On Turnpikes and Medievalism
by G.K. Chesterton
From: All I Survey, 1933.
Opening my newspaper the other day, I saw a short but emphatic leaderette entitled ‘A Relic of Medievalism’. It expressed a profound indignation upon the fact that somewhere or other, in some fairly remote corner of this country, there is a turnpike-gate, with a toll. It insisted that this antiquated tyranny is insupportable, because it is supremely important that our road traffic should go very fast; presumably a little faster than it does. So it described the momentary delay in this place as a relic of medievalism. I fear the future will look at that sentence, somewhat sadly and a little contemptuously, as a very typical relic of modernism. I mean it will be a melancholy relic of the only period in all human history when people were proud of being modern. For though to-day is always to-day and the moment is always modern, we are the only men in all history who fell back upon bragging about the mere fact that to-day is not yesterday. I fear that some in the future will explain it by saying that we had precious little else to brag about. For, whatever the medieval faults, they went with one merit. Medieval people never worried about being medieval; and modern people do worry horribly about being modern.
To begin with, note the queer, automatic assumption that it must always mean throwing mud at a thing to call it a relic of medievalism. The modern world contains a good many relics of medievalism, and most of us would be surprised if the argument were logically enforced even against the things that are commonly called medieval. We should express some regret if somebody blew up Westminster Abby, because it is a relic of medievalism. Doubts would trouble us if the Government burned all existing copies of Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, because they are quite certainly relics of medievalism. We could not throw ourselves into unreserved and enthusiastic rejoicing even if the Tower of Giotto were destroyed as a relic of medievalism. And only just lately, in Oxford and Paris (themselves, alas! relics of medievalism), there has been a perverse and pedantic revival of the Thomist Philosophy and the logical method of the medieval Schoolmen. Similarly, curious and restless minds, among the very youngest artists and art critics, have unaccountably gone back even farther into the barbaric period than the limit of the Tower of Giotto, and are even now telling us to look back to the austerity of Cimabue and Byzantine diagrams of the Dark Ages. These relics must be more medieval even than medievalism.
But, in fact, this queer phrase would not cover only what is commonly called medievalism. If a relic of medievalism only means something that has come down to us from medieval times, such writers would probably be surprised at the size and solidity of the relics. If I told these honest pressmen that the Press is a relic of medievalism, they would probably prove their love of a cliché by accusing me of a paradox. But it is at least certain that the Printing Press is a relic of medievalism. It was discovered and established by entirely medieval men, steeped in medieval ideas, stuffed with the religion and social spirit of the Middle Ages. There are no more typically medieval words than those noble words of the eulogy that was pronounced by the great English printer on the great English poet; the words of Caxton upon Chaucer. If I were to say that Parliament is a relic of medievalism, I should be on even stronger ground; for, while the Press did at least come at the end of the Middle Ages, the Parliaments came much more nearly at the beginning of the Middle Ages. They began, I think, in Spain and the provinces of the Pyrenees; but our own traditional date, connecting them with the revolt of Simon de Montfort, if not strictly accurate, does roughly represent the time. I need not say that half the great educational foundations, not only Oxford and Cambridge, but Glasgow and Paris, are relics of medievalism. It would seem rather hard on the poor journalistic reformer if he is not allowed to pull down a little turnpike-gate till he has proved his right to pull down all these relics of medievalism.
Next we have, of course, the very considerable historic doubt about whether the turnpike-gate is a relic of medievalism. I do not know what was the date of this particular turnpike; but turnpikes and tolls of that description were perhaps most widely present, most practically enforced, or, at least, most generally noted, in the eighteenth century. When Pitt and Dundas, both of them roaring drunk, jumped over a turnpike-gate and were fired at with a blunderbuss, I hope nobody will suggest that those two great politicians were relics of medievalism. Nobody surely could be more modern than Pitt and Dundas, for one of them was a great financial statesman, depending entirely on the bankers, and the other was a swindler. It is possible, of course, that some such local toll was really medieval, but I rather doubt whether the journalist even inquired whether it was medieval. He probably regards everything that happened before the time of Jazz and the Yellow Press as medieval. For him medieval only means old, and old means bad; so that we come to the last question, which ought to have been the first question, of whether a turnpike really is necessarily bad. If we were really relics of medievalism—that is, if we had really been taught to think— we should have put that question first, and discussed whether a thing is bad or good before discussing whether it is modern or medieval. There is no space to discuss it here at length, but a very simple test in the matter may be made. The aim and effect of tolls is simply this: that those who use the roads shall pay for the roads. As it is, the poor people of a district, including those who never stir from their villages, and hardly from their firesides, pay to maintain roads which are ploughed up and torn to pieces by the cars and lorries of rich men and big businesses, coming from London and the distant cities. It is not self-evident that this is a more just arrangement than that by which wayfarers pay to keep up the way, even if that arrangement were a relic of medievalism. Lastly, we might well ask, is it indeed so certain that our roads suffer from the slowness of petrol traffic; and that, if we can only make every sort of motor go faster and faster, we shall all be saved at last? That motors are more important than men is doubtless an admitted principle of a truly modern philosophy; nevertheless, it might be well to keep some sort of reasonable ratio between them, and decide exactly how many human beings should be killed by each car in the course of each year. And I fear that a mere policy of the acceleration of traffic may take us beyond the normal modern recognition of murder into something resembling a recognition of massacre. And about this, I for one still have a scruple; which is probably a relic of medievalism.
