STUDIES AND ESSAYS, Complete
By John Galsworthy
CONTENTS
CONCERNING LIFE, Part 1.
CONCERNING LIFE, Part 2.
[ THE GRAND JURY—IN TWO PANELS AND A FRAME ]
CONCERNING LETTERS
[ SOME PLATITUDES CONCERNING DRAMA ]
[ REFLECTIONS ON OUR DISLIKE OF THINGS AS THEY ARE ]
CENSORSHIP AND ART
“Je vous dirai que l'exces est toujours un mal.”
—ANATOLE FRANCE
CONCERNING LIFE
THE INN OF TRANQUILLITY
Under a burning blue sky, among the pine-trees and junipers, the cypresses and olives of that Odyssean coast, we came one afternoon on a pink house bearing the legend: “Osteria di Tranquillita,”; and, partly because of the name, and partly because we did not expect to find a house at all in those goat-haunted groves above the waves, we tarried for contemplation. To the familiar simplicity of that Italian building there were not lacking signs of a certain spiritual change, for out of the olive-grove which grew to its very doors a skittle-alley had been formed, and two baby cypress-trees were cut into the effigies of a cock and hen. The song of a gramophone, too, was breaking forth into the air, as it were the presiding voice of a high and cosmopolitan mind. And, lost in admiration, we became conscious of the odour of a full-flavoured cigar. Yes—in the skittle-alley a gentleman was standing who wore a bowler hat, a bright brown suit, pink tie, and very yellow boots. His head was round, his cheeks fat and well-coloured, his lips red and full under a black moustache, and he was regarding us through very thick and half-closed eyelids.