The essay below this introduction was taken from a book written by Hilaire Belloc called "First and Last". This book features insightful essays that have aged well and would not be out of place to truthers today. Being familiar with Belloc's work on "The Jews", it was quite a surprise to find an essay of his quoted on the web. While browsing, I found menofthewest.net/the-lost-things-by-hilaire-belloc/ and I knew I had to share Hilaire Belloc and his works with you because these literary giants should never die. Dissenting voices like Belloc that refused to go along with the socialist leaning dictates of his times and instead stood up for his beliefs, which were needed back then and sorely needed now. In many ways 1920s/1930s America and Europe mirror 2020s problems and insecurities.
Some background for Belloc. (poetryfoundation.org/poets/hilaire-belloc) Not only was Belloc a writer of current world events from a conservative perspective, he was a poet, artist and musician. Belloc also wrote children books, was a political activist and an avid historian that searched for truth in the ruins left behind by ancient civilizations. He probably swam the English Channel and saved babies from a burning building and put out the fire all before tea time as well... heh heh...
www.churchpop.com/2016/01/03/10-reasons-hilaire-belloc-cool/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributism
I first became aware of Belloc's work from Michael Tsarion (Unslaved.com and michaeltsarion.com). Belloc was prolific and left humanity with a library of incredible works that reflects the times he lived. Scroll down the bio on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilaire_Belloc and see how much there is. Belloc's book "The Jews", written in 1922, predicted the coming prosecution of the jews in 1940s due to their practices and parasitism in Europe. Although "The Jews" is not written as a antisemitic book per se, Belloc was said to refers to jews as Shylockian, Christ-killers. I doubt many could argue against that statement.
Another thing I love about Belloc is that he called out H.G. Wells for being a new world order stooge. In 1925, Belloc traded barbs with Wells over his "Outline of History" which debut at the same time G. K. Chesterton, a friend of Belloc, wrote a Christian book of history and origins titled "The Everlasting Man". The Everlasting Man is touted as the best book of Christian's take on origins written and that it has converted many atheist to theist. C.S. Lewis was a convert and the book has always been in print. Chesterton inspired a successful network of Catholic high schools (chestertonschoolsnetwork.org/schools) around the U.S. bearing his name just from the success of The Everlasting Man.
The Outline of History was paid for by the League of Nationa, later known as the United Nations, and provided Wells with a team of "fact-checkers" to complete it. It was a serial until The Everlasting Man came out. The Outline of History omitted many facts that would counter progressive views such as Socialism and it downplayed Christianity's role as a world changing event. Belloc, a devout Catholic and consummate history writer, took umbrage and publicly called out Wells for his lack of knowledge, ignorance and anti-catholic views. Wells did admit to gaps and facts excluded from the Outline of History and brush them off by saying he is a "partial historian". He also said, "arguing with Belloc is like arguing with a hailstorm". Wells and Belloc each wrote several books criticizing each other as they tried to sway the public and protect their views.
It is worth noting that Wells and Chesterton remained good friends throughout their lives, however, Belloc and Wells could not reconcile. These three authors were the best Edwardian authors of their time. Ok, I'll throw in Arthur Conan Doyle. Wells, Belloc and Cecil Chesterton (GK Chesterton brother) were all in the Fabien Society. Belloc left the Fabien Society because he disagreed with the group's extreme views and Wells left because they weren't extreme enough.
Read more about the argument at these links below:
This link sides with Belloc, who had every right to call out Wells for misleading and omitting facts:
theimaginativeconservative.org/2014/01/war-wells-bellocian-bellicosity-versus-chestertonian-charity.html
And of course wikipedia is going to make Wells look the hero because he designed wikipedia (World Brain, Wells 1936 )
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Belloc_Objects_to_%22The_Outline_of_History%22
*It is worth noting that Socialist of the 1920s were trying to reeducate youths by making science and history textbook for students using well known names at the time. Julian Huxley and HG Wells were literary celebrities and household names that teamed up together to write "The Science of Life" and "The History and Adventure of Life" for the classroom.
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The Outline of History argument series:
1. Outline of History by Wells 1925 (book), was a serial since 1920 (still in print, archive.org)
2. The Everlasting Man by Chesterton 1925 (still in print, archive.org)
3. A Companion of Mr. Wells's Outline of History 1926 by Belloc (on archive.org)
4. Mr. Belloc Objects to the Outline of History 1926 by Wells (on archive.org)
5. Mr. Belloc still Objects to the Outline of History 1927 by Belloc (harder to find)
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These books below are available free online but I will always promote physical ownership over digital. The books can be found many places other than Amazon. I made a link to Amazon only for common sake.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=belloc+first+and+last&ref=nb_sb_noss
The Jews - Belloc
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+jews+hilaire+belloc&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
Outline of History - Wells
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=outline+of+history+by+hg+wells&i=digital-text&crid=2VQXNGTJ1Y54K&sprefix=outline+of+history%2Cdigital-text%2C285&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-a-p_1_18
The Phoenix and An Open Conspiracy - Wells It's not hard to find a book by Wells without his left leaning views. That being said, these two books catalyze the notion. (Phoenix hard to find Open Conspiracy on archive.org)
The Everlasting Man - Chesterton
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ESQAL56/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2
The Heretics - Chesterton (critiques that shows today's issues are 120 years old)
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chesterton+heretics&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
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Without further ado.......
The Lost Things by Hilaire Belloc
From "Last and First" pg. 97
T NEVER remember an historian yet, nor a
" topographer either, who could tell me, or even
pretend to explain by a theory, how it was that
certain things of the past utterly and entirely
disappear.