This newspaper column was collected into the book All I Survey, published in 1933.
On Turnpikes and Medievalism
by G.K. Chesterton
From: All I Survey, 1933.
Opening my newspaper the other day, I saw a short but emphatic leaderette entitled ‘A Relic of Medievalism’. It expressed a profound indignation upon the fact that somewhere or other, in some fairly remote corner of this country, there is a turnpike-gate, with a toll. It insisted that this antiquated tyranny is insupportable, because it is supremely important that our road traffic should go very fast; presumably a little faster than it does. So it described the momentary delay in this place as a relic of medievalism. I fear the future will look at that sentence, somewhat sadly and a little contemptuously, as a very typical relic of modernism. I mean it will be a melancholy relic of the only period in all human history when people were proud of being modern. For though to-day is always to-day and the moment is always modern, we are the only men in all history who fell back upon bragging about the mere fact that to-day is not yesterday. I fear that some in the future will explain it by saying that we had precious little else to brag about. For, whatever the medieval faults, they went with one merit. Medieval people never worried about being medieval; and modern people do worry horribly about being modern.
To begin with, note the queer, automatic assumption that it must always mean throwing mud at a thing to call it a relic of medievalism. The modern world contains a good many relics of medievalism, and most of us would be surprised if the argument were logically enforced even against the things that are commonly called medieval. We should express some regret if somebody blew up Westminster Abby, because it is a relic of medievalism. Doubts would trouble us if the Government burned all existing copies of Dante’s Divine Comedy and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, because they are quite certainly relics of medievalism. We could not throw ourselves into unreserved and enthusiastic rejoicing even if the Tower of Giotto were destroyed as a relic of medievalism. And only just lately, in Oxford and Paris (themselves, alas! relics of medievalism), there has been a perverse and pedantic revival of the Thomist Philosophy and the logical method of the medieval Schoolmen. Similarly, curious and restless minds, among the very youngest artists and art critics, have unaccountably gone back even farther into the barbaric period than the limit of the Tower of Giotto, and are even now telling us to look back to the austerity of Cimabue and Byzantine diagrams of the Dark Ages. These relics must be more medieval even than medievalism.
But, in fact, this queer phrase would not cover only what is commonly called medievalism. If a relic of medievalism only means something that has come down to us from medieval times, such writers would probably be surprised at the size and solidity of the relics. If I told these honest pressmen that the Press is a relic of medievalism, they would probably prove their love of a cliché by accusing me of a paradox. But it is at least certain that the Printing Press is a relic of medievalism. It was discovered and established by entirely medieval men, steeped in medieval ideas, stuffed with the religion and social spirit of the Middle Ages. There are no more typically medieval words than those noble words of the eulogy that was pronounced by the great English printer on the great English poet; the words of Caxton upon Chaucer. If I were to say that Parliament is a relic of medievalism, I should be on even stronger ground; for, while the Press did at least come at the end of the Middle Ages, the Parliaments came much more nearly at the beginning of the Middle Ages. They began, I think, in Spain and the provinces of the Pyrenees; but our own traditional date, connecting them with the revolt of Simon de Montfort, if not strictly accurate, does roughly represent the time. I need not say that half the great educational foundations, not only Oxford and Cambridge, but Glasgow and Paris, are relics of medievalism. It would seem rather hard on the poor journalistic reformer if he is not allowed to pull down a little turnpike-gate till he has proved his right to pull down all these relics of medievalism.
Sui caselli e sul medievalismo
di G.K. Chesterton
Da: All I Survey, 1933.
