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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Chesterton think is the only cure for madness?
(a) Shock therapy.
(b) Being isolated.
(c) Not feeling.
(d) Not thinking.

2. According to Chesterton, who is the only person to whom a modern realistic novel would not be boring?
(a) A child of ten.
(b) A scientist.
(c) A writer of fairytales.
(d) A baby.

3. According to Chesterton, what symbol explains to way that mysticism clarifies the world?
(a) The sun.
(b) A mountain.
(c) The ocean.
(d) The moon.

4. What does Chesterton name as the chief pleasure?
(a) Security.
(b) Money.
(c) Surprise.
(d) Love.

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

6. How does today's skeptic compare to the skeptic of the French Revolution, according to Chesterton?
(a) Today's skeptic cannot even define what he trusts.
(b) Today's skeptic is not nearly so violent.
(c) Today's skeptic is not a Jacobin.
(d) Today's skeptic is a true revolutionary.

7. According to Chesterton, what keeps a man sane?
(a) Religion.
(b) Reason.
(c) God.
(d) Mysticism.

8. Why does Chesterton not claim this new-found philosophy as his own?
(a) He is too modest to claim his own work.
(b) It is a way of living rather than a philosophy.
(c) It belongs to God and humanity.
(d) He did not really find or invent it.

9. Why does Chesterton say that the Christian virtues have become crazy?
(a) They are not truly Christian.
(b) They are separate from the Bible.
(c) They are isolated from all other virtues.
(d) They are practiced in the wrong contexts.

10. How does the book look in relation to Chesterton, according to the author himself?
(a) Paltry.
(b) Altruistic.
(c) Self-sufficient.
(d) Egotistical.

11. What is the title of the essay that H. G. Wells wrote on skepticism?
(a) Doubts of the Instrument.
(b) The Creeds and Hierarchies.
(c) Understanding the Skeptical Mind.
(d) Skepticism from a Philosophical Viewpoint.

12. What does Bernard Shaw assert about the idea of choice?
(a) Choice has replaced free will as the standard of desire in a man's life.
(b) Choice has little effect in a man's philosophical thinking.
(c) Choice has replaced happiness as the standard of desire in a man's life.
(d) Choice was an effective contrivance in past ages but not in the modern age.

13. What does Chesterton say happens when a skeptic revolts against everything?
(a) He learns to rebut every traditionalist.
(b) He begins to distrust everything.
(c) He loses his right to speak out against anything.
(d) He becomes excellent at tearing down established ways of thinking.

14. Why does Chesterton say that satire is disappearing from modern literature?
(a) There is nothing to be fierce about.
(b) Modern satire takes different forms than literature.
(c) Satire is too violent for the modern mind.
(d) Writers are not taught to appreciate satire.

15. Why does Chesterton think glass is so often used in fairy tales?
(a) Glass is unusual for shoes and houses, and fitting to fairy tales.
(b) Glass is cheap and common.
(c) Glass, like happiness, is easily broken.
(d) Glass easily portrays vivid emotions like anger.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Chesterton call the cross "the symbol at once of mystery and of health?" (Chesterton 2000, pg. 188).

2. What words does Chesterton prefer when referring to nature?

3. How does Chesterton describe a madman's reasoning?

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

5. What happened as Chesterton put the final touches onto the heresy he had created?

(see the answer keys)

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