A probable Shaw allusion: moral codes lag behind individual judgment
human morality is never up to date
A close candidate for the unnamed writer is Bernard Shaw. In The Sanity of Art, under ‘Why Law is Indispensable,’ Shaw says that laws, religions, creeds and ethical systems make society worse than its average member because ‘they are never up to date.’ The inspected witness is the New Age Press edition (London, 1908), pp. 46–47; its preface identifies the original essay as journalism of 1895 and explains that it was an open letter to Benjamin Tucker for Liberty. Chesterton's sentence is a condensed paraphrase rather than an exact quotation. The verbal match makes this a probable source, but Chesterton does not name Shaw here. Shaw, pp. 46–47 and preface, pp. 3–10.
The context complicates the criticism. Shaw immediately explains that most people lack the ability or time to devise their own rules: they must accept available moral systems as they accept available tools. He also argues that shared conventions make coordinated action possible. His point is therefore about collective codes lagging behind thought and serving practical needs, rather than an explicit demonstration that a later date itself makes a judgment better. Chesterton's retort exposes the missing standard by which ‘up to date’ becomes praise; it does not by itself refute Shaw's account of why inherited rules can lag behind individual judgment. Shaw, ‘Why Law is Indispensable,’ pp. 46–49.
Sources
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