I have just recently finished reading Ian Ker’s biography of G.K. Chesterton (pub.2012). It is a very literary biography with a great many quotations from the enormous oeuvre. I would consider it essential reading for the Chestertonian of course but also the general reader might be surprised at the high regard for his books on Dickens, Browning, Aquinas and Francis of Assisi. The problem with Chesterton is the stylistic quirk of his continuous reaching after paradox. William James found it wearing and I can understand that because to the scientific mind with its straightforward logical catenary of conclusions, the doubling back and lateral thinking breaks the forward momentum of inquiry. It is also difficult to remember and frustrates the illative sense which I think is a good thing. The regular cognitive pathways that have become habitual are deleted and what you might have thought was easy going terrain switchbacks furiously. Are we marching nonstop and getting nowhere? There is no converging by a gradual series of argued for conclusions rather the sudden illumination.
In his 'Eugenics and Other Evils' (1922) he mocks the assumed superiority of progressive thinking. The spoiling of the eugenics movement by Teutonic enthusiasm has made support for it disreputable but the nibbling at the tempting edges of it by present day progressives makes Chesterton a little scabrous to their eyes. An interesting indication of this tendency is found here:
Cain on Chesterton's Eugenics and Other Evils
G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a well-known essayist in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a critic of eugenics, as well as a critic of many other issues. Chesterton’s essay, “What is Eugenics?,” is a much cited essay on the subject and merits reading.
Chesterton was criticised for anti-semitism, and his language in “What is Eugenics” will strike the modern reader as offensive. His essay is made available here as a primary historical source meriting critical study. Other editions are available. The text is online, too. Chesterton’s essay likely was the spark for Leonard Darwin to use the same title for his pro-eugenics popular book, What is Eugenics?, in 1928.
This particular copy shows the signed of close reading. Marginalia comments are by an unknown contemporary hand who had a clear antipathy for Chesterton’s views.
Looking at the copy of the pdf which Prof. Cain reproduces at the bottom of his blog post the notes which are written on it are written in Irish the old fashioned Gaelic script,( the present is Roman with h for aspiration). In fact there is no antipathy shown in that annotator’s underlining which select the most egregiously nasty examples of the eugenicist’s program. The discerning student of the prof. will be aware of the correct answer on that topic.
Peadar O’Morain the inditer of those notes, teipeadh ort/theip tu/theip ort (you failed).
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