Wednesday, April 18, 2012

A stray curate who was too helpless even to find his way to the Church of England

From an essay, The Dragon's Grandmother in his collection, Tremendous Trifles by G.K. Chesterton. One of the reason's I believe I enjoy Chesterton so much is his simultaneous ability to concisely evoke an image, feeling or scene paired with his entertaining capacity to digress.
The man had come to see me in connection with some silly society of which I am an enthusiastic member; he was a fresh-coloured, short-sighted young man, like a stray curate who was too helpless even to find his way to the Church of England. He had a curious green necktie and a very long neck; I am always meeting idealists with very long necks. Perhaps it is that their eternal aspiration slowly lifts their heads nearer and nearer to the stars. Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that so many of them are vegetarians: perhaps they are slowly evolving the neck of the giraffe so that they can eat all the tops of the trees in Kensington Gardens. These things are in every sense above me. Such, anyhow, was the young man who did not believe in fairy tales; and by a curious coincidence he entered the room when I had just finished looking through a pile of contemporary fiction, and had begun to read "Grimm's Fairy tales" as a natural consequence.

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