Transcriber’s Note:The spelling and punctuation of the book have not been changed.
HILAIRE BELLOC:
No Alienated Man
A Study in Christian Integration
Sheed and Ward · New York · 1953
Copyright 1953 by Sheed & Ward, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 53-9801
Manufactured in the United States of America
TO JACK MADDUX
Poet, sailor, Grizzlebeard—this trinity sums up, not onlythe man who is Hilaire Belloc, but the vision of integratedhumanity concretized in his work. Bellocian humanism isHilaire Belloc grasped in the essence of his spirit, seen atthe center of his being. Only a detailed biography willreveal to this generation the full flavour, the magnificence,of this latter-day Villon.
Nonetheless it seemed to me that the perfections symbolizedby the Poet, the Sailor, the Grizzlebeard are notthe peculiarities of one man whose life has spanned almosttwo ages. They are perfections essential to the integralcompletion of Christian humanity. With this thesis in mind,I wrote this book: an attempt not only to introduce thecontemporary reader to Belloc, but also an attempt to disengage,from the vast corpus of Bellociana, those themesthat are of permanent value.
What follows is not a biography, nor is it a book ofliterary criticism. It is, if you like, a “metaphysics of theconcrete” seen through the eyes of a man rooted in thethings that are.
| ONE | Page |
| No Alienated Man | 1 |
| TWO | |
| Grizzlebeard: History From Within | 49 |
| THREE | |
| Christendom: “Esto Perpetua” | 84 |
| CONCLUSION | |
| The Future Place of Hilaire Belloc in English Letters | 101 |
| NOTES | 105 |
| List of Editions Cited | 106 |
NO ALIENATED MAN
The Four Men: Natural Humanism
The ancient Arabs spoke of a creature having life in twoworlds: his body was rooted in the earth, but his soul sweptout across the horizons to a world beyond. Let us call himby his name: Man. This balance which is Man is a tensionrarely maintained in the course of human existence.
Let us call the one who situates his destiny in this world,and who habituates his gaze to the things this side of thehorizon, Aristotelian Man. Let us call the one