The Ball and the Cross: Original Text

By: Chesterton, G. K.

The flying ship of Professor Lucifer sang through the skies like a silver arrow; the bleakwhite steel of it, gleaming in the bleak blue emptiness of the evening. That it was far abovethe earth was no expression for it; to the two men in it, it seemed to be far above the stars.The professor had himself invented the flying machine, and had also invented nearlyeverything in it. Every sort of tool or apparatus had, in consequence, to the full, thatfantastic and distorted look which belongs to the miracles of science. For the world ofscience and evolution is far more nameless and elusive and like a dream than the world ofpoetry and religion; since in the latter images and ideas remain themselves eternally, whileit is the whole idea of evolution that identities melt into each other as they do in anightmare.All the tools of Professor Lucifer were the ancient human tools gone mad, grown intounrecognizable shapes, forgetful of their origin, forgetful of their names. That thing whichlooked like an enormous key with three wheels was really a patent and very deadlyrevolver. That object which seemed to be created by the entanglement of two corkscrewswas really the key. The thing which might have been mistaken for a tricycle turned upsidedown was the inexpressibly important instrument to which the corkscrew was the key. Allthese things, as I say, the professor had invented; he had invented everything in the flyingship, with the exception, perhaps, of himself. This he had been born too late actually toinaugurate, but he believed at least, that he had considerably improved it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08HT9PY66
• ISBN13: 9798685834928
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"