Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-24
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BOOkloper

tanned q Washington audience with q
less than wholly serious discussion in
the affirmative of the question els
| Psychology q Curse?" enjoys his own
humor with such rollicking mischief
that his hearers cannot fail to nejoy 1t
with him. He Is humorist as a writer
also in many of his essays, and in his
Father Brown stories, in which a
Catholic priest is a detective second
only to Sherlock Holmes. But Mr..
Chesterton is not always humorous. He
is very serious in his historical and
literary studies. though, of course, his
| method is satirical He Is serious, too,
| in his religion, Roman Catholicism. In
| his most recent book, THE Resurrection
of Rome" he has written a study OF the
phases of Rome as papal city. His
chapters, little enigmatic In titles, are
"The Outline of City," 1.-THE Story OF
the Statues" THE Pillar of the
"The Return of the Romans" and THE
Holy Island" In his first chapter ne
says: What I saw written across
Rome was Resurgam, and have taken
| that note or notion to be the nearest
| approximation to the theme of this
| book" Rome appears to him as the
| scene of a series of REVEALS. II was
nearly destroyed by Hannibal, was
sacked by Alaric, 1t alternately won
and lost in its wars with the Eastern
| and the Western Emperors," but 1t
defied extinction, survived exile and re-
vived its life and art Rome, since
the time of the Caesars, he sees as
| papal city Rome Is papal 1t strikes
| the eye first of all as town built OF
triumphal arches to welcome Popes or
towering tombs to commemorate Popes,
and those chiefly the Popes who have
the worst name outside their own COM
munion-the Popes of the Renaissance
1t is not only that Rome is
papal, but that it is so obviously proud
| of being papal. l resolved to be-
gin frankly with St Peters; the eternal
rock of offense; to the Puritans STUN
bling block and to the esthetes foolish
ness"
| 4 X x
The chapter THE Story Of the
| Statues discusses Rome as the city OF
| sculpture, of fountains, of arches, OF
monuments, of shrines, Of images; II
tells also of 1.-The fury of the Icono-
clasts,'' which burst from CONSTANT
nople With characteristic frivolity
Mr.. Chesterton begins this chapter, OF
essay, with fling of satire. He quotes
from Byron, when falls the Colos-
scum Rome shall fall" and continues
II do not believe it, not even to please
st. Augustine, let alone Byron. The
Colosseum could fall without killing
Rome or even the Romans, though not
cit is pleasant to think without killing
large number Of American and other
foreign tourists, mostly rich. should
escape callously, for 1 do not haunt the
/ Colosseum, least of all by moonlight.
| am not and never was a ghost" The
force of this allusion to himself will not
| be lost on those who saw Mr.. Chester
tons rotund figure on the platform al
Constitution Hall.
The last chapter of "trhe Resurrec-
ton of Rome" THE Holy Island" is
/ of course about the new Vatican State
Commenting upon the action of Musso-
lini in sanctioning the papal state, Mr.
! Chesterton says: Compare the con-
duct of dictators like Napoleon and Bis
marck with the conduct of dictators
like Mussolini and PilsudSki. The
former thought that they were falling
over so much lumber and that the lum-
Der would soon be cleared away. The
latter know that they are coming
against certain limits; and those limits
will never be moved away. They may
| >
they may bargain with them or balance
them with various alternatives, but they
will always deal with the papacy as
! they would deal with the Pyrenees or
J the Polar Sea; in short, as they deal
with the planet and everything that
will only end with the planet" The
book Is concluded by glowing descrip-
| ton of the Ratification, which Mr..
Chesterton witnessed at st. Peters
i rrFtlo, n, - 1lAkz 1%1a L.
ton at the high altar. There all the
pomp and splendor of Roman Cathol-
| icism were at their height. But, Mr..
| Chesterton points out, though the pag-
cant as a pageant is worthy of praise,
yet "the pompS of Rome are rightly
| meaningless until we know what they
mean. I am entirely on the side of the
Puritan who thinks the symbol ficti-
tiouS SO long as he thinks the signif1-
canoe false" Seriously, as part Of a
credo, he says: II am particularly
| anxious to affirm at the start that
though OF course these shows and pag-
eantS meant UNNECESSARILY much to
! me and profoundly affected my emo
tons, yet I do not base my belief on
such emotions, still less on such pag-
eantS or shows. / was myself received
into the Catholic Church in a small tin
shed, painted brick-red, which stood
among the sculleries and outhouses of
railway hotel"
The human digestive system becomes
vast country of varied landscape
tempting the explorer in the humorous
book Through the Alimentary Canal
With Gun and Camera" by George s.
| Chappell. The explorer enters the
| country through a huge cavern briS-
| Ting with stalactites and Stalagnites,
where there is opportunity to prospect
for gold in the Molar Mountains. The
interior of the country is penetrated
through the Esophagus Canal. The
seat of government is the town of
Braintree, and the chief pumping sta
ton is at Hartsdale. In the Kidney
section of the country gladstone quar-
ries are discovered. A Gathering of
the Glands is witnessed in the Perito-
neum. The extravaganza is carried on
with much cleverness.
= X X
Padraic Column combines in his Gross
Roads in Ireland" description of the
old Ireland of the Druid period and of
st. Patrick's time and the modern Ire
land of factories and the government
of the Irish Free State. The legends
and traditions of ancient Ireland are
not mere dead stories and symbols for
Padraic Column, nor for the modern
Irish people. Ouchullain, Brian Boru
and Cromm, the sun god, who was de-
feated by st. Patrick, as well as st.
Patrick himself and ST. Columbia, are
all part of the living culture of Ireland
today. Cavan is a locality impregnated
with myths still believed by the people.
Mr.. Column found there a woman who
told him that the Danes brought hens
to Ireland and that when the fowls
murmured on their rooSt they were tell
ing where the Danes hid their treasures
after their defeat at Clontarf." In
Cavan also the belief is strongly held
that the Danes possessed the secret of
making ale from heath 1.-THE famous