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Platitudes Undone
A facsimile edition of "Platitudes in the Making: Precepts and Advices for Gentlefolk" by Holbrook Jackson, with the original handwritten responses of
G.K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press, 1997)
93 p. First reading.
Posted 2 October 2006.

Here is a fascinating piece of Chestertonian ephemera that exhibits, on a small and intimate scale, the playful wit and piercing intelligence of the great man. And it comes with a romantic back-story.

In 1911, author Holbrook Jackson published a small book of aphorisms under the (mildly pretentious) title Platitudes in the Making: Precepts and Advices for Gentlefolk and gave a copy to his friend G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton, it seems, sat down with the book -- and a green pencil -- and wrote a response to each saying in the book. Presumably he then set the book down, and somehow, someway, it turned up in a San Francisco book shop in 1955, where it was purchased by a certain Dr. Alfred Kessler, an admirer of Chesterton. Every book collector dreams of such a find. Rather than keep the book to himself, however, Dr. Kessler and Ignatius Press have produced a facsimile edition. Remove the dust jacket, and you have a reproduction, in every particular, of that 1911 volume, together with all of Chesterton's remarks. It's a remarkable project, and a real treat for readers of Chesterton.

The subjects of Jackson's aphorisms vary, and so too do Chesterton's responses. Both are usually restricted to a single sentence. Chesterton was known as a formidable opponent in public debate, for his wit made him a favourite with audiences, and his intelligence, at once piercing and comprehensive, was the bane of his opponents. This forum, then, of one-liners and retorts, is one in which he might be expected to shine, and he does. This is all the more remarkable when we consider that, presumably, he never expected his comments to be read by anyone else. Here we meet Chesterton in private, and he displays all the characteristic wit and wisdom that made him a famous public figure during his lifetime.

A few examples are in order:

Jackson: The great revolution of the future will be Nature's revolt against man.
Chesterton: I hope Man will not hesitate to shoot.

Jackson: Things done on principle are things done wrong.
Chesterton: Only on the wrong principle; this last principle, for instance.

Several of the retorts hint at Chesterton's expansive appreciation of life, and his impatience with modern simplifications or false oppositions:

Jackson: Friendship is the only respectable form of human intimacy.
Chesterton: Puritan!

Jackson: No two men have exactly the same religion: a church, like society, is a compromise.
Chesterton: The same religion has the two men. The sun shines on the evil and the good, but the sun does not compromise.

Jackson: Don't think -- do.
Chesterton: Do think! Do!

A number of the 'advices' concern morality, and here Chesterton tolerates no nonsense:

Jackson: Morality is the child of self-consciousness.
Chesterton: No wonder self-consciousness is a little vain. A fine child.

Jackson: Morals are only the rules of communities.
Chesterton: Why 'only'?

Jackson: Those who preach salvation as a reward for virtue are spiritual hucksters -- tradesmen of the soul.
Chesterton: A fallacy. Virtue does not buy salvation: it produces it.

You will have begun to perceive that Holbrook's philosophical position, which owes a considerable debt to Nietzsche, is a rather paltry thing next to Chesterton's own. Yet there are a few instances in which Holbrook earns the Chestertonian stamp of approval:

People who want to be amused have lost the art of living.

There is nothing old under the sun.

Indeed, these could have been written by Chesterton himself. This proves, I suppose, that nobody and nothing can be wrong all the time.  And of that thought, too, I am sure he would approve.


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