Aprendo il giornale l’altro giorno, ho visto un breve ma enfatico trafiletto intitolato «Una reliquia del medievalismo». Esprimeva una profonda indignazione per il fatto che in qualche luogo, in un angolo abbastanza remoto di questo paese, vi è una barriera daziaria, con un pedaggio. Insisteva sul fatto che questa antiquata tirannia è insopportabile, perché è di suprema importanza che il nostro traffico stradale proceda assai velocemente; presumibilmente un po’ più veloce di quanto già faccia. Così descriveva il momentaneo ritardo in quel luogo come una reliquia del medievalismo. Temo che il futuro guarderà a quella frase, con una certa tristezza e un po’ di disprezzo, come a una reliquia quanto mai tipica del modernismo. Voglio dire che sarà una malinconica reliquia dell’unico periodo in tutta la storia umana in cui gli uomini furono fieri di essere moderni. Poiché, benché l’oggi sia sempre oggi e il momento sia sempre moderno, noi siamo gli unici uomini in tutta la storia che si siano ridotti a vantarsi del mero fatto che oggi non è ieri. Temo che taluni, in futuro, lo spiegheranno dicendo che avevamo ben poco altro di cui vantarci. Poiché, quali che fossero i difetti medievali, essi si accompagnavano a un merito. Gli uomini medievali non si preoccupavano mai di essere medievali; e gli uomini moderni si preoccupano orribilmente di essere moderni.
Per cominciare, si noti la bizzarra, automatica supposizione che chiamare una cosa reliquia del medievalismo debba sempre significare gettarle addosso del fango. Il mondo moderno contiene parecchie reliquie del medievalismo, e la maggior parte di noi resterebbe sorpresa se l’argomento fosse applicato con coerenza logica persino contro le cose che si dicono comunemente medievali. Proveremmo un certo rammarico se qualcuno facesse saltare in aria l’Abbazia di Westminster, perché è una reliquia del medievalismo. Ci turberebbero dei dubbi se il Governo bruciasse tutte le copie esistenti della Divina Commedia di Dante e dei Racconti di Canterbury di Chaucer, perché sono con tutta certezza reliquie del medievalismo. Non potremmo abbandonarci a una gioia incondizionata ed entusiasta neppure se la Torre di Giotto venisse distrutta in quanto reliquia del medievalismo. E proprio di recente, a Oxford e a Parigi (esse stesse, ahimè! reliquie del medievalismo), vi è stata una perversa e pedante rinascita della Filosofia tomista e del metodo logico degli Scolastici medievali. Similmente, menti curiose e inquiete, tra i più giovani artisti e critici d’arte, sono inspiegabilmente risalite ancora più addietro nel periodo barbarico, oltre il limite della Torre di Giotto, e già ora ci esortano a volgerci all’austerità di Cimabue e agli schemi bizantini dell’Alto Medioevo. Queste reliquie devono essere ancor più medievali del medievalismo stesso.
Ma, in realtà, questa bizzarra espressione non coprirebbe soltanto ciò che si chiama comunemente medievalismo. Se una reliquia del medievalismo significa soltanto qualcosa che ci è giunto dai tempi medievali, tali scrittori sarebbero probabilmente sorpresi dalla dimensione e dalla solidità delle reliquie. Se dicessi a questi onesti giornalisti che la Stampa è una reliquia del medievalismo, essi darebbero probabilmente prova del loro amore per i luoghi comuni accusandomi di un paradosso. Ma è quantomeno certo che il torchio da stampa è una reliquia del medievalismo. Fu scoperto e affermato da uomini interamente medievali, imbevuti d’idee medievali, colmi della religione e dello spirito sociale del Medioevo. Non vi sono parole più tipicamente medievali di quelle nobili parole dell’elogio pronunciato dal grande tipografo inglese sul grande poeta inglese; le parole di Caxton su Chaucer. Se dicessi che il Parlamento è una reliquia del medievalismo, avrei un fondamento ancor più solido; poiché, mentre la Stampa venne almeno alla fine del Medioevo, i Parlamenti vennero assai più vicino al principio del Medioevo. Ebbero inizio, credo, in Spagna e nelle province dei Pirenei; ma la nostra data tradizionale, che li collega alla rivolta di Simon de Montfort, se non rigorosamente esatta, rappresenta all’incirca l’epoca. Non occorre dire che metà delle grandi fondazioni educative, non solo Oxford e Cambridge, ma Glasgow e Parigi, sono reliquie del medievalismo. Parrebbe piuttosto duro, per il povero riformatore giornalistico, che non gli si permetta di abbattere una piccola barriera daziaria finché non abbia provato il suo diritto di abbattere tutte queste reliquie del medievalismo.
