{"id":1909,"date":"2010-07-13T19:54:21","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T00:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saintmichaelsrcc.org\/acs\/?page_id=295"},"modified":"2019-01-18T14:54:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T20:54:09","slug":"lecture-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture 3: Twelve Types (and Varied Types)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chesterton\u2019s second book of essays, <em>Twelve Types<\/em>, (1903) has actually been misshelved with books about printing. But the \u201ctypes\u201d here are people, not print. They are literary and historical figures, ranging from Charlotte Bronte, William Morris, and Sir Walter Scott to Byron, Pope, Charles II, Carlyle, Tolstoy, and Savonarola.The dozen essays, first written for the Daily News and the Speaker, were originally book reviews of now forgotten books about these famous figures. Chesterton simply used the guise of a book review to share his own perspective about these \u201ctypes\u201d, and to launch into larger topics such as satire, simplicity, Puritanism, Paganism, property, religion, reason, imagination and art. In other words, all the things Chesterton would always write about. Chesterton always wrote about an incredible variety of subjects, yet always managed write about the same thing. It is one of the reasons why, when people ask what Chesterton book they should read first, two answers must be given. One is: any of them. The whole is present in each of its parts. However, the other answer is: none of them. There isn\u2019t a best first book to read by Chesterton. It is always better to have read one of his other books before whatever one you happen to read first. Each of the books is augmented by the other books. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. &#8220;The Grand Book of Chesterton&#8221; is surely a house of mirrors. Not that each page reflects the other, but that each page offers us a reflection of the same eternal light.<\/p>\n<p>In his essay on Alexander Pope, Chesterton speaks of how pervasive is the concept of paradox, which should let us know why we can expect to find it everywhere, especially in the Chesterton books that still await us: \u201cAn element of paradox runs through the whole of existence itself. It begins in the realm of ultimate physics and metaphysics, in the two facts that we cannot imagine a space that is infinite, and that we cannot imagine a space that is finite.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though written 20 years before he became Catholic, this collection includes an essay on St. Francis of Assisi, which not only foreshadows the book he would later write on this subject, but reveals his keen insight into things that one would think Chesterton had no right to know anything about: asceticism and monasticism.<\/p>\n<p>In 1903, Chesterton has just burst onto the scene, and the contemporary reviewers of <em>Twelve Types<\/em> book were impressed and refreshed by his wit, his confidence (\u201cAssurance doubly sure\u201d), his assertiveness, his \u201cbreathless\u201d rhetoric, his \u201cintense intelligence,\u201d especially demonstrated by his ability to compress complicated ideas to clear, clean prose. But they seemed surprised that his essays did not reveal a writer who was merely \u201cessaying\u201d but was actually fighting for the truth. Imagine.<\/p>\n<p>In 1908, these twelve essays were re-issued in a book called <em>Varied Types<\/em>, which includes nine additional essays about such figures as Bret Harte, Alfred the Great, Tennyson, Ruskin, Queen Victoria and others.<\/p>\n<p>The essay on Bret Harte is the outstanding one here, showing Chesterton\u2019s appreciation for the American frontier (\u201ca nation of foreigners\u201d), for parody (which \u201cmight be defined as the worshipper\u2019s half-holiday\u201d), and of course, for Bret Harte (\u201ca really great parodist\u201d in the Dickens mode).<\/p>\n<p>But from the essay on Queen Victoria comes one of Chesterton\u2019s most prophetic and profound lines: \u201cWe are learning to do a great many clever things. Unless we are much mistaken the next great task will be to learn not to do them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chesterton&#8217;s Second Book of Essays on Historical and Literary Figures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[1166,1165,1162,1164,1167,571,1163],"class_list":["post-1909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chesterton-101","tag-carlyle","tag-charles-ii","tag-charlotte-bronte","tag-pope","tag-sir-walter-scott","tag-tolstoy","tag-william-morris"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lecture 3-Twelve Types and Varied Types<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chesterton\u2019s second book of essays, &quot;Twelve Types&quot; has actually been misshelved with books about printing. But the \u201ctypes\u201d here are people, not print.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lecture 3-Twelve Types and Varied Types\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chesterton\u2019s second book of essays, &quot;Twelve Types&quot; has actually been misshelved with books about printing. But the \u201ctypes\u201d here are people, not print.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Store | Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanChestertonSociety\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-14T00:54:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-18T20:54:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dale Ahlquist\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dale Ahlquist\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dale Ahlquist\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d06b6be072498eed6d3d83aee49f7177\"},\"headline\":\"Lecture 3: Twelve Types (and Varied Types)\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-14T00:54:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-18T20:54:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":598,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Carlyle\",\"Charles II\",\"Charlotte Bronte\",\"Pope\",\"Sir Walter Scott\",\"Tolstoy\",\"William Morris\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Chesterton University\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lecture 3-Twelve Types and Varied Types\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-07-14T00:54:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-18T20:54:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"Chesterton\u2019s second book of essays, \\\"Twelve Types\\\" has actually been misshelved with books about printing. But the \u201ctypes\u201d here are people, not print.