# Belloc's morning: a located attribution with an unsettled wording

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH03.P019](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH03.P019/#char=1967,2030): "You have mistaken the hour of the night: it is already morning."

A useful source lead is Belloc's *An Open Letter on the Decay of Faith* (1906), addressed to C. F. G. Masterman. Robert Hickson's 2021 discussion identifies the Burns & Oates pamphlet as a reprint from the *Tribune*, 29 March 1906, and locates its closing reassurance on page 14. His transcription reads “be oppressed by forces already dissolved,” where Chesterton has “be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution.” The reported context answers anxiety about Christianity's decline; Chesterton applies the reassurance to anxiety about scepticism's advance. The connection is strong, but this is a comparison with Hickson's transcription, not a collation against the 1906 pamphlet: an original scan remains needed before calling Chesterton's version a demonstrably altered quotation. [Hickson, epigraphs, conclusion and note 1](https://ordodei.net/2021/04/10/young-hilaire-bellocs-1906-open-letter-on-the-decay-of-faith-his-polite-reply-to-some-eloquent-discouragements/).

## Sources

- [Robert Hickson, Young Hilaire Belloc's 1906 Open Letter on the Decay of Faith](https://ordodei.net/2021/04/10/young-hilaire-bellocs-1906-open-letter-on-the-decay-of-faith-his-polite-reply-to-some-eloquent-discouragements/), 10 April 2021 article; third epigraph, closing quotation attributed to pamphlet p. 14, and note 1

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