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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Chesterton, what characteristics do madmen share with many respected teachers and scientists?
(a) Spiritual confusion and materialistic thinking.
(b) Narcissism and short-sightedness.
(c) Enlarged reason and small common sense.
(d) Small reason and enlarged common sense.

2. Why does Chesterton assert that tall towers are an example of humility?
(a) They connect a man directly to God, who is greater.
(b) They speak to man's sense of accomplishment.
(c) A man must be small to appreciate their size.
(d) They remind man how far he still must go.

3. According to Chesterton, at the beginning of Chapter Two, what happens to the men who believe in themselves?
(a) They are never properly appreciated.
(b) They end up in insane asylums.
(c) They achieve far more than other men do.
(d) They have difficulty maintaining that belief.

4. How does Chesterton define tradition in political terms?
(a) Allowing one's ancestors to vote.
(b) Thinking of one's ancestors as kings.
(c) Defining the past as a democracy that is long gone.
(d) Defining the past as an oligarchy.

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

6. According to Chesterton, when is a disease beautiful?
(a) When it is someone else's disease.
(b) When the disease is gone.
(c) When it reveals the invalid's soul.
(d) When it brings conversion to the invalid.

7. Why, earlier in Chapter One, does Chesterton tell the story of the sailor?
(a) He is that sailor.
(b) To explain his picture of God.
(c) To illustrate his idea of wonder.
(d) The sailor will appear throughout the book.

8. What is the problem with taking change as the ideal in a man's life, according to Chesterton?
(a) Change cannot progress.
(b) The notion itself must be able to change, in order to suit the age.
(c) A man prefers monotony.
(d) Change, in itself, is narrow and tedious.

9. How does Chesterton feel about the book Orthodoxy once it is completed?
(a) He wants to write a sequel.
(b) It is not perfect but he's happy.
(c) He would never read it.
(d) He is very proud of it.

10. What is the title of Chapter I?
(a) The Romance of Orthodoxy.
(b) Introduction and Seduction of Thought.
(c) Introduction in Defense of Everything Else.
(d) The Paradoxes of Christianity and Everything Else.

11. How does Chesterton describe a madman's reasoning?
(a) As an infinite line.
(b) As a precise box.
(c) As a tangle of threads.
(d) As a small, perfect circle.

12. In Chapter III, The Suicide of Thought, how does a test of happiness compare to a test of the will?
(a) The first is a true test but the second is not.
(b) Happiness cannot truly be tested.
(c) A test of happiness will always trump.
(d) They both lead to the same end.

13. Why does Chesterton call the cross "the symbol at once of mystery and of health?" (Chesterton 2000, pg. 188).
(a) Its shocking history draws believers in.
(b) Its power contradicts its history.
(c) Its arms extend throughout the whole world.
(d) It does not represent the closed system of Eastern thought.

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

15. Chesterton boils democracy down to one ideal. What is this?
(a) Only a man can rule himself.
(b) Individual beliefs take precedence over societal concerns.
(c) The most important things must be done by individuals.
(d) Man's ability to rule himself extends only to the limit that he does not violate cultural mores.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Chesterton assert as a necessity for the human mind?

2. Why does Chesterton say that the Christian virtues have become crazy?

3. Chesterton says that this common ground is mostly found among what group of readers?

4. What is the title of the essay that H. G. Wells wrote on skepticism?

5. What does Chesterton name as the chief pleasure?

(see the answer keys)

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