The Trees of Pride

by Gilbert K. Chesterton




THE TREES OF PRIDE:
I. THE TALE OF THE PEACOCK TREES
II. THE WAGER OF SQUIRE VANE
III. THE MYSTERY OF THE WELL
IV. THE CHASE AFTER THE TRUTH




THE TREES OF PRIDE

I. THE TALE OF THE PEACOCK TREES

Squire Vane was an elderly schoolboy of English education and
Irish extraction. His English education, at one of the great
public schools, had preserved his intellect perfectly and
permanently at the stage of boyhood. But his Irish extraction
subconsciously upset in him the proper solemnity of an old boy,
and sometimes gave him back the brighter outlook of a naughty boy.
He had a bodily impatience which played tricks upon him
almost against his will, and had already rendered him rather
too radiant a failure in civil and diplomatic service.
Thus it is true that compromise is the key of British policy,