New-York tribune., 1921-02-13

day, that Chestertor is a middie-zgeu ID
philosopher. More fitting it would be
to speak of him as philosopher o;
the Middle Ages. for much of his tall
harks back to an earlier time--bu.
Chesterton himself Is young man--a,
the outside he cannot claim more than
forty-six years. He is not a tired
writer; he has none oe the tedtum Of
an elder generation. He is vir;!e, force.
ful, youthful in every line and caps
his powers with wit that we shall,
have to pass on as being merely Ches.
tertonian.
Again 1t may be worthy Of noting
that Chesterton attained his fame In a
great degree as a novelist and q poet
The Man Who Was Thursday and The
Ballad of the White Horse should not
be forgotten in the maze Of his pres
ent productions that have mainly as
sumed essay form.
In The New Jerusalem, Chesterton
walks backward through history to
the place from which Christmas came
Leaving behind his country place at
Beaconsield, his barking dog and his
donkey, he journeys to the Holy Land:
and comes back again to find his dog
still barking. There is no further
reference to the donkey. All that he
sees and hears and thinks he shares
with the reader. Chiefly, Mr.. Chester
ton thinks and writes about 1t.
Walls and Gates
When he first arrived in Jerusalem
his first impression was Of the walls
and gates.
"lt remained primarily g thing of
walls and gates" he writes, "a thins
which perhaps the modern world does
not understand so we'll as the medieval
world. There is involved in it all that
idea of definition which those who do
not like it are fond of describing as
dogma. wall is like rule, and The
gates are like the exceptions that prove
the rule. The man making it has to
decide where his rule will run and
where his exception shall stand. He
cannot have city that is all gates any
more than house that is all windows; F;
nor is it possible to have a law that is
all liberties"
And from this standpoint" he adds
the holy city was happy city; il
had no suburbs. That is to say,
there are all sorts of buildings outside
the wall; but they are outside the wall
Everybody is conscious of being inside
or outside q boundary. Happv
is the city that has a wall and hap
pier still if it is a precipice."
In the midst of his contemplation o,
medieval architecture Chesterton stop.
to make some modern comparisons.
Medieval and Modern Werkmen
Some people complain that the
Worklngman Of our own day does not
show an individual interest in his
work. But it is we'll to realize that
they should be much more ANNOYED
with him if he did The medieval
workman took so individual al interest
IN his work that he would call up devils
entirely on his own account, carving
them in corners according to his own
taste and fancy. He would even pro.
duce The priests who were his patrons
and make them as ugly as devils, gary.
ing anti-clerical caricatures on the
very seats and stalls of the clerics.
If q modern householder, on enter
ing his own bathroom, found that the
plumber had twisted the taps into the
images of two horned and grinnine
tiends, he would be family surprised
It the householder, on returning at
evening to his house, found the door
hnocker distorted into repulsive like.
hess of himself, his surprise might
even be tinged with disapproval."
So does Mr.. Chesterton ranble on
giving fresh twist to everything that
he touches. Not until the book is wei
under way does one hear "Islam crying
from the turrct and Israel wailing a,
the wall" And gradually the thing un-
covers itself-Mr. Chcsterton went tc
Jerusalem to bring back to England g
solution Of the problem Of Zionism..
Why 1t Wasn't Published
He saves his solution for a final
chapter, and explains that it was not
published, as the other chapters were
in newspaper form, owing to "a differ
ence Of opinion, which divided the
writer of the book from the politics Of
the newspaper"
Believing that "to talk Of the Jew
always as the oppressed and never as
the oppressor is simply absurd" Ches-
terton, still posing as the friend of
the Jew, makes some startling propo-
sails for the general welfare of the race.
He would extend DR.. Weizmanrl's> sug-
gestion for Jewish cantons In Pales-
tine to include Jewish cantons outside
of Palestine, Jewish colonies in suit
able and selected places in adjacent
parts or in many other parts of the
world"
~ would leave as few Jews as pos
sib(e in other established nations"
Chesterton explains, "and to these l
would give a speciaI nositiop ha NJ