Preface

ool of Theology at Clare
il Ih aut
. cst ye RT i ASS LINE hy lA N
Theology Library
SCHOOL OF FHEOEOGY AT CLAREMONT California
THE EVERLASTING MAN
BY G. K. CHESTERTON
The EVERLASTING
MAN
BY
G. K. CHESTERTON, @, |b? Kei"
AUTHOR OF “HERETICS,” “WHAT I SAW IN AMERICA,” ETC.
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1925
Copyright, 1925 By Dopp, Mean & Company, INc.
Printed in U.S. A.
PREFATORY NOTE
Tuts 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 de- voted 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 re- peating 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
INTRODUCTION THE PLAN OF THIS BOOK
Parr ii. ON THE CREATURE CALLED MAN
CHAPTER PAGE feoe ine Manan the Cavern Ar) si, se) ue ed
II Professors and Prehistoric Men ... . 24 III The Antiquity of Civilisation . . . . . 46 IV God In Comparative Religion . . . . . 82 We Man and”? Mythologies 2°... 0 5 27108 VI Demons.and Philosophers . . .. . . 129 VII The War of the Gods and Demons . . . 158 VIII The End of the World ....... . 178