APRIL 13th
I have often been haunted with a fancy that the creeds of men might be paralleled and represented in their beverages. Wine might stand for genuine Catholicism, and ale for genuine Protestantism; for these at least are real religions with comfort and strength in them. Clean cold Agnosticism would be clean cold water— an excellent thing if you can get it. Most modern ethical and idealistic movements might be well represented by soda-water— which is a fuss about nothing. Mr. Bernard Shaw’s philosophy is exactly like black coffee— it awakens, but it does not really inspire. Modern hygienic materialism is very like cocoa; it would be impossible to express one’s contempt for it in stronger terms than that. Sometimes one may come across something that may honestly be compared to milk, an ancient and heathen mildness, an earthly yet sustaining mercy— the milk of human kindness. You can find it in a few pagan poets and a few old fables; but it is everywhere dying out.
‘William Blake.’
Chesterton, G. K.. The G. K. Chesterton Collection [50 Books] (Kindle Locations 43952-43960). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.
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