The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-16
nMANALVE. :,

''MANAllN E.
 Bv G. K. Chesterton. The John Lane
 Company, New York.
 Nfr q. k. Caesterton has fairly outdone his theory in "Manalive," of holding the mirror I'D to nature as 1t were-only on ,he other side, which is a favorite pose
 Tn his recent book, "The Innocence of Father Brown" the honorable gentle man did something of the sort in one Of he chapters entitled ''The Flying Stars, bv the turning of a sermon and philoso- phy, but in "Manalive'' 1t is done on larger scale.
 Mir chesterton does not always respect Tho most cherished ideals of the age, neither does he take much stock in doc tors and science and 'isms" and "cults, V which explain away the sins of the deca- loeue as emanating from mental and nhysical alteration, but the method at east brings you face to face with the mestions of whether or not life is worth the living.
 live" into a garden attached to third rate boarding house in London, out Hemp stead Heath way.
 There are two young women and three young men and presently there blows up A huge fantastic figure In green clothes eaping and sprinting among them.
 high silk hat has lodged in tree, which the green figure rescues and from that leaps to the roof to imbibe a bottle of wine.
 Tho fantastic one Is the Peter Pan" of the "grown-ups," and Is looked upon hs a queer, weird, uncanny person, while pn the other hand we are introduced to the practical idealist who leaves his wife md children, and after circling the globe explains 1t by saying:
 Ut was not the house that grew dull, but that grew dull in it. My wife was better than all women and yet I could not feel it."
 MT. Chesterton has woven a wonderful fancy in "Manalive,' full of Chester tonisms' and keen wit and humor which are incidental to this clever, wonderful, unusual man, and the book is full of re- markable expressions, as note. for in- stance, his Irishman:
 Moon did not drink, or even frequently get drunk; he simply was gentleman who liked low company. This was part ly because company is quieter than so- cety. and if he enjoyed talking to a bar maid Apparently he dfd), 1t was chiefly because the barmaid did the talking
 And again We have:
 "The most rigid and ruthless woman can begin to cry. just as the most effem- mate man can grow a beard. It aston shes all simple men when 1t happens. Yet the stiffest female stoicisn seems sepa- rated from it only by a sheet of paper or a sheet of steel. It is a separate sexual power and proves nothing. one way or the other, about force of character"
 Further still, we have Mir. Chesterton saying:
 "A mystic is one who holds that two worlds are better than one. In the high est sense all thought is reflection. This Is the real truth in the saying that sec ond thoughts are best Animals have no second thoughts; man alone is able to see his own thought double, as a drunk ard sees lamp post. Man alone is able to see his own thoughts upside down as t..e sees d house in a puddle. This dupli- cation of mentality as in a mirror is the irmost thing in human philosophy" In another place one curate says felicitously of another curate that he is "a clergyman who talks like a socialist, wears his hair niee a pianist, and behaves like an intox- lcated person." and is therefore doomed ''not to rise in his profession or even ob- tain the admiration of the good and wise,' while, neither last nor least, are lneee words put in the mouth of the wild Irishrnan Marriage Is duel to the death which no man of honor should decline"