Next we have, of course, the very considerable historic doubt about whether the turnpike-gate is a relic of medievalism. I do not know what was the date of this particular turnpike; but turnpikes and tolls of that description were perhaps most widely present, most practically enforced, or, at least, most generally noted, in the eighteenth century. When Pitt and Dundas, both of them roaring drunk, jumped over a turnpike-gate and were fired at with a blunderbuss, I hope nobody will suggest that those two great politicians were relics of medievalism. Nobody surely could be more modern than Pitt and Dundas, for one of them was a great financial statesman, depending entirely on the bankers, and the other was a swindler. It is possible, of course, that some such local toll was really medieval, but I rather doubt whether the journalist even inquired whether it was medieval. He probably regards everything that happened before the time of Jazz and the Yellow Press as medieval. For him medieval only means old, and old means bad; so that we come to the last question, which ought to have been the first question, of whether a turnpike really is necessarily bad. If we were really relics of medievalism—that is, if we had really been taught to think— we should have put that question first, and discussed whether a thing is bad or good before discussing whether it is modern or medieval. There is no space to discuss it here at length, but a very simple test in the matter may be made. The aim and effect of tolls is simply this: that those who use the roads shall pay for the roads. As it is, the poor people of a district, including those who never stir from their villages, and hardly from their firesides, pay to maintain roads which are ploughed up and torn to pieces by the cars and lorries of rich men and big businesses, coming from London and the distant cities. It is not self-evident that this is a more just arrangement than that by which wayfarers pay to keep up the way, even if that arrangement were a relic of medievalism. Lastly, we might well ask, is it indeed so certain that our roads suffer from the slowness of petrol traffic; and that, if we can only make every sort of motor go faster and faster, we shall all be saved at last? That motors are more important than men is doubtless an admitted principle of a truly modern philosophy; nevertheless, it might be well to keep some sort of reasonable ratio between them, and decide exactly how many human beings should be killed by each car in the course of each year. And I fear that a mere policy of the acceleration of traffic may take us beyond the normal modern recognition of murder into something resembling a recognition of massacre. And about this, I for one still have a scruple; which is probably a relic of medievalism.
This newspaper column was collected into the book All I Survey, published in 1933.
Poi c’è, naturalmente, il notevolissimo dubbio storico sul fatto che il casello daziario sia una reliquia del medioevo. Non so quale fosse la data di questo particolare casello; ma i caselli e i pedaggi di quel genere furono forse più diffusi, più concretamente applicati, o almeno più generalmente notati, nel Settecento. Quando Pitt e Dundas, entrambi ubriachi fradici, scavalcarono un casello e furono presi a schioppettate con un archibugio, spero che nessuno vorrà insinuare che quei due grandi politici fossero reliquie del medioevo. Nessuno di sicuro potrebbe essere più moderno di Pitt e Dundas, giacché uno di loro era un grande statista finanziario, dipendente interamente dai banchieri, e l’altro era un imbroglione. È possibile, certo, che qualche pedaggio locale simile fosse davvero medievale, ma dubito piuttosto che il giornalista si sia perfino informato se fosse medievale. Con ogni probabilità considera medievale tutto ciò che accadde prima dell’epoca del Jazz e della stampa scandalistica. Per lui medievale significa solo vecchio, e vecchio significa cattivo; così che giungiamo all’ultima domanda, che avrebbe dovuto essere la prima, se cioè un casello sia davvero per forza cattivo. Se fossimo davvero reliquie del medioevo—vale a dire, se ci avessero davvero insegnato a pensare— avremmo posto quella domanda per prima, e discusso se una cosa sia cattiva o buona prima di discutere se sia moderna o medievale. Non c’è spazio per discuterne qui a lungo, ma si può fare una prova molto semplice in materia. Lo scopo e l’effetto dei pedaggi è semplicemente questo: che chi usa le strade paghi per le strade. Così com’è, i poveri di un distretto, compresi coloro che non si muovono mai dai loro villaggi, e a stento dal loro focolare, pagano per mantenere strade arate e fatte a pezzi dalle automobili e dai camion dei ricchi e delle grandi imprese, che vengono da Londra e dalle città lontane. Non è di per sé evidente che questo sia un ordinamento più giusto di quello per cui i viandanti pagano per mantenere la via, anche se quell’ ordinamento fosse una reliquia del medioevo. Da ultimo, potremmo bene chiederci: è davvero tanto certo che le nostre strade soffrano per la lentezza del traffico a benzina; e che, se solo riuscissimo a far andare ogni sorta di motore sempre più veloce, saremo tutti salvati alla fine? Che i motori siano più importanti degli uomini è senza dubbio un principio ammesso di una filosofia veramente moderna; nondimeno, sarebbe bene mantenere una qualche ragionevole proporzione tra loro, e decidere esattamente quanti esseri umani debbano essere uccisi da ciascuna automobile nel corso di ciascun anno. E temo che una mera politica di accelerazione del traffico possa portarci oltre il normale riconoscimento moderno dell’omicidio, in qualcosa che somiglia al riconoscimento del massacro. E su questo, io per primo ho ancora uno scrupolo; il che è probabilmente una reliquia del medioevo.