is words are well-chosen and in the right order, such order
being determined by the genius of the language from which they are
drawn."

These words fitly emphasize the importance of style: and when a
distinction is drawn, as is done above, between the appeal which Mr.
Belloc has made to the political and historical sense of his readers and
the appeal he has made to their literary sense, it is, naturally, not
intended to suggest that an appeal to his readers' literary sense is in
any way lacking in Mr. Belloc's political and historical writings. The
appeal to our literary sense is as strong in _The Servile State_ or
_Danton_ as in _The Four Men_ or _Mr. Clutterbuck_. But in the one case,
in the case of the two last-named books, the appeal Mr. Belloc makes is
chiefly to our literary sense: in the other case, in the case of the two
first-named books, there is added to the appeal to our literary sense an
appeal to our political and historical sense.

The nature of Mr. Belloc's own style is dealt with in a later chapter:
here it is merely asserted that, before the war, at any rate, Mr.
Belloc's style was accorded more general recognition than were his
ideas. Many who decried his matter extolled his manner. Many men of
talent, some men of genius, such as the late Rupert Brooke, regarded him
as a very great writer of English prose. Literary _dilettanti_ envied
him the refrains of his _ballades_. His essays, many of which were
manner without matter, were thoroughly popular. What he said might be
nonsense, but the way he said it was irresistible.

Since the beginning of the war Mr. Belloc has had that to say which
everybody desired to hear. He has known how to say that which everybody
desired to hear in the way it might best be said. He has been in a
position to express ideas with which every one wished to become
familiar: he has known how to express those ideas so that they might be
readily grasped. And he has become famous.

To those who were acquainted with but a part of his work before the war
Mr. Belloc's sudden leap into prominence as the most noteworthy writer
on military affairs in England must have come as somewhat of a shock. To
those whose knowledge of Mr. Belloc's writings was confined to _The Path
to Rome_ or the _Cautionary Tales_, who thought of him as essayist or
poet, this must have seemed a strange metamorphosis indeed. Even those
who were conversant with his study of the military aspects of the
R