# Breadth of experience and the claims of the sick soul

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH02.P009](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH02.P009/#char=1636,1725): "I admit that your explanation explains a great deal; but what a great deal it leaves out!"

The objection changes the measure of an explanation: fitting every event into one story is insufficient if the story suppresses other people's independent lives. The circle image distinguishes enclosure from breadth, rather than proving an error in deduction.

William James offers a revealing comparison. In *The Varieties of Religious Experience* (first published 1902; the inspected Gutenberg transcription reproduces a 1917 Longmans edition), he argues that a religious outlook which acknowledges suffering can encompass more experience than cheerful 'healthy-mindedness' which excludes evil. He also distinguishes these sick-soul experiences from factual delusion. Breadth can therefore support Chesterton's demand that an explanation leave less out, while complicating any equation of spiritual largeness with ordinary happiness. A distressed consciousness may register realities that optimism neglects. This is a comparison, not evidence that James supplied Chesterton's argument. See [James, Lectures VI–VII, pp. 162–165](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/621/621-h/621-h.html).

## Sources

- [William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/621/621-h/621-h.html), 1917 Longmans edition, title page; Lectures VI and VII, The Sick Soul, pp. 162–165, especially the paragraph beginning 'In our own attitude'
- [G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16769), Chapter II, The Maniac, paragraph beginning 'Nevertheless he is wrong'; work first published 1908; Gutenberg witness includes reprint history through 1934

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