I can't recommend it enough, together with the Paradoxes of Mr. Pond, but the reader needs to enter the same state (half serious, half playful) mindset that the

I can't recommend it enough, together with the Paradoxes of Mr. Pond, but the reader needs to enter the same state (half serious, half playful) mindset that the Author evidently was in when writing them. As a side note a (very short) note on punishment, not easily available, is one of my preferred things by Chesterton, main part is here: http://books.google.com/books?id=QtWvMclbR9YC&pg=PA503&lpg=PA503&dq=%22g.k.chesterton%22+punishment+-capital+cab+-father+-brown&source=bl&ots=KLw6e12Cad&sig=TTs5xciL63PiR2jXonknFFW7oTk&hl=it&ei=EDueS4LAB8r7_AaWiLH7CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=QtWvMclbR9YC&pg=PA503&lpg=P... The essence of it being: The modern world is wicked, because it is civilized. What is specially shameful and pitiless in modern punishment is not the severity of punishment, it is the continuity of the punishment.