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The Laughing Prophet the Seven Virtues & G.K EMILE CAMMAERTS THE LAUGHING PROPHET THE SEVEN VIRTUES & G.K. CHESTERTON FOREWORD BY DALE AHLQUIST The Laughing Prophet THE SEVEN VIRTUES AND G.K. CHESTERTON by Emile Cammaerts Foreword by Dale Ahlquist ACS BOOKS to Frances Chesterton First published in 1937 Interior and cover design by T. Schluenderfritz ACS Books Table of Contents Foreword by Dale Ahlquist ..................................1 INTRODUCTION The Ethics Of G. K. Chesterton ..............................5 Purpose of this book—Decadents and ‘Heretics’—Journalism—Quality of workmanship—Sincerity and Paradox—The Moralist—Conversion to Orthodoxy—Good and Evil—Art, History, Literary criticism—Prophet and Reformer—Consistency—The Seven Virtues CHAPTER I Faith.........................................................45 Personality—Optimism and Pessimism—The ethics of Elfland—Sense of wonder—Science and religion—Approach to Christianity—Acceptance of Reality—The key and the lock CHAPTER II Hope ........................................................69 Need of comfort—Spiritual hospitality—Love and marriage—Goodness and salvation—Humility—The virtue of small things—‘Frivolity’—Self-derision— Wit and humour—‘Second Childhood’ CHAPTER III Charity ......................................................99 Charity and Justice—Democracy and religion—Man and mankind—Social reforms—The common man—The dignity of the poor—State interference— Physical and moral values—Prohibition and eugenics—The defence of freedom CHAPTER IV Wisdom . 127 ‘La Clairvoyance du Père Brown’—Methods of thought—Vision and reason— About dogmas—Determinism and evolution—The doctrine of progress—The decadence of logic CHAPTER V Innocence . 153 Positive virtue—The toy theatre—Nonsense Verse—Uncle Gilbert—The miracle of wonder—Innocence and education—Chesterton’s heroes and dreams—The limits of freedom—The need of confession vi Table of Contents vii CHAPTER VI Justice .....................................................185 Intellectual impartiality—The French Revolution—Reaction to ‘heresies’— Dialectical methods—The Social Question—The defence of the poor CHAPTER VII Courage ...................................................213 The riddle of the ivy—Politics and literature—Hatred of compromise—G.K.C. and his followers—Quantity and quality of production—The supernatural— The combative spirit—Challenge of Orthodoxy Epilogue ..................................................243 ILLUSTRATIONS The illustrations, of the life-size statues in alabaster of the Seven Virtues by Jacques Dubroeucq which adorn the Église Sainte-Waudru, Mons, are from photographs by Paul Becker, Brussels. Fides .........................................................45 Spes ..........................................................69 Caritas .......................................................99 Prudentia ....................................................127 Temperantia ..................................................153 Justitia .......................................................185 Fortitudo.....................................................213 Foreword By Dale Ahlquist “The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything.” Chesterton ’s most famous quotation, right? Well, yes and no. Chesterton is cer- . tainly famous for saying it, but the trouble Gis that he neverK quite said it. The line above comes from Emile Cammaerts in this book, The Laughing Prophet. He is making a reference to ideas expressed by Chesterton in some Father Brown stories, ideas which even contain fragments of the fa- mous quotation, but it may, in fact, be Cammaerts who actually said the most well known saying that Chesterton did not say. Cammaerts (1878-1953) was a Belgian poet and playwright who settled in England in 1908 at the age of 30. He became an immediate admirer of Chesterton as a result of watching his 1 2 The Laughing Prophet exchanges with Shaw, and soon thereafter became a personal friend. He recalled that his first impression of GKC was “the contrast between his amazingly quick mind and slow-moving body.” He translated several of Chesterton’s works into French, including a collection of Father Brown stories. He also wrote books about art and poetry, including a book about nonsense poetry, which was greatly admired by Chesterton. “Nonsense is the test of humour,” said Cammaerts, “as humour is the test of reason.” He became a professor of Belgian Studies at the University of London, and gained a great reputation for “in- terpreting Belgium to England.” Chesterton was a great lover of Belgium, having traveled through many of its lovely little towns and writing about them. He was also a great defender of Belgium, as it was Prussia’s unprovoked attack on that country that led to England’s