Clockwork (document)

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Clockwork

Excerpted from Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton

All the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance. This is a fallacy even in relation to known fact. For the variation in human affairs is generally brought into them, not by life, but by death; by the dying down or breaking off of their strength or desire. A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue.

[...]

But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

Comments

Miranda: It's strange. The idea is delightful but it's also completely and obviously untrue.

Cornelius: That's one of many reasons Chesterton is worth reading. He's wrong about a lot of things, but he's wrong about them in an interesting way.

Miranda: It's such a shame, though. He seems to want to restore the magic of the world, but he can only re-enchant the surface. Whereas the true magic, the perfect beauty that feels like revelation, is found underneath in what he dismisses as clockwork.

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