"God, God."
The cry of the rook, "God," answers it
The crack of the fire on the hearth, the voice of the brook, say the
same name;
All things, dog, cat, fiddle, baby,
Wind, breaker, sea, thunderclap
Repeat in a thousand languages--
God.

Next in his thought comes a point where he hesitates as to the
meeting place between God and Man. How and where can these two
incommensurates find a meeting place? What is Incarnation? The
greatness and the littleness of Man obsessed Chesterton as it did
Pascal; it is the eternal riddle:

TWO STRANDS

Man is a spark flying upwards. God is everlasting.

Who are we, to whom this cup of human life has been given, to ask
for more? Let us love mercy and walk humbly. What is man, that thou
regardest him?

Man is a star unquenchable. God is in him incarnate.

His life is planned upon a scale colossal, of which he sees
glimpses. Let him dare all things, claim all things: he is the son
of Man, who shall come in the clouds of glory.

[I] saw these two strands mingling to make the religion of man.

"A scale colossal, of which he sees glimpses." This, I think, is the
first hint of the path that led Gilbert to full faith in Our Lord. In
places in these notes he regards Him certainly only as Man--but even
then as _The_ Man, the _Only_ Man in whom the colossal scale, the
immense possibilities, of human nature could be dreamed of as
fulfilled. Two notes on Marcus Aurelius are significant of the way
his mind was moving.

MARCUS AURELIUS

A large-minded, delicate-witted, strong man,
following the better thing like a thread between his hands.

Him we cannot fancy choosing the lower even by mistake; we cannot
think of him as wanting for a moment in any virtue, sincerity, mercy,
purity, self-respect, good manners.

Only one thing is wanting in him. He does not
command me to perform the impossible.

THE CARPENTER

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Yes: he was soliloquising, not making something.
Do not the words of Jesus ring
Like nails knocked into a board
In his father's workshop?

On two consecutive pages are notes showing how his mind is wrestling
with the question, the answer to which would complete his philosophy:

XMAS DAY

Good news: but if you ask me what it is, I know not;
It is a track of feet in the snow,
It is a lantern showing a path,
It is a door set op