Archives: journalism

The heresy trial of Charles Augustus Briggs The word “heresy” probably calls to mind images of the Inquisition, medieval times, and burnings at the stake. All of those things should have passed away centuries ago, we might think, with the coming of the Enlightenment and its eventual victory over the Western mind and outlook. So • Read More »

  I   WHERE the light slants down softly into one corner of a noted art museum in Boston there hangs a large picture. Its title is “Fulfillment.” Discriminating art critics have alternately raved at it and praised it; from the day it appeared there it has been a fruitful source of acrimonious discussion. As for • Read More »

“REALLY great criminals are never found out, for the simple reason that the greatest crimes—their crimes—are never discovered,” remarked Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen positively. “There is genius in the perpetration of crime, Mr. Grayson, just as there must be in its detection, unless it is the shallow work of a bungler. In this • Read More »

“Really great criminals are never found out, for the simple reason that the greatest crimes—their crimes—are never discovered,” remarked Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen positively. “There is genius in the perpetration of crime, Mr. Grayson, just as there must be in its detection, unless it is the shallow work of a bungler. In • Read More »

I   THE THINKING MACHINE—Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph. D, LL. D., F. R. S., M. D., etc., scientist and logician—listened intently and without comment to a weird, seemingly inexplicable story. Hutchinson Hatch, reporter, was telling it. The bowed figure of the savant lay at ease in a large chair. The enormous head with • Read More »

Listen to this story here on LibriVox.org FATHER BROWN always regarded the case as the queerest example of the theory of an alibi: the theory by which it is maintained, in defiance of the mythological Irish bird, that it is impossible for anybody to be in two places at once. To begin with, James Byrne, • Read More »

Listen to this story here on LibriVox.org FATHER BROWN, at one period of his life, found it difficult to hang his hat on a hat-peg without repressing a slight shudder. The origin of this idiosyncrasy was indeed a mere detail in much more complicated events; but it was perhaps the only detail that remained to • Read More »

Shane Parrish of the Farnham Street blog has written a short (two-minute read) essay on why writing is important. It is packed with insights about writing. It is also a powerful argument against the so-called “artificial intelligence” writing software we hear about so much these days. He says: Writing about something teaches you about what • Read More »

Listen to this story here on LibriVox.org Six people sat around a small table, seeming almost as incongruous and accidental as if they had been shipwrecked separately on the same small desert island. At least the sea surrounded them; for in one sense their island was enclosed in another island, a large and flying island • Read More »

Listen to this story here on LibriVox.org MOON CRESCENT was meant in a sense to be as romantic as its name; and the things that happened there were romantic enough in their way. At least it had been an expression of that genuine element of sentiment— historic and almost heroic—which manages to remain side by • Read More »

Listen to this story here on LibriVox.org YES,’ said Father Brown, ‘I always like a dog, so long as he isn’t spelt backwards.’ Those who are quick in talking are not always quick in listening. Sometimes even their brilliancy produces a sort of stupidity. Father Brown’s friend and companion was a young man with a • Read More »