{"product_id":"2940013691216","title":"Mr Belloc Objects to \"The Outline of History\"","description":"I am the least controversial of men.  Public disputations have rarely\u003cbr\u003eattracted me.  For years I have failed to respond to Mr. Henry Arthur\u003cbr\u003eJones, who long ago invented a set of opinions for me and invited me to\u003cbr\u003edefend them with an enviable persistence and vigour.  Occasionally I may\u003cbr\u003ehave corrected some too gross public mis-statement about me--too often\u003cbr\u003eI fear with the acerbity of the inexperienced.  But now, in my sixtieth\u003cbr\u003eyear, I find myself drawn rather powerfully into a disputation with Mr.\u003cbr\u003eHilaire Belloc.  I bring an unskilled pen to the task.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am responsible for an Outline of History which has had a certain\u003cbr\u003evogue.  I will assume that it is known by name to the reader.  It is a\u003cbr\u003ecareful summary of man's knowledge of past time.  It has recently been\u003cbr\u003ere-issued with considerable additions in an illustrated form, and Mr.\u003cbr\u003eBelloc has made a great attack upon it.  He declares that I am violently\u003cbr\u003eantagonistic to the Catholic Church, an accusation I deny very\u003cbr\u003eearnestly, and he has produced a \"Companion\" to this Outline of mine,\u003cbr\u003efollowing up the periodical issue, part by part, in the Universe of\u003cbr\u003eLondon, in the Catholic Bulletin of St. Paul, Minnesota, in the Southern\u003cbr\u003eCross of Cape Colony, and possibly elsewhere, in which my alleged\u003cbr\u003eerrors are exposed and confuted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the enthusiasm of advertisement before the \"Companion\" began to\u003cbr\u003eappear, these newspapers announced a work that would put Mr. Belloc\u003cbr\u003eamong the great classical Catholic apologists, but I should imagine that\u003cbr\u003ethis was before the completed manuscript of Mr. Belloc's work had come\u003cbr\u003eto hand, and I will not hold Catholics at large responsible for all Mr.\u003cbr\u003eBelloc says and does.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is with this Companion to the Outline of History that I am to deal\u003cbr\u003ehere.  It raises a great number of very interesting questions, and there\u003cbr\u003eis no need to discuss the validity of the charge of Heresy that is\u003cbr\u003elevelled against me personally.  I will merely note that I am conscious\u003cbr\u003eof no animus against Catholicism, and that in my Outline I accept the\u003cbr\u003egospels as historical documents of primary value, defend Christianity\u003cbr\u003eagainst various aspersions of Gibbon's, and insist very strongly upon\u003cbr\u003ethe role of the Church in preserving learning in Europe, consolidating\u003cbr\u003eChristendom, and extending knowledge from a small privileged class to\u003cbr\u003ethe whole community.  I do not profess to be a Christian.  I am as little\u003cbr\u003edisposed to take sides between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant (Mr.\u003cbr\u003eBelloc will protest against that \"Roman,\" but he must forgive it; I\u003cbr\u003eknow no other way of distinguishing between his Church and Catholics not\u003cbr\u003ein communion with it) as I am to define the difference between a\u003cbr\u003epterodactyl and a bird.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083152507120,"sku":"2940013691216","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013691216_p0.jpg?v=1763584426","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013691216","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}