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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Chesterton's attitude toward fairy tales?
(a) He is surer of fairy tales than of anything else in the world.
(b) He thinks fairy tales are harmful to a child's mind.
(c) He thinks fairy tales are interesting but not useful in reality.
(d) He thinks fairy tales are useful only in the nursery.

2. In Chapter IV, The Ethics of Elfland, what does Chesterton name as the first principle of democracy?
(a) The essential things are those they hold in common.
(b) Men act within the body of citizens.
(c) Men act as individuals.
(d) The essential things are those they hold as individuals.

3. Who is Mr. Street?
(a) A philosopher who probably opposes Chesterton.
(b) A character in one of Chesterton's tales.
(c) A journalist who first reviewed the book Orthodoxy.
(d) The man most affected by the book.

4. According to Chesterton in Chapter Two, what is comparable to curing a madman?
(a) Arguing with a learned philosopher.
(b) Tilting the earth on its axis.
(c) Shifting the foundations of the sea.
(d) Casting out a demon.

5. What does Chesterton explain as his method for proving his argument?
(a) Laying out arguments as he had thought of them, and then discovering they were already proven in Christianity.
(b) Laying out arguments with an acronym he came up with for his faith.
(c) Laying out each argument as he refuted the skeptics.
(d) Presenting each tenet of a well-reasoned case for Christianity.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Chesterton think glass is so often used in fairy tales?

2. What does Chesterton say that moralists, including H. G. Wells, have turned into wickedness?

3. What does Chesterton say concerning the boundaries of the will?

4. Chesterton boils democracy down to one ideal. What is this?

5. According to Chesterton, what characteristics do madmen share with many respected teachers and scientists?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Chesterton say is the spirit of the law in fairy land? Why is this not inconsistent?

2. Chesterton assumes that he and his reader will share the common ground of agreeing that an interesting, active life is preferable to simple existence. Is this a fair starting point? Why or why not?

3. What role does Mr. G. S. Street play in the book?

4. Considering the fact that elf land is more rational than the scientific world is, why does Chesterton say that magic flourishes in elf land?

5. Chesterton ends Chapter II, The Maniac, with a look at the true skeptic. What picture does this man present? How does he relate to the man at the beginning of the chapter, the man who believed in himself?

6. In Chapter III, The Suicide of Thought, what is Chesterton's opinion of the skeptic? Why does the skeptic not have the right to speak out against anything? Why, contrarily, is he always speaking out against things?

7. The only authority for Chesterton's argument is the Apostles' Creed. Is this more or less effective than appealing to the Bible as the sole authority?

8. According to Chesterton, the complete skeptic knows that he cannot think anything. How does this differ from the young skeptic? How does the complete skeptic show a true awareness of where he is?

9. The second problem with modern thought is that it is intellectually weak and helpless. What does Chesterton mean by this idea? How is it manifested in everyday life, much less intellectual circles?

10. In the example of the explorer who only discovers his own land, Chesterton says that his first emotion might be foolishness. This should not be the sole emotion, though. Why does Chesterton name foolishness as the first emotion and how might this fit the religious explorer?

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