第2巻第5章 テレグラフハウス時代末期(承前)
テレグラフ・ハウスは広く,そこに通じる道は,それぞれ約一マイルある(車が通れる)私道が2本あるだけであった。私はテレグラフハウスを売りたいと思ったが,学校がそこにある間は売りに出すことができなかった。唯一の望みは,そこに自分が住んで,テレグラフ・ハウスを購入してくれそうな人にとって魅力的になものになるように努めることであった。 学校が移転してなくなったテレグラフ・ハウスに,再び居を構えた後,休暇でカナリア諸島(アフリカ北西岸)に行った。休暇先から戻ると,自分自身,精神的には正常ではあったが,創造的な衝動にかなり欠けており,どのような仕事をすべきかわからなくなっていることに気付いた。約2ヶ月の間,純粋に気晴らしのため,ひとつの立方体の表面に27本の直線をひく問題と取り組んだ。しかしそれは'気晴らし'には決してならなかった。なぜなら,まったく何の役にも立つものではなかったし,それに首尾のよかった時代,- それも1932年までで終わったが- ,に蓄えていた金で暮らしていたからである。 私は,日々増大しつつある戦争の脅威について本を書く決心をした。この本に『平和への道』(Which way to peace?)という題をつけた。そしてその本の中で,かつて私が第一次世界大戦中にとったと同じ平和主義者の立場を保持した。確かに,例外として,もしも世界政府が確立されるとすれば反乱に対してはそれを力で支えることが望ましいという見解をもった,しかし,今もうすぐにでも起ころうとしている戦争に関しては良心的兵役拒否を唱えた。 |
v.2,chap.5: Later Years of Telegraph House When the writing of Freedom and Organization was finished, I decided to return to Telegraph House and tell Dora she must live elsewhere. My reasons were financial. I was under a legal obligation to pay a rent of £400 a year for Telegraph House, the proceeds being due to my brother's second wife as alimony. I was also obliged to pay alimony to Dora, as well as all the expenses of John and Kate. Meanwhile my income had diminished catastrophically. This was due partly to the depression, which caused people to buy much fewer books, partly to the fact that I was no longer writing popular books, and partly to my having refused to stay with Hearst in 1931 at his castle in California. My weekly articles in the Hearst newspapers had brought me £1000 a year, but after my refusal the pay was halved, and very soon I was told the articles were no longer required. Telegraph House was large, and was only approachable by two private drives, each about a mile long. I wished to sell it, but could not put it on the market while the school was there. The only hope was to live there, and try to make it attractive to possible purchasers. After settling again at Telegraph House, without the school, I went for a holiday to the Canary Islands. On returning, I found myself, though sane, quite devoid of creative impulse, and at a loss to know what work to do. For about two months, purely to afford myself distraction, I worked on the problem of the twenty-seven straight lines on a cubic surface. But this would never do, as it was totally useless and I was living on capital saved during the successful years that ended in 1932. I decided to write a book on the daily increasing menace of war. I called this book Which Way to Peace? and maintained in it the pacifist position that I had taken up during the First War. I did, it is true, make an exception: I held that, if ever a world government were established, it would be desirable to support it by force against rebels. But as regards the war to be feared in the immediate future, I urged conscientious objection. |