Sanity

I am proofreading a book on William Blake by G. K. Chesterton.  Addressing the question whether the passionate Blake was mad, Chesterton argues that the wild supernaturalism of the classical world was conquered by the coolly rational Romans, followed by a reversion to mysticism by Christianity, tempered but never strictly sane in the Roman sense:

it may be said in passing that the

chief claim of Christianity is exactly this--that

it revived the pre-Roman madness, yet brought

into it the Roman order. The gods had really

died long before Christ was born. What had

taken their place was simply the god of

government--Divus Cæsar. The pagans of

the real Roman Empire were nothing if not

respectable. It is said that when Christ was

born the cry went through the world that Pan

was dead. The truth is that when Christ was

born Pan for the first time began to stir in his

grave. The pagan gods had become pure

fables when Christianity gave them a new lease

of life as devils. . . . But it put upon this occult

chaos the Roman idea of balance and sanity.

Thus, marriage was a sacrament, but mere sex

was not a sacrament as it was in many of the

frenzies of the forest. Thus wine was a sacrament

with Christ; but drunkenness was not a

sacrament as with Dionysus. In short, Christianity

(merely historically seen) can best be

understood as an attempt to combine the

reason of the market-place with the mysticism

of the forest. It was an attempt to accept all

the superstitions that are necessary to man and

to be philosophic at the end of them. Pagan

Rome has sought to bring order or reason

among men. Christian Rome sought to bring

order and reason among gods.