Humility gets a bad rap these days, especially when contrasted with philosophies of egoism and self-assertion. But can we see the world as it really is without losing ourselves for a moment to take up the perspective of another?

Such is the argument of G. K. Chesterton in this delightful essay, “A Defence of Humility.”

This essay is one in a series titled The Defendant, first published as a collection in 1901, after the individual essays were published in The Speaker. Here, a selection of these essays has been reissued by Voices of Today for a new generation.