in eye, and see not what the expert (who has lost
his freshness) sees, but the human facts of the case. So Mr. Chesterton
insists upon not being a specialist, takes the world for his parish, and
wanders over it at will.

This being so, it is obvious that he cannot possibly remember all that
he has said, and must necessarily abound in inconsistencies and even
contradictions. Yet that is by no means always unconscious, but is due
in many instances to the very complex quality and subtle habit of his
mind. Were he by any chance to read this statement he would deny it
fiercely, but we would repeat it with perfect calmness, knowing that he
would probably have denied any other statement we might have made upon
the subject. His subtlety is partly due to the extraordinary rapidity
with which his mind leaps from one subject to another, partly to the
fact that he is so full of ideas that many of his essays (like Mr.
Bernard Shaw's plays) find it next to impossible to get themselves
begun. He is so full of matter that he never seems to be able to say
what he wants to say, until he has said a dozen other things first.

The present lecture is mainly concerned with his central position, as
that is expounded in _Heretics_ and _Orthodoxy_. Our task is not to
criticise, nor even to any considerable extent to characterise his
views, but to state them as accurately as we can. It is a remarkable
phenomenon of our time that all our literary men are bent on giving us
such elaborate and solemnising confessions of their faith. It is an age
notorious for its aversion to dogma, and yet here we have Mr. Huxley,
Mr. Le Gallienne, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Wells (to mention only a few of many),
who in this creedless age proclaim in the market-place, each his own
private and brand-new creed.

Yet Mr. Chesterton has perhaps a special right to such a proclamation.
He believes in creeds vehemently. And, besides, the spiritual biography
of a man whose mental development has been so independent and so
interesting as his, must be well worth knowing. Amid the many weird
theologies of our time we have met with nothing so startling, so
arresting, and so suggestive since Mr. Mallock published his _New
Republic_ and his _Contemporary Superstitions_. There is something
common to the two points of view. To some, they come as emancipating and
most welcome reinforcements, relieving the beleaguered citadel of faith.
But others, who differ widely from them both, may yet find i