AUTHORS' FAVOURITE WORDS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—There is one prominent contemporary English writer who so far has had scant notice in your columns; he is serious, moral, platitudinous; and he drives home his simple lesson with almost a monotony of reiteration—in a word, G. K. Chesterton. It would be extremely easy—though perhaps super- fluons—to show that the dozen and more brilliant books to his name are but variations (with some four exceptions) of one single theme. At present we are concerned with his favourite word; it occurs once at least, I am prepared to wager, in every single book by him, and in one (The Ball and the Cross) it occurs no fewer than one hundred and one times! To those who know something of the quality of the man it is unnecessary to say that the word in question is that keen, brilliant, uncom- promising, scintillating, and mystic slogan, " the sword."—
Previous page
