er to Paris where they visited Rodin, then making a bust of
Bernard Shaw. Mr. Oldershaw introduced Gilbert to G.B.S., who,
Rodin's secretary told them, had been endeavouring to explain at some
length the nature of the Salvation Army, leading up (one imagines) to
an account of Major Barbara. At the end of the explanation, Rodin's
secretary remarked--to a rather apologetic Shaw--"The Master says you
have not much French but you impose yourself."

"Shaw talked Gilbert down," Mr. Oldershaw complained. That the famous
man should talk more than the beginner is hardly surprising, but all
through Gilbert's life the complaint recurs on the lips of his
admirers, just as a similar complaint is made by Lockhart about Sir
Walter Scott. Chesterton, like Scott, abounded in cordial admiration
of other men and women and had a simple enjoyment in meeting them.
And Chesterton was one of the few great conversationalists--perhaps
the only one--who would really rather listen than talk.

In 1901 appeared his first book of collected essays, _The Defendant_.
The essays in it had already appeared in _The Speaker_. Like all his
later work it had the mixed reception of enthusiasts who saw what he
meant, and puzzled reviewers who took refuge in that blessed word
"paradox." "Paradox ought to be used," said one of these, "like
onions to season the salad. Mr. Chesterton's salad is all onions.
Paradox has been defined as 'truth standing on her head to attract
attention.' Mr. Chesterton makes truth cut her throat to attract
attention."

Without denying that his love of a joke led him into indefensible
puns and suchlike fooleries (though Mgr. Ronald Knox tells me he is
prepared to defend all of G.K.'s puns), I think nearly all his
paradoxes were either the startling expression of an entirely
neglected truth, or the startling re-emphasis of the neglected side
of a truth. Once, he said: "It is a paradox, but it is God, and not
I, who should have the credit of it." He proved his case a few years
later in the chapter of _Orthodoxy_ called "The Paradoxes of
Christianity." What it amounted to was roughly this: paradox must be
of the nature of things because of God's infinity and the limitations
of the world and of man's mind. To us limited beings God can express
His idea only in fragments. We can bring together apparent
contradictions in those fragments whereby a greater truth is
suggested. If we do this in a sudden or incongruous manner we startle
the unp