MR. BELLOC OBJECTS TO “THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY” [Illustration: Hilaire Belloc] MR. BELLOC OBJECTS TO “THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY” BY H. G. WELLS _With Portraits_ NEW [Illustration] YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY [Illustration] MR. BELLOC OBJECTS TO “THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY” --B-- PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOREWORD In the autumn of 1925 and the spring and summer of 1926 there was published a revised and illustrated version of the _Outline of History_, by Mr. H. G. Wells. There followed a series of articles by Mr. Belloc attacking this _Outline_ and Mr. Wells. These articles were published in the Catholic _Universe_, in the _Southern Cross_ of Cape Colony, in the American _Catholic Bulletin_, and possibly elsewhere. Every fortnight, keeping pace with the issue of the _Outline_, these attacks appeared; in all, twenty-four voluminous articles. They were grossly personal and provocative in tone, and no doubt a great joy and comfort to the faithful. Mr. Wells prepared a series of articles in reply; and as no one outside the public of these Catholic journals seemed to have heard of Mr. Belloc’s attacks, he offered them to the editors concerned, proposing, if necessary, to give the use of this interesting matter to them without payment. Six articles he asked to have published--in reply to twenty-four. This offering was declined very earnestly by these editors. To the editor of the Catholic _Universe_ Mr. Wells protested in the terms of the following letter:-- MY DEAR SIR, I am sorry to receive your letter of May 19th. May I point out to you that Mr. Belloc has been attacking my reputation as a thinker, a writer, an impartial historian, and an educated person for four-and-twenty fortnights in the _Universe_? He has misquoted; he has misstated. Will your Catholic public tolerate no reply?