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More Chesterton

The philosophy of the tree, 1909 In a letter from 1909, Chesterton defended traditionalism by comparing it to a tree:
I mean that a tree goes on growing, and therefore goes on changing; but always in the fringes surrounding something unchangeable. The innermost rings of the tree are still the same as when it was a sapling; they have ceased to be seen, but they have not ceased to be central. When the tree grows a branch at the top, it does not break away from the roots at the bottom; on the contrary it needs to hold more strongly by its roots the higher it rises with its branches. That is the true image of the vigorous and healthy progress of a man, a city, or a whole species.
Taken from Tolkien: Man and Myth, by Joseph Pearce.

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