simply the lamb absorbing the lion instead of the lion eating the
lamb. The real problem is--Can the lion lie down with the lamb and still
retain his royal ferocity? _That_ is the problem the Church attempted;
_that_ is the miracle she achieved.

This is what I have called guessing the hidden eccentricities of life.
This is knowing that a man's heart is to the left and not in the middle.
This is knowing not only that the earth is round, but knowing exactly
where it is flat. Christian doctrine detected the oddities of life. It
not only discovered the law, but it foresaw the exceptions. Those
underrate Christianity who say that it discovered mercy; any one might
discover mercy. In fact every one did. But to discover a pla