this (which is true of a type of optimist) leads us to the one really
interesting point of psychology, which could not be explained without
it.

We say there must be a primal loyalty to life: the only question is,
shall it be a natural or a supernatural loyalty? If you like to put it
so, shall it be a reasonable or an unreasonable loyalty? Now, the
extraordinary thing is that the bad optimism (the whitewashing, the weak
defence of everything) comes in with the reasonable optimism. Rational
optimism leads to stagnation: it is irrational optimism that leads to
reform. Let me explain by using once more the parallel of patriotism.
The man who is most likely to ruin the place he loves is exactly the man
who loves it with a reason. The man who will improve the place is the
man who loves it without a reason. If a man loves some feature of
Pimlico (which seems unlikely), he may find himself defending that
feature against Pimlico itself. But if he simply loves Pimlico itself,
he may lay it waste and turn it into the New Jerusalem. I do not deny
that reform may be excessive; I only say that it is the mystic patriot
who reforms. Mere jingo self-contentment is commonest among those who
have some pedantic reason for their patriotism. The worst jingoes do not
love England, but a theory of England. If we love England for being an
empire, we may overrate the success with which we rule the Hindoos. But
if we love it only for being a nation, we can face all events: for it
would be a nation even if the Hindoos ruled us. Thus also only those
will permit their patriotism to falsify history whose patriotism depends
on history. A man who loves England for being English will not mind how
she arose. But a man who loves England for being Anglo-Saxon may go
against all facts for his fancy. He may end (like Carlyle and Freeman)
by maintaining that the Norman Conquest was a Saxon Conquest. He may end
in utter unreason--because he has a reason. A man who loves France for