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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Chesterton, what symbol explains to way that mysticism clarifies the world?
(a) The sun.
(b) The ocean.
(c) A mountain.
(d) The moon.

2. What is the "false theory of progress?" (Chesterton 2000, pg. 196)
(a) Confusing people with too much data.
(b) Tracking man's progress poorly.
(c) Defining man's progress in terms of religion.
(d) Changing the standards rather than becoming better.

3. What does Chesterton say is losing its authority in the modern mind?
(a) Argumentation.
(b) Scientific absolutes.
(c) First principles.
(d) Religion.

4. What does Bernard Shaw assert about the idea of choice?
(a) Choice has replaced free will as the standard of desire in a man's life.
(b) Choice has replaced happiness as the standard of desire in a man's life.
(c) Choice was an effective contrivance in past ages but not in the modern age.
(d) Choice has little effect in a man's philosophical thinking.

5. Why does Chesterton say that someone might be entertained by reading the book Orthodoxy?
(a) Chesterton's quest was fruitless from the beginning, but it took him a long time to realize it.
(b) Chesterton has a good sense of humor.
(c) Chesterton wandered far to discover the truths he could have found in the nearby church.
(d) Chesterton tells stories rather than arguing a point.

6. In Chapter Two, what drives a man to insanity?
(a) Unanswered questions.
(b) Poetry.
(c) Reason.
(d) Religion.

7. How does today's skeptic compare to the skeptic of the French Revolution, according to Chesterton?
(a) Today's skeptic is not a Jacobin.
(b) Today's skeptic cannot even define what he trusts.
(c) Today's skeptic is not nearly so violent.
(d) Today's skeptic is a true revolutionary.

8. How does Chesterton describe a madman's reasoning?
(a) As a precise box.
(b) As a tangle of threads.
(c) As a small, perfect circle.
(d) As an infinite line.

9. According to Chesterton, what is the only thing a poet desires?
(a) The ability to cross the infinite sea.
(b) A world to stretch out in.
(c) An understanding of the heavens.
(d) A raft to float on.

10. What does Chesterton say that moralists, including H. G. Wells, have turned into wickedness?
(a) The heavens.
(b) God.
(c) The earth.
(d) Imagination.

11. According to Chesterton, who is the only person to whom a modern realistic novel would not be boring?
(a) A child of ten.
(b) A writer of fairytales.
(c) A baby.
(d) A scientist.

12. What does Chesterton label as the second problem of modern intellectualism?
(a) Fanciful thinking.
(b) Brashness.
(c) Confidence.
(d) Helplessness.

13. Why, earlier in Chapter One, does Chesterton tell the story of the sailor?
(a) To explain his picture of God.
(b) To illustrate his idea of wonder.
(c) The sailor will appear throughout the book.
(d) He is that sailor.

14. Who does Chesterton name as the only great English poet to go mad?
(a) Dryden.
(b) Poe.
(c) Cowper.
(d) Shakespeare.

15. What, according to Chesterton, is the proper place for humility?
(a) In a man's sense of conviction.
(b) In a man's sense of ambition and effort.
(c) In a man's perception of others.
(d) In a man's view of himself.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Chesterton say that satire is disappearing from modern literature?

2. What did Chesterton discover about the truths he found in religious thought?

3. What happened as Chesterton put the final touches onto the heresy he had created?

4. In Chesterton's story about the sailor, what mistake does the man make?

5. What is the problem with taking change as the ideal in a man's life, according to Chesterton?

(see the answer keys)

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