CHESTERTON'S. NEW BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 746, 19 February 1910, Page 9

CHESTERTON'S. NEW BOOK.

;; f. Mr.: Chesterton's' latest took, "The. Ball \. and -j the, Cross," ;has .-Tiot' yet ..reached ' us. In ..tlie meantime 'we ;are;;suro'that; the .I/ admirers .of this briiliant j-ivriter-ivili ap-' : predate. the New York "Nation's" Te-. view * It. has long fillcd -Mr. Chesterton,.,with ; fiery indignation: that tho .devil should have all'tho good music, art,' and. litera- ; If;. medieval'.'juggler;'■could, stand ■: oh his head; in tlieVirgin,: if :;-:. could- smoke.l tobacco' to: the .'glory. of God, he' can see no reason; - why • a l twentieth : century; journalist with a comi; ; °f: «pip rli m. and; paradox should riot write ; a rollicking allegorical romaiice in ;" defenco' of the Cross. And that is whv P.-'.-'^theVcrMh.-of;-.'glas;'in;;the-i'offiiis'.. : 'wiii(iow' .yV;. ; : ;'of/.the..'atheisticar Turnbulljis-ihe chal-'. lenge .to a series of duels—with " long iswords; out :of' shop—between him and the Roman Catholic Highlander, ; Maclan a series' : of,'duels which-carries oyer/England,V . and: the reader,'' ;Mt;-qmte:..sb -rapidly,' i' 1 " ■'' through :a : book; off ourl; hundred': piges. 1 ... In the course .the' a^; i^jnth! : .a?number: of,more- '' ; or. less realistic;, symbolical personages—a-■i'-::-a. 'ra-'. '';-. tionalist,- According to' their . eaveral dispositions,-further or hinder ,the" ■">, ;combats 'for the! vindication' :of the hoh-; ; ;our;°f, God. -.lu the end the atheist, the Catholic,- and , most of their" abettors are l - Toun'ded ;up; in" .the'^madhouse;-'the-:"m ad-- ,; house is:. fired, -and;.the devil,- its superVi ;inrehdent,- escapes 'inVanjairehip;.-.anil..the ewords of Turnbiill,.and Maclan form a cross in the ashes. ' • : . . 10 ;kurden with which' this, romance ; Mj.freighted, is that -unbelief is madness.'. lTjrnbnU and Maclan are. the only , sane ; S ■■;««'■;in';: England. , ; ( Turnbull;is be;:cause'.he, believes that '.God--does- iiot. ; ex- ;;.: ;;;ist;;rhe;;is L eag!eT ; to fight;for : his ; faith-! thereforo, ,hi.s 'iiuthor respects hini. ; Mac- • lan is.sane, because lie believes that God ;:■; does!exist; he is .eager to fight for ohis .; faith—therefore,' his author ,- 1 loves him.h It is perhaps the most interesting aspect f ' of this book that a Roman Catholic is its -.;,;hero. - lii -Evan .Maclan, Chesterton' is ,: drawing '.His;;'own' idealised portrait,; and he- do«s it'. in liis'. happiest' : "Evan lived like a man walking on :a* .. . Twrderland, the borderland between this ; ;; -world and another.- Like: so; many men > ; ;«and nations who.'grow up. with nature and' ; 'the common things, ; lie • understood tho :.. ;«upernatural before; he.: ' understood ;-tli'e' '-natural. }Ip liad looked." at diiii ahgels-kr.eG-deep in the grass before he . lad looked at .'the. grass. ■ He knew that P"' s , robes were blue before he ■'' 'tnew- the;wild roses .round her feet were -..red. • "The'.' deeper: his'; memory plunged .; into the dark house of childhood tlie :. %}Bearer and -nearer, he. came - to; the. things be. ■ named. ■;All through his life ,le. thought of the, daylight world . .as .a sort of divine;, debris, :, the . broken: Temainder' of liis first;vision." ■ ' That is;; effective .: writing. : Yet Mr. ' Chesterton had said.; the-.thing "quite as ~ • finely in. "Orthodoxy"—"According -lo . ' Christianity, wb were .indeed the survivors ■' of a'/wreckV tho '.crew of-.a golden, ship- ■ that-had gone'"down,before .the-beginning. ,V 0 ' fiK world;"'; Aiid' ; not'-.merely .this, but L .mosfjpf the best things, in. the later were " anticipated' to : some extent' in the "earlier book. Itsis„not'.,necessary .-.to explain the :. sometimes obscure • symbolism: of. ■ tho ' '"Bdl and thfi Cross,"-for the reason that "Orthodoxy". : explains :it.. Mr. .Chester- ! ';ton wrote his: annotations; before ho com-. ; ;. posed: his text. - He-made:a' key and then ;. constructed a lock to fit tho-key. For ;example,. "The; spike:. of dogma fitted i- ..-toactly into 'the 'hole .: in,.;tlio world" : ("Orthodoxy") is the only ; thing that . makes.-intelligible, to: us;tho. exclamation ■*•«/' of the'idiot monk in his cell. ("Ball and tho .Cross"); '-Spike is, the,-.best—it sticks ';. out.".-; This .reversal, of the customarv :':Vprocess suggests: the limits of : the author's ; cocecss :,in - this field;. of ; .fiction. Fine phrasis, iiaradoxes, happy, inotaphors, even . :- looS;'chains :of argument, burst into his • mind spontaneously in. a tloid of, light. But ho sustains; his navrativo ,aml . .his . -. allcgorj. by shecv forco oi will and iti:■tonigmico.' His logical - prow.sscs aro in- '':> 1 . '«piirod roniaucn is oxCTgitated.v -It- is nedcssarj only to. compare the exquisitely - veiled.' malino of Auatolo .Franco's ; littlo' masterpiwie. "I'moin." inlh Clicsterton's ."broUl- English'' tiforiuation .of.'it to feel ..; liow njiequa! 1/ t-lin tuon are luatclicd with ' this: kind 'of orarmn. And ;,vet can all . J Bror.ch litem ta. , :fl SU-EJjlj a sentence quite

so satisfactory;'.in its'.-way to the.A'iigloSax'ou 'spirit-' as tliis? —it is,- if 'we may bepermitted . tho \!figure,y tho Sancho Panxa half, of Chesterton, in. a nutshell: "Everythiiig. his: oyo :fell on it feasted on, not aesthetically/'. (there is a thunderbolt •between, the commas),-"but with a plain, : jolly l 'appetite as ;Of a - boy eatiug. buus I