I am responsible for an _Outline of History_ which has had a certain vogue. I will assume that it is known by name to the reader. It is a careful summary of man’s knowledge of past time. It has recently been reissued with considerable additions in an illustrated form, and Mr. Belloc has made a great attack upon it. He declares that I am violently antagonistic to the Catholic Church, an accusation I deny very earnestly, and he has produced a “Companion” to this _Outline_ of mine, following up the periodical issue, part by part, in the _Universe_ of London, in the _Catholic Bulletin_ of St. Paul, Minnesota, in the _Southern Cross_ of Cape Colony, and possibly elsewhere, in which my alleged errors are exposed and confuted. In the enthusiasm of advertisement before the “Companion” began to appear, these newspapers announced a work that would put Mr. Belloc among the great classical Catholic apologists, but I should imagine that this was before the completed manuscript of Mr. Belloc’s work had come to hand, and I will not hold Catholics at large responsible for all Mr. Belloc says and does. It is with this _Companion to the Outline of History_ that I am to deal here. It raises a great number of very interesting questions, and there is no need to discuss the validity of the charge of Heresy that is levelled against me personally. I will merely note that I am conscious of no animus against Catholicism, and that in my _Outline_ I accept the gospels as historical documents of primary value, defend Christianity against various aspersions of Gibbon’s, and insist very strongly upon the rôle of the Church in preserving learning in Europe, consolidating Christendom, and extending knowledge from a small privileged class to the whole community. I do not profess to be a Christian. I am as little disposed to take sides between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant. Mr. Belloc will protest against that “Roman,” but he must forgive it; I know no other way of distinguishing between his Church and Catholics not in communion with it, as I am between a pterodactyl and a bird. DISCONCERTING POSE OF MR. BELLOC