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/lecture-3\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lecture 3: Twelve Types (and Varied Types)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/\",\"name\":\"Store | Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton\",\"description\":\"Apostolate of Common Sense\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"American Chesterton Society\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/cropped-Chesterton_Seal_Navy-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/cropped-Chesterton_Seal_Navy-1.png\",\"width\":\"1181\",\"height\":\"1174\",\"caption\":\"American Chesterton Society\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AmericanChestertonSociety\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/AmChestertonSoc\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d06b6be072498eed6d3d83aee49f7177\",\"name\":\"Dale Ahlquist\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9bfbe8d2ebc5025c6021f8bf030c3e05553ab88d2047b0d33813b86d169b8985?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9bfbe8d2ebc5025c6021f8bf030c3e05553ab88d2047b0d33813b86d169b8985?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9bfbe8d2ebc5025c6021f8bf030c3e05553ab88d2047b0d33813b86d169b8985?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dale Ahlquist\"},\"description\":\"One of the most respected G.K. Chesterton scholars in the world, Dale Ahlquist is President of the American Chesterton Society, and publisher of its flagship publication, GILBERT. Dale is also the creator and host of the popular EWTN series The Apostle of Common Sense, and he is the author of three books on Chesterton including G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton and The Complete Thinker. His books deliver Chestertonian perspectives on such topics as faith, education, love, and marriage, and unpack the wisdom of Chesterton to explain why modern man has lost his ability to think clearly. He has also edited eight books of Chesterton\u2019s writings.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.chesterton.org\\\/store\\\/author\\\/dale-ahlquist\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lecture 3-Twelve Types and Varied Types","description":"Chesterton\u2019s second book of essays, \"Twelve Types\" has actually been misshelved with books about printing. But the \u201ctypes\u201d here are people, not print.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lecture 3-Twelve Types and Varied Types","og_description":"Chesterton\u2019s second book of essays, \"Twelve Types\" has actually been misshelved with books about printing. But the \u201ctypes\u201d here are people, not print.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/","og_site_name":"Store | Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanChestertonSociety\/","article_published_time":"2010-07-14T00:54:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-18T20:54:09+00:00","author":"Dale Ahlquist","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dale Ahlquist","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/"},"author":{"name":"Dale Ahlquist","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#\/schema\/person\/d06b6be072498eed6d3d83aee49f7177"},"headline":"Lecture 3: Twelve Types (and Varied Types)","datePublished":"2010-07-14T00:54:21+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-18T20:54:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/"},"wordCount":598,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#organization"},"keywords":["Carlyle","Charles II","Charlotte Bronte","Pope","Sir Walter Scott","Tolstoy","William Morris"],"articleSection":["Chesterton University"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/","url":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/","name":"Lecture 3-Twelve Types and Varied Types","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-07-14T00:54:21+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-18T20:54:09+00:00","description":"Chesterton\u2019s second book of essays, \"Twelve Types\" has actually been misshelved with books about printing. But the \u201ctypes\u201d here are people, not print.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-3\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lecture 3: Twelve Types (and Varied Types)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/","name":"Store | Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton","description":"Apostolate of Common Sense","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#organization","name":"American Chesterton Society","url":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cropped-Chesterton_Seal_Navy-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/cropped-Chesterton_Seal_Navy-1.png","width":"1181","height":"1174","caption":"American Chesterton Society"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanChestertonSociety\/","https:\/\/x.com\/AmChestertonSoc"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/#\/schema\/person\/d06b6be072498eed6d3d83aee49f7177","name":"Dale Ahlquist","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9bfbe8d2ebc5025c6021f8bf030c3e05553ab88d2047b0d33813b86d169b8985?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9bfbe8d2ebc5025c6021f8bf030c3e05553ab88d2047b0d33813b86d169b8985?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9bfbe8d2ebc5025c6021f8bf030c3e05553ab88d2047b0d33813b86d169b8985?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dale Ahlquist"},"description":"One of the most respected G.K. Chesterton scholars in the world, Dale Ahlquist is President of the American Chesterton Society, and publisher of its flagship publication, GILBERT. Dale is also the creator and host of the popular EWTN series The Apostle of Common Sense, and he is the author of three books on Chesterton including G.K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense, Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton and The Complete Thinker. His books deliver Chestertonian perspectives on such topics as faith, education, love, and marriage, and unpack the wisdom of Chesterton to explain why modern man has lost his ability to think clearly. He has also edited eight books of Chesterton\u2019s writings.","url":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/author\/dale-ahlquist\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}