THE EVERLASTING MAN THE EVERLASTING MAN BY G. K. CHESTERTON HODDER AND STOUGHTON LIMITED LONDON Made and Printed in Great Britain T. and A. CONSTABLE LTD., Printers, Edinburgh PREFATORY NOTE This book needs a preliminary note that its scope be not misunderstood. The view suggested is historical rather than theological, and does not deal directly with a religious change which has been the chief event of my own life; and about which I am already writing a more purely controversial volume. It is impossible, I hope, for any Catholic to write any book on any subject, above all this subject, without showing that he is a Catholic; but this study is not specially concerned with the differences between a Catholic and a Protestant. Much of it is devoted to many sorts of Pagans rather than any sort of Christians; and its thesis is that those who say that Christ stands side by side with similar myths, and his religion side by side with similar religions, are only repeating a very stale formula contradicted by a very striking fact. To suggest this I have not needed to go much beyond matters known to us all; I make no claim to learning; and have to depend for some things, as has rather become the fashion, on those who are more learned. As I have more than once differed from Mr. H. G. Wells in his view of history, it is the more right that I should here congratulate him on the courage and constructive imagination which carried through his vast and varied and intensely interesting work; but still more on having asserted the reasonable right of the amateur to do what he can with the facts which the specialists provide. CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION: THE PLAN OF THIS BOOK 3 _PART I_ ON THE CREATURE CALLED MAN CHAP. I. THE MAN IN THE CAVE 19 II. PROFESSORS AND PREHISTORIC MEN 39 III. THE ANTIQUITY OF CIVILISATION 58 IV. GOD AND COMPARATIVE RELIGION 89 V. MAN AND MYTHOLOGIES 111 VI. THE DEMONS AND THE PHILOSOPHERS 129 VII. THE WAR OF THE GODS AND DEMONS 154 VIII. THE END OF THE WORLD 171 _PART II_ ON THE MAN CALLED CHRIST CHAP. I. THE GOD IN THE CAVE 191 II. THE RIDDLES OF THE GOSPEL 211