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When I visited the Chesterton Library in 2014, which was at the Oxford Oratory at the time, I was hoping to find examples of GKC's marginalia. Turns out, he drew more than he wrote in the books he owned. I found only three books from his personal library with written marginalia.
The best example of this is in Oliver Lodge’s The Substance of Faith Allied with Science: A Catechism for Parents and Teachers (1907), given to GKC by the author. The other two books with GK's marginalia are MacQuoid’s Jacobite Songs and Ballads and Allingham’s The Ballad Book.
Now quoting from my book on Chesterton: "While most of Chesterton’s copy of Lodge’s book is devoid of his scribblings, towards the end of the book Lodge has asked a series of questions relating to the life of faith and its reconcilability with Darwinism ..."
"... and has provided a number of answers in summary of the rest of the book’s contents. At this point, Chesterton has jotted down his own responses to the questions" (See Reyburn, Seeing Things as They Are, 2016). As we would expect, GKC clearly has a great deal of fun.
When Lodge asks, ‘What is the duty of man’ (Lodge, 1907, p. 128), Chesterton responds, ‘To love God mystically and his neighbor as himself; that is, sanely and without all this fuss’.
Chesterton answers the question ‘How does man know good from evil?’ with another question ‘How does he do anything?’ And Lodge’s question ‘How comes it that evil exists?’ (Lodge, 1907, p. 129) is met with Chesterton’s answer: ‘Ah. That’s asking’
Chesterton agrees with Lodge that there are ‘beings lower in the scale of existence than man’ by retorting ‘Has anyone been denying the zoo?’ When Lodge asks, ‘Are there any beings higher in the scale of existence than man?’ (Lodge, 1907, p. 130), Chesterton quips, ‘I hope so’.
Chesterton switches easily between levity and gravity. He responds to ‘Rehearse the prayers taught to us by our Lord’ with ‘With pleasure’. But he also dismisses Lodge’s prompt to ‘explain the clauses of this prayer’ (Lodge, 1907, p. 134) by writing ‘Leave the room!’
Towards the end of his reading, Chesterton seems to lose interest in Lodge’s writings, and so, in a bit of space at the end of the chapter, offers a parody of Lodge’s catechism in the form of a ‘New Scientific-Theological Catechism in 3 Questions’. This is the best part ...
'Q. Why can’t pigs fly?
A. I don’t know that they can’t. They don’t. I don’t know why.
Q. Under what circumstance would you believe that a pig did fly?
A. If an enormous human tradition said so & certainly saved the world ...'
A. I don’t know that they can’t. They don’t. I don’t know why.
Q. Under what circumstance would you believe that a pig did fly?
A. If an enormous human tradition said so & certainly saved the world ...'
'... Q. Why do scientific men use ten words when one could do?
A. In some cases is it Pride, but more commonly a quite genial sort of mental laziness.'
A. In some cases is it Pride, but more commonly a quite genial sort of mental laziness.'
I don't know if this has ever been released for wider viewing, apart from my record of it in my book, but here it is anyway. I'm sorry I wasn't able to take better photographs. This was the best I could manage in rather poor light.