It is a commonplace that everything is subject
to decay, and a commonplace which the false
philosophy of our time is too apt to forget. Did
we remember that commonplace we should be a
little more humble in our guesswork, especially
where it concerns prehistory ; and we should not
make so readily certain where the civilization of
Europe began, nor limit its immense antiquity.
But though it is a commonplace, and a true one,
that all human work is subject to decay, there
seems to be an inexplicable caprice in the method
and choice of decay.
Consider what a body of written matter there
must have been to instruct and maintain the
technical excellence of Roman work. What a
mass of books on engineering and on ship-building
and on road-making ; what quantities of tables
and ready-reckoners, all that civilization must
have produced and depended upon. Time has
preserved much verse, and not only the best by any
means, more prose, particularly the theological
prose of the end of the Roman time. The tech-
nical stuff, which must, in the nature of things,
have been indefinitely larger in amount, has
(save in one or two instances and allusions) gone.
Consider, again, all that mass of seven hundred
years which was called Carthage. It was not only
seven hundred years of immense wealth, of
oligarchic government, of a vast population, and
of what so often goes with commerce and oligarchy
civil and internal peace. A few stones to prove
the magnitude of its municipal work, a few orna-
ments, a few graves all the rest is absolutely
gone. A few days' marches away there is an
example I have quoted so often elsewhere that I
am ashamed of referring to it again, but it does
seem to me the most amazing example of histori-
cal loss in the world. It is the site of Hippo
Regius. Here was St. Augustine's town, one of
the greatest and most populous of a Roman pro-
vince. It was so large that an army of eighty
thousand men could not contain it, and even with
such a host its siege dragged on for a year. There
is not a sign of that great town to-day.
A suburb, well without the walls to be more
accurate, a neighbouring village carries on the
name under the form of Bona, and that is all. A
vast, fertile plain of black rich earth, now largely
planted with vineyards, stands where Hippo stood.
How can the stones have gone ? How can it have
been worth while to cart away the marble
columns ? Why are there no broken statues on
such a ground, and no relics of the gods ?
Nay, the wells are stopped up from which the
people drank, and the lining of the wells is not to
be discovered in the earth., and the foundations of
the walls, and even the ornaments of the people
and their coins, all these have been spirited
away.
Then there are the roads. Consider that great
road which reached from Amiens to the main port
of Gaul, the Portus Itius at Boulogne. It is still
in use. It was in use throughout the Middle
Ages. Up that road the French Army marched
to Crecy. It points straight to its goal upon the
sea coast. Its whole purpose lay in reaching the
goal. For some extraordinary reason, which I
have never seen explained or even guessed at,
there comes a point as it nears the coast where it
suddenly ceases to be.
O sand has blown over it. It runs through no
marshes ; the land is firm and fertile. Why
should that, the most important section of the
great road which led northward from Rome, have
failed, and have failed so recently, in the history
of man ? Where this great road crosses streams
and might reasonably be lost, at its ponies, its
bridges, it has remained,, and is of such importance
as to have given a name to a whole countryside
Ponthieu. But north of that it is gone.
Nearly every Roman road of Gaul and Britain
presents something of the same puzzle in some
parts of its course. It will run clear and followable
enough, or form a modern highway for mile upon
mile, and then not at a marsh where one would ex-
pect its disappearance, nor in some desolate place
where it might have fallen out of use, but in the
neighbourhood of a great city and at the very chief
of its purpose, it is gone. It is so with the Stane
Street that led up from the garrison of Chichester
and linked it with the garrison of London. You
can reconstruct it almost to a yard until you reach
Epsom Downs. There you find it pointing to
London Bridge, and remaining as clear as in any
other part of its course : much clearer than in
most other sections. But try to follow it on from
Epsom Racecourse, and you entirely fail. The
soil is the same ; the conditions of that soil are
excellent for its retention ; but a year's work has
taught me that there is no reconstructing it save
by hypothesis and guesswork from this point to
the crossing of the Thames.
What happened to all that mass of local docu-
ments whereby we ought to be able to build up
the territorial scheme and the landed regime of
old France ? Much remains, if you will, in the
shape of chance charters and family papers. Even
in the archives of Paris you can get enough to
whet your curiosity. But not even in one narrow
district can you obtain enough to reconstruct the
whole truth. There is not a scholar in Europe who
can tell you exactly how land was owned and held,,
even, let us say,, on the estates of Rheims or by
the family of Conde. And men are ready to
quarrel as to how many peasants owned and how
much of their present ownership was due to the
Revolution, evidence has already become so wholly
imperfect in that tiny stretch of historical time.
But, after all, perhaps one ought not to wonder
too much that material things should thus capri-
ciously vanish. Time, which has secured Timgad
so that it looks like an unroofed city of yesterday,
has swept and razed Laimboesis. The two towns
were neighbours one was taken and the other
left and there is no sort of reason any man can
give for it. Perhaps one ought not too much to
wonder, for a greater wonder still is the sudden
evaporation and loss of the great movements of
the human soul. That what our ancestors passion-
ately believed or passionately disputed should, by
their descendants in one generation or in two,
become meaningless, absurd, or false this is the
greatest marvel and the greatest tragedy of all.
If man is a keel then what is his rudder? And who moves it side to side?
*Note to readers - All effort to correct grammar and punctuation were made. However, for some reason when I update the changes, they do not show up. I do apologize for insulting your good senses and promise to do my best before publishing.
