The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Defendant, by G.K. Chesterton
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Title: The Defendant
Author: G.K. Chesterton
Release Date: May 3, 2004 [EBook #12245]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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THE DEFENDANT
BY G. K. CHESTERTON
AUTHOR OF 'THE WILD KNIGHT' AND 'GREYBEARDS AT PLAY'
SECOND EDITION
LONDON. MDCCCCII
R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON
* * * * *
The 'Defences' of which this volume is composed have appeared in _The
Speaker_, and are here reprinted, after revision and amplification, by
permission of the Editor. Portions of 'The Defence of Publicity'
appeared in _The Daily News_.
_October_, 1901.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
IN DEFENCE OF A NEW EDITION
INTRODUCTION
A DEFENCE OF PENNY DREADFULS
A DEFENCE OF RASH VOWS
A DEFENCE OF SKELETONS
A DEFENCE OF PUBLICITY
A DEFENCE OF NONSENSE
A DEFENCE OF PLANETS
A DEFENCE OF CHINA SHEPHERDESSES
A DEFENCE OF USEFUL INFORMATION
A DEFENCE OF HERALDRY
A DEFENCE OF UGLY THINGS
A DEFENCE OF FARCE
A DEFENCE OF HUMILITY
A DEFENCE OF SLANG
A DEFENCE OF BABY-WORSHIP
A DEFENCE OF DETECTIVE STORIES
A DEFENCE OF PATRIOTISM
* * * * *
_IN DEFENCE OF A NEW EDITION
The reissue of a series of essays so ephemeral and even superfluous may
seem at the first glance to require some excuse; probably the best
excuse is that they will have been completely forgotten, and therefore
may be read again with entirely new sensations. I am not sure, however,
that this claim is so modest as it sounds, for I fancy that Shakespeare
and Balzac, if moved to prayers, might not ask to be remembered, but to
be forgotten, and forgotten thus; for if they were forgotten they would
be everlastingly re-discovered and re-read. It is a monotonous memory
which keeps us in the main from seeing things as splendid as they are.
The ancients were not wrong when they made Lethe the boundary of a
better land; perhaps the only flaw in their system is that
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