The questions that really shape human happiness are those to which the
reply is obvious. The answers that count are those the questioner knew
he would get and was prepared to insist upon getting. Harrington tells
me that when he was married he could not help smiling when the minister
asked him whether he would take the woman by his side to be his wedded
wife. "What," said Harrington, "did he think I was there for? Or did he
detect any sign of wavering at the last moment?" What reply does the
clergyman await when he asks the rejoicing parents whether they are
willing to have their child baptized into the community of the redeemed?
What is all ritual, as it has been framed to meet the needs of the human
heart, but a preordained order of question and response? In birth and in
burial, in joy and in sorrow, for those who have escaped shipwreck and
those who have escaped the plague, the practice of the ages has laid
down formulae which the soul does not find the less adequate because they
are ready-made.
Consider the multiplication-table. I don't know who first hit upon the
absurd idea that questions are intended to elicit information.
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