quilibrium that mediaeval philosophy and culture were always
seeking. "The meaning of Aquinas is that mediaevalism was always
seeking a centre of gravity. The meaning of Chaucer is that, when
found, it was always a centre of gaiety. . . ."

The name of Aquinas thus introduced on almost the last page of this
book shows Chesterton's mind already busy on the next and perhaps
most important book of his life: _St. Thomas Aquinas_.

"Great news this," wrote Shaw to Frances, "about the Divine Doctor. I
have been preaching for years that intellect is a passion that will
finally become the most ecstatic of all the passions; and I have
cherished Thomas as a most praiseworthy creature for being my
forerunner on this point."

When we were told that Gilbert was writing a book on St. Thomas and
that we might have the American rights, my husband felt a faint
quiver of apprehension. Was Chesterton for once undertaking a task
beyond his knowledge? Such masses of research had recently been done
on St. Thomas by experts of such high standing and he could not
possibly have read it all. Nor should we have been entirely reassured
had we heard what Dorothy Collins told us later concerning the
writing of it.

He began by rapidly dictating to Dorothy about half the book. So far
he had consulted no authorities but at this stage he said to her:

"I want you to go to London and get me some books."

"What books?" asked Dorothy.

"I don't know," said G.K.

She wrote therefore to Father O'Connor and from him got a list of
classic and more recent books on St. Thomas. G.K. "flipped them
rapidly through," which is, says Dorothy, the only way she ever saw
him read, and then dictated to her the rest of his own book without
referring to them again. There are no marks on any of them except a
little sketch of St. Thomas which was drawn in the margin opposite a
description of the affair, which G.K. so vividly dramatises, of Siger
of Brabant.

Had we known all this we should have been asking ourselves even more
definitely: What will the experts say? Of the verdict of the greatest
of them we were not long left in doubt. Etienne Gilson, who has given
two of the most famous of philosophical lecture series--the Gifford
Lectures at Aberdeen and the William James Lectures at Harvard--had
begun his admiration for Chesterton with _Greybeards at Play_ and had
thought _Orthodoxy_ "the best piece of apologetic the century had
produced." When _St. Thomas_ appe