Produced by David Clarke, Carla Foust and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) Transcriber's note Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer errors have been changed and are listed at the end. All other inconsistencies are as in the original. HILAIRE BELLOC WORKS BY HILAIRE BELLOC. PARIS MARIE ANTOINETTE EMMANUEL BURDEN, MERCHANT HILLS AND THE SEA ON NOTHING ON EVERYTHING ON SOMETHING FIRST AND LAST THIS AND THAT AND THE OTHER A PICKED COMPANY [Illustration: HILAIRE BELLOC] HILAIRE BELLOC THE MAN AND HIS WORK BY C. CREIGHTON MANDELL and EDWARD SHANKS WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY G. K. CHESTERTON METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON _First Published in 1916_ TO H. L. HUTTON OF MERCHANT TAYLORS' SCHOOL INTRODUCTION BY G. K. CHESTERTON When I first met Belloc he remarked to the friend who introduced us that he was in low spirits. His low spirits were and are much more uproarious and enlivening than anybody else's high spirits. He talked into the night; and left behind in it a glowing track of good things. When I have said that I mean things that are good, and certainly not merely _bons mots,_ I have said all that can be said in the most serious aspect about the man who has made the greatest fight for good things of all the men of my time. We met between a little Soho paper shop and a little Soho restaurant; his arms and pockets were stuffed with French Nationalist and French Atheist newspapers. He wore a straw hat shading his eyes, which are like a sailor's, and emphasizing his Napoleonic chin. He was talking about King John, who, he positively assured me, was _not_ (as was often asserted) the best king that ever reigned in England. Still, there were allowances to be made for him; I mean King John, not Belloc. "He had been Regent," said Belloc with forbearance, "and in all the Middle Ages there is no example of a successful Regent." I, for one, had not come provided with any successful Regents with whom to counter this generalization; and when I came to think of it, it was quite true. I have noticed the same thing about many other sweeping remarks coming from the same source.