o take the children out of the hands of any parents who
happened to be poor, they had not really the courage of their own
convictions. They would expatiate upon methods; they could not define
their aims; they would take refuge in such meaningless terms as
progress or efficiency or success. They were not prepared to say what
they wanted to succeed in producing, towards what goal they were
progressing or what was the test of efficiency. And part of this
inability arose from their curious fear of the past. Most movements
of reform have looked to the past for great part of their
inspiration. To reform means to shape anew, and he pointed out that
every revolution involves the idea of a return. On this point, G.K.
attacked two popular sayings. One was "You can't put the clock back";
but, he said, you can and you do constantly. The clock is a piece of
mechanism which can be adjusted by the human finger. "There is
another proverb: 'As you have made your bed, so you must lie on it';
which again is simply a lie. If I have made my bed uncomfortable,
please God, I will make it again."

It is easy to understand that this sort of philosophy should be out
of tune with the Socialist who looked with contempt on the wisdom of
his forefathers. It is less easy to understand why it was
unacceptable also to most of the Tories. One reviewer asked whether
Mr. Chesterton was the hoariest of Conservatives or the wildest of
Radicals. And with none of his books are the reviews so bewildered as
they are with this one. "The universe is ill-regulated," said the
_Liverpool Daily Post_, "according to the fancy of Mr. Chesterton;
but we are inclined to think that if the deity were to talk over
matters with him, he would soon come to see that a Chestertonian
cosmos would be no improvement on things as they are." On the other
hand, the _Toronto Globe_ remarks, "His boisterous optimism will not
admit that there is anything to sorrow over in this best of all
possible worlds." The _Observer_ suggested that Chesterton would find
no disciples because "his converts would never know from one week to
another what they had been converted to"; while the _Yorkshire Post_
felt that the chief disadvantage of the book was that "a shrewd
reader can pretty accurately anticipate Mr. Chesterton's point of
view on any subject whatsoever."

It seems almost incredible that so definite a line of thought, so
abundantly illustrated, should not have been clear to all his
reade