entry into World War I. If Chesterton was unremitting in his criticism of Prussia it was because of what it had done to Belgium. No doubt Chesterton’s stance only deepened Cammaerts’ devotion to him. His entire family drew close to Chesterton. Of his daugh- ter Jeanne, Cammaerts said, “My little girl lost her heart to Chesterton.” GKC was her godfather, and as she grew up, she would often visit, sitting on the great man’s lap, as he told her stories and recited poetry, “in his voice which he only used when talking to small children and which, no doubt, they alone could understand.” Cammaerts wrote his book on Chesterton in 1937, a year after GKC’s death. Its thesis is that Chesterton “made the Christian virtues shine with the sparkle of his wit.” He realizes that the title “Prophet” is in danger of sounding ponderous, so he gives due emphasis to the adjective “Laughing.” But the theme is virtue. Indeed, the subtitle is “The Seven Virtues and G.K. Chesterton.” Drawing on that sparkling wit of GKC, Foreword 3 Cammaerts expounds on Faith, Hope, Charity, Wisdom, Innocence, Justice, and Courage. He was called brilliant, but he never wished to shine. His genuine humility prevented him from using the preacher’s tone … He was far too modest ever to speak ex cathedra. His humour was part of this innate modesty. He liked to poke fun at his adversaries, but he liked still better to tell stories against himself. He always ap- peared on the public platform as if he had no justification whatever for being there, as if he had strayed in by chance from the street and had no knowledge of the subject under discussion. This attitude served him admirably in a debate but it was perfectly genuine. Cammaerts says that the greatest of Chesterton’s gifts was his charity. He was loved for his social amenity, and his hatreds were not of persons, but of opinions which were unsound or dishonest. Chesterton did not merely write about the virtues, he lived the virtues. Since Cammaerts became friends with both Gilbert and Frances, he was also able to write about their marriage and how that marriage was a model of love. It led Cammaerts to observe: Love is not merely mutual worship, it is also a contract, an alliance against common foes, a loan of confidence to be repaid in faithfulness, a promise of indulgence and toleration to be redeemed in kindness, a companionship strengthened by adversity. … Understood this way, marriage becomes more valuable than romantic love. It rests on a store of common memories, on long years of collaboration, on joys and sorrows shared together, on the preservation and growth of a common ideal, of a common religion. Cammaerts’ book is unique in Chesterton literature because he combines Chesterton’s writings, an analysis of his thinking, and personal, first hand stories that give a more revealing and complete presentation of the whole man—and perhaps the saint—in a way no other author ever did. I wish there were oth- ers of his contemporaries who had done the same thing. They 4 The Laughing Prophet certainly had the opportunity to do so. And yet, something tells me that they only would have confirmed what Cammaerts wrote and what we ourselves read in Chesterton’s own words: all the virtues mixed with abounding joy and wonder. Although there are many insightful, eloquent and tower- ing passages in The Laughing Prophet that capture Chesterton amazingly well, Cammaerts sums up his subject concisely and precisely in the chapter on Justice: As a poet, a staunch radical, and a passionate traditionalist, Chesterton could not maintain a disinterested attitude when his deepest convic- tions were concerned. He was not detached, but very much “attached.” He had given himself heart and soul to the defence of Orthodoxy and the civic rights of the poor. He loved a fight, and he fought all his life against overwhelming odds. We continue the fight, and the odds haven’t changed. INTRODUCTION The Ethics Of G. K. Chesterton he late G. K. Chesterton had many literary friends. Most of them are better qualified than myself to pay homage to his memory. My excuse for publishing this Tbook is purely sentimental. After losing him, I sought comfort in re-reading some of his works. I had never realized before how natural his style was. To read him, under the stress of this recent sorrow, was to be with him again, to feel intensely and acutely his actual presence, to recognize at every moment his intonation and the deep chuckle of his laughter. As I turned the pages, he seemed to me to express himself with a fresh earnestness, a new urgency, as if he had wished to dispel some confusion, or to emphasize some principle of his belief to which I had not given sufficient attention. I understood him, during these days, as I never understood him before. I enjoyed at the
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