For fellows whom it hurts to think:
Look into the pewter pot
To see the world as the world’s not.”
A little later we went to the small dining room which was a few steps higher than, and was separated by a heavy silk curtain from, the living room. At a massive oaken table we sat down to a delicious tea.
When I asked Mrs. Chesterton what was the national dish of England, she promptly replied,
“Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, undoubtedly.”
“Fried eggs and bacon is my favorite dish,” spoke up Chesterton.
I then asked the author what would be his choice if he had to go on a desert island and could take but one book along.
“It would depend upon the circumstances,” he replied. “If I were a politician who wanted to impress his constituents, I would take Plato or Aristotle. But the real test would be with people who had no chance to show off before their friends or their constituents. In that case I feel certain that everyone would take Thomas’ ‘Guide to Practical Shipbuilding’ so that they could get away from the island as quickly as possible. And then if they should be allowed to take a second book it would be the most exciting detective story within reach. But if I could only take one book to a desert isle and was not in a particular hurry to get off, I would without the slightest hesitation put ‘Pickwick Papers’ in my handbag.”
The talk switched to the Russian situation. Chesterton thinks that Lenin was of the mad Russian type, just such a type as Tolstoy,