From astonishment to approval
It is admiration in English and not only admiration in Latin.
The Latin contrast separates being astonished by existence from being glad of it. Lewis and Short’s A Latin Dictionary (1879), inspected in the Scaife ATLAS transcription, gives admiratio the sense ‘Wonder, surprise, astonishment’ as well as admiration. Chesterton supplies his own English gloss immediately: his wonder contains praise. That addition matters because the preceding paragraph’s bewildered amnesiac need not approve of the world he cannot explain. Here Chesterton marks a further step: life remains inexplicable, yet he welcomes the opportunity to be alive. The contrast is deliberately sharper than the dictionary distinction: Latin admiratio can itself include admiration, so the sentence should not be read as claiming that Latin cannot express appreciative wonder. It isolates two possible responses and says his includes both. Lewis and Short, admiratio.
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