G K Chesterton

All Things Considered G K Chesterton

I cannot understand the people who take literature seriously; but I can love them, and I do. Outof my love I warn them to keep clear of this book. It is a collection of crude and shapeless papersupon current or rather flying subjects; and they must be published pretty much as they stand. Theywere written, as a rule, at the last moment; they were handed in the moment before it was too late, and I do not think that our commonwealth would have been shaken to its foundations if they hadbeen handed in the moment after. They must go out now, with all their imperfections on their head, or rather on mine; for their vices are too vital to be improved with a blue pencil, or with anything Ican think of, except dynamite. Their chief vice is that so many of them are very serious; because I had no time to make themflippant. It is so easy to be solemn; it is so hard to be frivolous. Let any honest reader shut his eyesfor a few moments, and approaching the secret tribunal of his soul, ask himself whether he wouldreally rather be asked in the next two hours to write the front page of the Times, which is full of longleading articles, or the front page of Tit-Bits, which is full of short jokes. If the reader is the fineconscientious fellow I take him for, he will at once reply that he would rather on the spur of themoment write ten Times articles than one Tit-Bits joke. Responsibility, a heavy and cautiousresponsibility of speech, is the easiest thing in the world; anybody can do it. That is why so manytired, elderly, and wealthy men go in for politics. They are responsible, because they have not thestrength of mind left to be irresponsible. It is more dignified to sit still than to dance the BarnDance. It is also easier. So in these easy pages I keep myself on the whole on the level of the Times: itis only occasionally that I leap upwards almost to the level of Tit-Bit