The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1930. GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON.

Evening Star, Issue 22366, 16 June 1936, Page 8

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1930. GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON.

When* G. K. Chesterton was seriously ill at tho beginning of the last decade his column, ‘ Our Note Book,’ was left open for him in ‘ The 'lllustrated Loudon News ’ till his recovery. Now lie Pas made his last comment on lite as it presented itself to him. Few men have stood so consistently by a philosophy as tho author of ‘ Heretics ’ and ‘Orthodoxy.’ In tho latter work we learn how Chesterton discovered, or rediscovered the Christian faith. The concluding chapter of ‘ Orthodoxy ’ is one of the most memorable appraisements of the founder of the Christian Church that have appeared in our It was with his friend Bentley, author of ‘ Trent’s Last Case.’ that Chesterton made his escape from that twilit world of which lie gives us glimpses in ‘ The Man Who "Was Thursday.’ It is in the dedicatory verses to Bentley at the front of this work that he tells the story, and incidentally makes use of tho ancient name for Edinburgh to which this Antipodean Athens has succeeded. Yea clear and cool and sudden as a bird sings in the rain Dunedin to Samoa spoke, and pleasure out of pain. : He is referring to Robert Louis Su.v enson as cue of the agencies to-

wards that spiritual escape. Chesterton might almost be said to have invented a new literary milieu, the Philosophic Romance, represented at its best by ‘Tire Man.,Who Was Thursday ’ or ‘ The Ball and the Cross,’ and at its poorest by ‘ The Flying Inn.’ ‘ Man Alive’ and ‘The Return of Don Quixote ’ belong to this category. . . .

Herein we find the Chestertonian idiom presented from every conceivable angle, but never varying in essence. This reiteration may be wearisome to some, but it does impress the thoughtful reader with the idea that hero is a man who speaks with authority. “What is truth? asked jesting Pilate, and did not wait for an answer,” wrote Francis Bacon. Of Chesterton one feels that at a definite period in his life he came upon truth, and ho wearied not of giving it utterance. He, the biographer of St. Francis of Assisi, has himself assumed the part of “ Jongleur de Dieu.”-

Fools as we wore in motley, All jangling and absurd, Wh en all church bells were silent Our cap and bells were heard.

As a literary critic G. K. Chesterton first won distinction with his monograph on Robert Browning in the ‘ English Men of Letters ’ series. His appreciation of the relations between Elizabeth Barrett and her father is an example of sane judgment. He was one of the greatest Dickensians of his era, and he has brilliantly summarised the Victorian age in English literature. His monograph of Bernard Shaw, brought Tip to date within comparatively recent years, is as full of wisdom and charity as it is of wit and paradox. He wrote a book about Robert Louis Stevenson at a time when the star of Tusitala was certainly not in the ascendant. He was a prolific journalist, and much of his journalism has found its way within covers in such books as ‘ All Things Considered,’ ‘ A Shilling for Your Thoughts,’ * What’s Wrong With the World,’ and ‘The Crimes of England.’ A passage from tire latter, describing the retreat from Mons, was selected for declamation at the Eton commemoration on June 4.

Chesterton’s name has become identified with that of Beaconsfield, where Disraeli and Edmund Burke dwelt before him. His house at Top Meadow, with its little model theatre, became the object of many a literary pilgrimage. There are few passages in later English literature that express the satisfaction of home-coming more cogently than that which is to be found at the end of ‘The New Jerusalem,’ a travel book which has a companion in ‘ What I Saw in America.’ ‘ Magic,’ a one-act play by G. K. Chesterton, first produced at the Little Theatre, and subsequently revived at the Kingsway, is quintessential Chesterton on the stage. From the nature of things it was impossible that' the theatrical success of ‘ Magic ’ should be repeated. As a poet Chesterton excels in verse which is inspired by his religions belief. His poem on the Donkey is well known, and has been set to music. ‘ The Ballad of the White Horse ’ is, perhaps, his greatest sustained poem. Save perhaps when he was engaged in some minor skirmish on a matter of politics or taste Chesterton’s “motif” was Christian humility, which is something very fai removed from the “ umbleness ” of Uriah Heap. It is “ the giant laughter of Christian Men.” One may agree or disagree with Chesterton’s reading of history, but one can hardly doubt the truth that vision came to him. The ‘ Father Brown ’ stories are informed by that same spirit. Qf him it may be said that while one recognised that his work was done, and perhaps one has speculated as to the consummation of this outwardly uneventful but spiritually adventurous life, news of G. K. Chesterton s death comes to one almost as a personal affront. He tvas an institution. He survived many changes. Adaptability is one of the virtues which he may possibly have lacked, but ho did possess amid the shifting sands of modern opinion a steadfast mind.