There was an open playground for the happy pessimist.

Let him say anything against himself short of blaspheming the original aim of his being; let him call himself a fool and even a damned fool (though that is Calvinistic); but he must not say that fools are not worth saving.

He must not say that a man, _qua_ man, can be valueless.

Here again, in short, Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites, by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.

The Church was positive on both points.