that we are fit to act as keepers to our enemies. Massacre is
wicked even with a provocation, as in the Bartholomew. But your
modern Nietzsche will tell you that massacre would be glorious
without a provocation. Torture should be violently stopped,
though the Church is doing it. But your modern Tolstoy will tell
you that it ought not to be violently stopped whoever is doing
it. In the long run, which is most mad--the Church or the world?
Which is madder, the Spanish priest who permitted tyranny, or the
Prussian sophist who admired it? Which is madder, the Russian
priest who discourages righteous rebellion, or the Russian
novelist who forbids it? That is the final and blasting test. The
world left to itself grows wilder than any creed. A few days ago
you and I were the maddest people in England. Now, by God! I
believe we are the sanest. That is the only real question--
whether the Church is really madder than the world. Let the
rationalists run their own race, and let us see where _they_ end.
If the world has some healthy balance other than God, let the
world find it. Does the world find it? Cut the world loose," he
cried with a savage gesture. "Does the world stand on its own
end? Does it stand, or does it stagger?"

Turnbull remained silent, and MacIan said to him, looking once
more at the earth: "It staggers, Turnbull. It cannot stand by
itself; you know it cannot. It has been the sorrow of your life.
Turnbull, this garden is not a dream, but an apocalyptic
fulfilment. This garden is the world gone mad."

Turnbull did not move his head, and he had been listening all the
time; yet, somehow, the other knew that for the first time he was
listening seriously.