MR. LONG OR GOETHE?
If we could create a Utopia of international peace, it would not solve the question of the possibility of aggression and resistance. So long as Utopia, had government, it could have misgovernment," writes Mr. G. K. Chesterton in the Sunday Herald.
"Personally, I confess that I prefer England to Utopia. So, I am very certain, did Sir Thomas More. Even if Utopia truly were Utopia, if it were the paradise of tranquil arts and crafts which it is made by poets, and not the network of mean wirepulling and moneylending that it would probably be made by politicians—even then I should still prefer England to Utopia.
" I will here answer in writing, as I did in conversation, a question which, was put to me by a famous philosopher and dramatist of our day, ' Would you really rather be governed by Mr. Walter Long than by Goethe ?' To which I reply that human words are wholly inadequate to express how heartily and wholly I should prefer it
" Mr. Long (whose name, of course, was only taken as a symbol of a Toryism I have often attacked) would be much more tolerable to me when he was doing his worst thar Goethe when he was doing his best And the reason, which is both deep, subtle, and vivid, is stated with strict accuracy when I say ' Because Mr. Long is very English aud Goethe was very German.' "
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 78, 1 April 1916, Page 11
Word Count
239MR. LONG OR GOETHE? Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 78, 1 April 1916, Page 11
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