Chesterton was once called an "obese mountebank". Obese he certainly was, "mountebank" he wasn't, except in the sense that he knew from long practice and a flair for construction how to hold the reader's attention till the last paragraph, whether in an essay or a novel. This selection of articles and poems retains its interest even though they were written more than 70 years ago, because he knew how to treat serious and perennial topics in a light-hearted way. ( )