Q.
I would like to use the following Chesterton quote in a book I am
co-writing on Catholic Home Education. However I cannot find the original
source. I would greatly appreciate any help that you could give me.
"To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding
sales, banquets, labors, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain
area, providing toys, boots, cakes, and books; to be Aristotle within
a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene;
I can understand how this might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine
how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other
people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to
tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad
to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to
someone? No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is
gigantic, not because it is minute."
Thank you for your wonderful web page. And thank you in advance for
you time and considerations to my request.
- Maureen
A.
This passage is from the chapter entitled "The Emancipation of Domesticity"
from Chesterton's 1910 classic What's Wrong with the World.
We urge anyone interested in defending or explaining home schooling
to read this masterpiece (which reads as though it were written last
week). The book is available from The American Chesterton Society.
Please see our "Books and Merchandise" page.
A small point, but note that Chesterton says "boots" where your
quotation had "sheets."
- The "Quotemeister"
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