“But a saner view of history suggests that it is not a story of mankind climbing one single hill (even up different sides of it) with ourselves high up, and all earlier peoples in darkness below left struggling up the same paths. Rather have the peoples of the earth climbed up their several hills, some higher than others (difficult as it may be to say which), all different; but the hills of Greece and Rome are among the highest; while we, climbing up our own, already perhaps higher than they, have the good fortune of being able to look across to their summits to learn something of their achievement, and receive light from those radiant peaks.” A line of stars concludes, and one feels that nothing else could fitly conclude the perfect loveliness of this passage. Let the reader read it aloud in a firm, clear voice to savour the delicate charm of its parentheses, and let him realise what a river of glowing exposition an _Outline of History_ might have been in the hands of Mr. Gomme. Let the reader reflect, too, upon the hopeless despair so perfect, so entirely _Greek_ a passage must arouse in the mind of a writer who never experienced the blessings of a smattering of Greek. Not without reason is Mr. Gomme a stylist, and a fastidious critic of style. § 3 TWO CATHOLIC CRITICS It is a relief to turn from the vanity and peevishness of Mr. Gomme to two more serious antagonists. Mr. Belloc is something of a special pleader, and both he and Dr. Downey forgo few controversial advantages. Dr. Downey is not ashamed to write of my “showman’s gestures” and so forth, but they both have minds and tempers that are disciplined; they are intelligently interested in _The Outline of History_ as a whole; a passionate objection to my existence does not appear among their motives. They realise I have a definite standpoint and they state an understandable difference. Mr. Belloc’s criticisms appeared in the _Dublin Review_ and the _London Mercury_, and I do not think he has reprinted them. We had a brief but animated dispute in the _London Mercury_ and the Catholic _Tablet_ arising out of his comments, and I will not renew the particular issues then discussed, except in so far as they arise again out of Dr. Downey’s pamphlet. I will direct myself rather to Dr. Downey than to Mr. Belloc.