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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Alarms and Discursions

Alarms and Discursions

Chesterton, G. K.

Paperback

Philosophy

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN13: 9798704689140
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 6 2021
Pages: 92
Weight: 0.24
Height: 0.22 Width: 5.00 Depth: 7.99
Language: English
But about this time the island was caught in a swarm of pirates; and the shepherds had to turnthemselves into rude warriors and seamen; and at first they were utterly broken down in blood andshame; and the pirates might have taken the jewel flung up for ever from their sacred fount. Andthen, after years of horror and humiliation, they gained a little and began to conquer because theydid not mind defeat. And the pride of the pirates went sick within them after a few unexpected foils;and at last the invasion rolled back into the empty seas and the island was delivered. And for somereason after this men began to talk quite differently about the temple and the sun. Some, indeed, said, You must not touch the temple; it is classical; it is perfect, since it admits no imperfections.But the others answered, In that it differs from the sun, that shines on the evil and the good and onmud and monsters everywhere. The temple is of the noon; it is made of white marble clouds andsapphire sky. But the sun is not always of the noon. The sun dies daily, every night he is crucified inblood and fire. Now the priest had taught and fought through all the war, and his hair had grownwhite, but his eyes had grown young. And he said, I was wrong and they are right. The sun, thesymbol of our father, gives life to all those earthly things that are full of ugliness and energy. All theexaggerations are right, if they exaggerate the right thing. Let us point to heaven with tusks andhorns and fins and trunks and tails so long as they all point to heaven. The ugly animals praise Godas much as the beautiful. The frog's eyes stand out of his head because he is staring at heaven. Thegiraffe's neck is long because he is stretching towards heaven. The donkey has ears to hear-let himhear.And under the new inspiration they planned a gorgeous cathedral in the Gothic manner, with allthe animals of the earth crawling over it, and all the possible ugly things making up one commonbeauty, because they all appealed to the god. The columns of the temple were carved like the necksof giraffes; the dome was like an ugly tortoise; and the highest pinnacle was a monkey standing onhis head with his tail pointing at the sun. And yet the whole was beautiful, because it was lifted up inone living and religious gesture as a man lifts his hands in prayer

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