New-York tribune., 1903-04-16

Mr. G. K Chesterton is losing no time in CIV
ing his little newspaper articles the widest pos
sible circulation. Another book has been made
out of them. this time pretty volume entitled
Twelve Types Oondon: Arthur L. Hum
rhrevs, OF course a writer of Mr. Chester
toms bumptiousness is nothing if not catholic
and versatile He passes blithely in these dainty
pages from Charlotte Bronte to Byron, from KOS
tand to Carlyle. and from Savonarola to Sir
Walter Scott IN each case he tries very hard
to treat his subject from a new point of view,
but he leaves an impression Of effort rather
than of novelty. Thus he tells US in trumpet
tones. that ait is ridiculous to maintain seri-
ously that Byron's love of the desolate and in
human in nature was the mark of vital scept-
cism and depression" The poet was rather, he
maintains. an unconscious optimist When a
young man." he observes. "can elect deliberate
ly to walk alone in winter by the side of the
shattering sea, when he takes pleasure in storms
and stricken peaks, and the 1awless melancholy
of the older earth, we may deduCe with the Ger
tainty OF logic that he is very young and very
happy" This, and great deal else in Mr..
Chesterton's book. is very nicely put, is very
pretty, but we do not feel, as we read it, that
we are getting much ahead; and instead of be-
ing pleased we are teased, by the essayist's
style. The sole passage in the volume which
is perhaps worth quoting is the one on Charles
II, which follows a fair enough, exposition Of
the quarrel between Cavalier and Puritan in the
time of the merry king:
When we consider these things when we re-
member that Puritanism which means IN our
day a moral and almost temperamental atti-
tude meant in that day a singularly arrogant
logical attitude, shall comprehend a little
more the grain of good that lay in the vulgarity
and triviaIity of the Restoration. The Restora-
ton, of which Charles II was pre-eminent
type was in part a revolt Of all the chaotic and
unclassed parts OF human nature the parts that
are left over, and will always be left over, Dy
every rationalistic system of life. This does not
merely account for the revolt of the vices ana
of that empty recklessness and horsepay which
is sometimes more irritating than any vice II
accounts, also, for the return of the virtue OF
politeness, for that also Is a nemeless thing ig-
nored by logical codes. Politeness has, tnoeeQ.
about Il something mystical; Ike rellSloh, II IS
everywhere understood and nowhere dehned
Charles is not entirely to be Gespised because
as the type OF this movement, he let h1Lnsen
float upon this tide Of poitenesS. 1heIe
was some moral and social value in his per
fection in little things. He could not Keep the
Ten Commandments, but he kept the ten thou-
sand commandments. His name is unconnected
with any great acts Of duty or sacrince, oul :.
is connected with great many OF those acls OF
rnagnanimous politeness Of a kind OF draIlaIc
delicacv which lie the dim borderland De-
tween morality and art. Charles H. @ saIN
TTbackerav with unerring brevity was a ras-
cal but not a snob" Unlike George " ne was
a gentleman and a gentleman is man VINO
obevs strange statutes, not to be found IN any
moral textbook and practises strange virtues
nameless from the beginning Of the worIo-