, to the beauty of bushes, and the love of one's
native place.

Thus, then, in our last instance (out of hundreds that might be
taken), we conclude in the same way. When the learned sceptic says:
"The visions of the Old Testament were local, and rustic, and
grotesque," we shall answer: "Of course. They were genuine."

Thus, as I said at the beginning, I find myself, to start with,
face to face with the difficulty that to mention the reasons that I
have for believing in Christianity is, in very many cases, simply to
repeat those arguments which Mr. Blatchford, in some strange way,
seems to regard as arguments against it. His book is really rich and
powerful. He has undoubtedly set up these four great guns of which I
have spoken. I have nothing to say against the size and ammunition of
the guns. I only say that by some strange accident of arrangement he
has set up those four pieces of artillery pointing at himself. If I
were not so humane, I should say: "Gentlemen of the Secularist Guard,
fire first."

He goes on in the next essay to talk of the positive arguments for
Christianity, of "this religious philosophy which was, and will be
again, the study of the highest intellects and the foundation of the
strongest nations, but which our little civilisation has for a while
forgotten." Very briefly he then deals with Determinism and Freewill,
the need for the Supernatural and the question of the Fall. Dealing
with the Fall he uses one of his most brilliant illustrations. We
speak, he says, of a manly man, but not of a whaley whale. "If you
wanted to dissuade a man from drinking his tenth whisky, you would
slap him on the back and say, 'Be a man.' No one who wished to
dissuade a crocodile from eating his tenth explorer would slap it on
the back and say, 'be a crocodile.' For we have no notion of a
perfect crocodile; no allegory of a whale expelled from his Whaley
Eden."

Continuing the swift sketch of some elements of Christian theology,
Chesterton next deals with Miracles. While the development in
_Orthodoxy_ makes this section look very slight, there are passages
that make one realize the mental wealth of a man who could afford to
leave them behind and rush on. Blatchford had said that no English
judge would accept the evidence for the resurrection and G.K. answers
that possibly Christians have not all got "such an extravagant
reverence for English judges as is felt by Mr.