
Note to the Reader: Odd punctuation and tense change within quotations are part of the original text.
About the Author
Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) was born Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc in a village not far from Paris called La Celle-Saint-Cloud. His father was French, his mother English, and his wife American. He was educated at the Oratory School in England, served in the French military, then returned to England and attended Balliol College, Oxford. He was a Member of Parliament from 1906-1910 but left politics disillusioned. From 1914 to 1920, he edited a journal called Land and Water which was concerned with news of the then-current war.
<> Belloc graduated from Oxford in 1895, and his first book, a book of verse, was published in 1896. Then, for about fifty years, works on a myriad of subjects poured from his pen. He wrote for children and adults. He wrote poetry and essays, fict>...