Tuesday, October 23, 2012

"There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect."

Now, there is something to be said for the peculiar influence of pictorial symbols on men's minds. All letters, we learn, were originally pictorial and heraldic: thus the letter A is the portrait of an ox, but the portrait is now reproduced in so impressionist a manner that but little of the rural atmosphere can be absorbed by contemplating it. But as long as some pictorial and poetic quality remains in the symbol, the constant use of it must do something for the aesthetic education of those employing it. Public-houses are now almost the only shops that use the ancient signs, and the mysterious attraction which they exercise may be (by the optimistic) explained in this manner. There are taverns with names so dreamlike and exquisite that even Sir Wilfrid Lawson might waver on the threshold for a moment, suffering the poet to struggle with the moralist. So it was with the heraldic images. It is impossible to believe that the red lion of Scotland acted upon those employing it merely as a naked convenience like a number or a letter; it is impossible to believe that the Kings of Scotland would have cheerfully accepted the substitute of a pig or a frog. There are, as we say, certain real advantages in pictorial symbols, and one of them is that everything that is pictorial suggests, without naming or defining. There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. Men do not quarrel about the meaning of sunsets; they never dispute that the hawthorn says the best and wittiest thing about the spring.

-The Defendant (1901)

3 comments:

  1. "There are, as we say, certain real advantages in pictorial symbols, and one of them is that everything that is pictorial suggests, without naming or defining. There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. Men do not quarrel about the meaning of sunsets; they never dispute that the hawthorn says the best and wittiest thing about the spring."
    Very good :)

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  2. Yep...Incidentally, another Chestertonian, Dean Koontz, was recently interviewed on EWTN's "The World Over", and he made some remarks that I think very relevant to that quote, in reference to the (for lack of a better word) "iconoclasm" that occured in many Catholic churches after Vatican 2 (though things seem to be getting better in that regard, especially under Pope Benedict).

    In any case, starting about 53:11 into the video (linked below), I could not help but be struck how appropriate the quote "There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect" seems to sum up what Dean Koontz was saying...

    Dean Koontz interview

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  3. This is excellent and thanks for the link.

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