Under the stimulus of this remonstrance, the editor of the _Universe_, after a month’s delay and various consultations with Mr. Belloc and the directors of his paper, offered Mr. Wells the “opportunity of correcting definite points of fact upon which he might have been misrepresented,” but declined to allow him to defend his views or examine Mr. Belloc’s logic and imputations in his columns. Mr. Wells was disinclined for a series of wrangles upon what might or might not be a “point of fact.” He then offered his articles to various non-Catholic papers, but, with one accord, they expressed their lack of interest in either Mr. Belloc himself or in his exposition of Catholic ideas about natural selection, the origin of man, and the general course of history. Yet it seems to Mr. Wells that, regarded as a mental sample, Mr. Belloc is not without significance, and that the examination of the contemporary Catholic attitude towards the fundamental facts of history is a matter of interest beyond Catholic circles. Accordingly he has decided to issue these articles in the form of a book, and he has urged the publishers to advertise them, as freely as may be permitted, in the Catholic press. He has retained the “cross-heads” customary in journalistic writing. CONTENTS PAGE I MR. BELLOC’S ARTS OF CONTROVERSY 13 II THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION STATED 29 III MR. BELLOC AS A SPECIMEN CRITIC OF NATURAL SELECTION 44 IV MR. BELLOC’S ADVENTURES AMONG THE SUB-MEN: MANIFEST TERROR OF THE NEANDERTHALER 64 V FIXITY OR PROGRESS 80 MR. BELLOC OBJECTS TO “THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY” I MR. BELLOC’S ARTS OF CONTROVERSY I am the least controversial of men. Public disputations have rarely attracted me. For years I have failed to respond to Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, who long ago invented a set of opinions for me and invited me to defend them with an enviable persistence and vigour. Occasionally I may have corrected some too gross public misstatement about me--too often I fear with the acerbity of the inexperienced. But now, in my sixtieth year, I find myself drawn rather powerfully into a disputation with Mr. Hilaire Belloc. I bring an unskilled pen to the task.