He is the most thorough-going vindicator of the romantic imagination that we have to-day; and as such he proves an excellent foil to the majority of our ablest writers, who either distrust romanticism, like Mr. Shaw and Mr. Galsworthy; who yield unwilling homage, like Mr. Wells; or half-hearted admiration, like Mr. Bennett.

He is, with Mark Talley, determined to be jolly in all possible circumstances; and like that somewhat irritating optimist, Mr. Chesterton’s jolliness is almost more oppressive at times than the melancholy of some of his contemporaries.