G. K. Chesterton

A Miscellany of men G. K. Chesterton

From "The Nameless Man": There are only two forms of government the monarchy or personal government, and the republic or impersonal government. England is not a government; England is an anarchy, because there are so many kings. But there is one real advantage (among many real disadvantages) in the method of abstract democracy, and that is this: that under impersonal government politics are so much more personal. In France and America, where the State is an abstraction, political argument is quite full of human details -- some might even say of inhuman details. But in England, precisely because we are ruled by personages, these personages do not permit personalities. In England names are honored, and therefore names are suppressed. But in the republics, in France especially, a man can put his enemies' names into his article and his own name at the end of it. . . . * Chesterton writes here on subjects that range from literature to philosophy, history to social criticism, and does it gloriously well. Sad that the world should have lost such a wit -- and glad, too, becasue he left so much behind.