Jonah, I’d agree, sort of. As I said myself, there was an internal logic to what GKC wrote. More generally, however, when I read someone talking about ‘spirits’ (good or bad, and, yes, bad is as plausible as good), I see someone moving away from theology (which has, at least, an intellectual structure) to something more overtly primitive, lets call it superstition.
The road from Bethlehem to Amityville is, thank whoever, a long one, but, judging by the quote you cite, Chesterton seems to have waddled quite a few paces along it…