But in some future time, possibly not remote, when New Man will have exhausted himself attempting to escape his destiny, when he will have tried all the doors leading nowhere, when he will have sickened of paper humanisms, he may turn to the gnarled wisdom and the eternal youth of this last guardian of the West. If he does, he will learn what it means to be a man.
NOTES
[ [1] G. K. Chesterton, The Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton (Sheed & Ward, New York, 1936), pp. 222-8.
[ [2] The Four Men, p. 3.
[ [3] Ibid., p. 300.
[ [4] Ibid., pp. 302-3.
[ [5] Ibid., p. 303.
[ [6] Ibid., pp. 304-5.
[ [7] Raymond Las Vergnas, Chesterton, Belloc, and Baring (Sheed & Ward, New York, 1938), pp. 79-80.
[ [8] On at least three different occasions, in the midst of passages that relate intense spiritual crisis, Belloc reverts to the “Myself” device. These passages will be discussed later on in the chapter.