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the Online Distributed Proofreading Team

ON NOTHING & KINDRED SUBJECTS

BY
HILAIRE BELLOC

TO

MAURICE BARING

CONTENTS

ON THE PLEASURE OF TAKING UP ONE'S PEN

ON GETTING RESPECTED IN INNS AND HOTELS
ON IGNORANCE
ON ADVERTISEMENT
ON A HOUSE
ON THE ILLNESS OF MY MUSE
ON A DOG AND A MAN ALSO
ON TEA
ON THEM
ON RAILWAYS AND THINGS
ON CONVERSATIONS IN TRAINS
ON THE RETURN OF THE DEAD
ON THE APPROACH OF AN AWFUL DOOM
ON A RICH MAN WHO SUFFERED
ON A CHILD WHO DIED
ON A LOST MANUSCRIPT
ON A MAN WHO WAS PROTECTED BY ANOTHER MAN
ON NATIONAL DEBTS
ON LORDS
ON JINGOES: IN THE SHAPE OF A WARNING
ON A WINGED HORSE AND THE EXILE WHO RODE HIM
ON A MAN AND HIS BURDEN
ON A FISHERMAN AND THE QUEST OF PEACE
ON A HERMIT WHOM I KNEW
ON AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY
ON A FAËRY CASTLE
ON A SOUTHERN HARBOUR
ON A YOUNG MAN AND AN OLDER MAN
ON THE DEPARTURE OF A GUEST
ON DEATH
ON COMING TO AN END

_King's Land,

December the 13th, 1907

My dear Maurice,

It was in Normandy, you will remember, and in the heat of the year,when the birds were silent in the trees and the apples nearly ripe,with the sun above us already of a stronger kind, and a somnolencewithin and without, that it was determined among us (the jollycompany!) that I should write upon Nothing, and upon all that iscognate to Nothing, a task not yet attempted since the Beginning ofthe World.

Now when the matter was begun and the subject nearly approached, Isaw more clearly that this writing upon Nothing might be very grave,and as I looked at it in every way the difficulties of my adventureappalled me, nor am I certain that I have overcome them all. But Ihad promised you that I would proceed, and so I did, in spite of mydoubts and terrors.

For first I perceived that in writing upon this matter I was inperil of offending the privilege of others, and of those especiallywho are powerful to-day, since I would be discussing things verydear and domestic to my fellow-men, such as The Honour of Politicians,The Tact of Great Ladies, The Wealth of Journalists, The Enthusiasmof Gentlemen, and the Wit of Bankers. All that is most intimate anddearest to the men that make our time, all that they would most defendfrom the vulgar gaze,—this it was proposed to make the theme of acommon book.

In spite of such natural fear and of interests so powerful to detainme, I have completed my task, and I will confess that as it grew itenthralled me. There is in Nothing something so majestic and so highthat it is a fascination and spell to regard it. Is it not thatwhich Mankind, after the great effort of life, at last attains, andthat which alone can satisfy Mankind's desire? Is it not that w

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