s competition.

The complexities of modern life suggest that coffee drinking in
perfection, the esthetics, and a new literature of coffee may once more
become the pleasure of a small caste. Are the real pleasures of life,
the things truly worth while, only to the swift--the most efficient? Who
shall say? Are not some of us, particularly in America, rather prone to
glorify the gospel of work to such an extent that we are in danger of
losing the ability to understand or to enjoy anything else?

Granted that this is so, coffee, already recognized as the most grateful
lubricant known to the human machine, is destined to play another part
of increasing importance in our national life as a kind of national
shock-absorber as well. But its role is something more than this,
surely. When life is drab, it takes away its grayness. When life is sad,
it brings us solace. When life is dull, it brings us new inspiration.
When we are a-weary, it brings us comfort and good cheer.

The lure of coffee lies in its appeal to our finer sensibilities; and
signs are not wanting that that pursuit of the long, sweet happiness
that every one is seeking will lead some of us (even in big bustling
America) into footpaths that end in places where coffee will offer much
of its pristine inspiration and charm. It probably will not be a coffee
house anything like that of the long ago, but perhaps it will be a kind
of modernized coffee club. Why not?

[Illustration: A COFFEE HOUSE IN HOLLAND, ABOUT 1650

After the etching by J. Beauvarlet from a painting by Adriaen Van Ostade
(1610-1675), which is said to be the earliest picture of a coffee house
in western Europe]

CHAPTER XXXIII

COFFEE IN RELATION TO THE FINE ARTS

_How coffee and coffee drinking have been celebrated in painting,
engraving, sculpture, caricature, lithography, and music--Epics,
rhapsodies, and cantatas in praise of coffee--Beautiful specimens
of the art of the potter and the silversmith as shown in the coffee
service of various periods in the world's history--Some historical
relics_

Coffee has inspired the imagination of many poets, musicians, and
painters. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries those whose genius
was dedicated to the fine arts seem to have fallen under its spell and
to have produced much of great beauty that has endured. To the painters,
engravers, and caricaturists of that period we are particularly indebted
for pi