In Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton deems logic without imagination to be a danger. At first glance, his conclusion does not seem to make sense because one tends to associate logic with intelligence and concrete knowledge and imagination with fairy tales void of rules and full of contradictions. However, through the discussion of the logician and the poet in “The Maniac” and the discussion of fairytales in “The Ethics of Elfland,” Chesterton concludes that pure logic does not allow for one to attain true knowledge and the addition of imagination allows one to accept what cannot be explained by reason alone — the spiritual aspects of the world.
In “The Maniac,” Chesterton demonstrates the essential nature of imagination and the insanity inducing powers of reason. He begins by stating, “There is a notion adrift everywhere that imagination, especially mystical imagination, is dangerous to man’s mental balance” (12), and this statement does not ring true. Imagination allows for the acceptance of things beyond the physical world — God and Heaven; without imagination, Christians would not be able to imagine the grandeur of Heaven or the omnipotent nature of God. The logician goes mad attempting to rationalize what cannot be bound by reason and suffers from “mental exhaustion” (13) because “to accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain” (13). Man cannot understand every aspect of the world. The poet, on the other hand, has no problem understanding the notion of Heaven because he accepts that he does not know everything, nor can he know everything. He “asks to get his head into the heavens” (13) instead of trying to place himself in the heavens.
In his attempts to rationalize away the world, the logician succumbs to madness because “their incessant calculations of their own brains and other people’s brains is a dangerous trade (13). In attempting to partake in the big picture rather than the details, the logician “seeks to cross the infinite sea, and make it finite” rather than “floating on the infinite sea” (13) and accepting what he does not understand. When trying to rationalize and uncover the truth of God, the logician searches for answers to every question, but cannot find all the answers in reason. The answer lies in accepting what cannot be known and seen because of faith in what cannot be seen, and this act of faith allows the poet to accept and understand what the logician cannot. Instead of focusing on the minute details, the poet ponders the bigger picture and allows imagination to fill in the details that do not matter as much. The logician struggles because “danger does lie in logic, not in imagination” (12) because of the obsessive qualities reason leaves with the logician, and this obsession breeds insanity.
Similarly, in “The Ethics of Elfland,” Chesterton argues that fairy lands abide by a set of rules and boundaries. When one thinks about a fairy tale, one assumes that anything can happen because the fantasy world is far removed from reality; however, this statement is false. In stories such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “Jack the Giant Killer,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” there must exist a limit to the fantastical elements — the Beast must be loved before he is deemed lovable, Jack must kill the giants because they are gigantic, and that death can be softened through sleep (45). Within these stories, certain sequences of events must occur before the story can progress because even in the midst of imagination, there must be some semblance of logic in order to maintain an established balance and order.
Chesterton calls this balance and order the “Doctrine of Conditional Joy” (50), and in this doctrine, statements such as “You may live in a palace of gold and sapphire, if you do not say the word ‘cow’” (50). The conditional “if” sets a boundary and does not allow for something to occur that goes beyond the conditions and limits of the statement. Even in a world where pumpkins can transform into coaches and palaces are constructed out of jewels, the things themselves cannot be anything beyond what they are because “according to elfin ethics all virtue is in an ‘if’” (50). A sense of rationality exists in fairyland, no matter how minute or hidden it may appear.
The morality of elfland mirrors that of Christianity because the rules and regulations God sets in place in the real world exist within fairy worlds. Imagination, perhaps considered miracles today, work in tandem with logic in order to bring the inhabitants closer to the benevolent Creator. If reason solely reigned, the magnificent and sometimes mysterious nature of God and his creation could not be realized because of the inability to accept what cannot be concretely known. The fact that Christians cannot physically see God, but can see the evidence of him through creation, rests solely on the faith of imagination; reason seeks to deny the existence of God. The creation of conditional relationships and statements between God and Christians — one may achieve eternal life if one believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God — allows for the continuation of the contract between the greater power and the lesser beings; this power dynamic hinges on the regulation set forth.
In order for imagination and reality to co-exist, both must work together to create a harmonious world. If logic tips the scale, madness ensues because of the logician’s obsessive tendencies to overthink and overanalyze the world. If imagination tips the scale, nothing can be known for sure because there is no pre-established set of rules; everything runs amok because everything can. There must be order in the midst of imagination in order for the world to make sense. If Christians wish to experience the joy of imagining what heaven is like and ponder the truth of the Almighty God, they must utilize a small sense of imagination since heaven is never explicitly explained in the Bible and the full nature of God is something the human mind cannot fully comprehend.
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