Childhood as a condition of entrance
I have come into my second childhood.
The conjunction of an entrance, a recovered childhood, and a Christian conclusion invites comparison with Matthew 18:1–4. In the King James Version (first published 1611; inspected in Project Gutenberg ebook 10), Jesus makes becoming like children a condition of entering the kingdom, and identifies the relevant quality as humility. That context helps explain the apparent reversal here: submitting to a teacher can open a field of discoveries rather than close it. Matthew 18:1–4.
John 3:3–8 offers a related but distinct comparison: spiritual rebirth, misunderstood by Nicodemus as another physical birth. Chesterton’s ‘second childhood’ is neither a quotation of that conversation nor an explanation of its water-and-Spirit language. His immediate subject is the renewed expectancy produced by trust. These passages clarify the Christian possibilities of his image; the wording alone cannot establish a unique biblical source. John 3:3–8.
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