-The Return of Don Quixote (1927)
Quotes by and posts relating to one of the most influential authors of the 20th century, G.K. Chesterton
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
"...this was what made a public man; the power of being excited at the same moment as the public press."
It was a part of that quality in Julian Archer which fitted
him so specially and supremely to be a public man.
He could become suddenly and quite sincerely hot on any subject,
so long as it was the subject filling the newspapers at the moment.
If the King of Albania (whose private life, alas, leaves so much
to be desired) were at that moment on bad terms with the sixth
German princess who had married into his family, Mr. Julian Archer
was instantly transformed into a knight-errant ready to cross
Europe on her behalf, without any reference to the other five
princesses who were not for the moment in the public eye.
The type and the individual will be completely misunderstood,
however, if we suppose that there was anything obviously unctuous
or pharisaical in his way of urging these mutable enthusiasms.
In each case in turn, Archer's handsome and heated face had always
been thrust across the table with the same air of uncontrollable
protest and gushing indignation. And Murrel would sit up
opposite him and reflect that this was what made a public man;
the power of being excited at the same moment as the public press.
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