In contrast to these fearless words that brought him the condemnation of French journals, he made more urbane response to the literary honor conferred upon him, adding to his personal gratitude, tribute to the Swedish Academy: “Its decisions possess an international value, and I rejoice in it, for it is a confirmation of what is, for me, the principal lesson of the war, the beneficent influence exerted by intellectual intercourse with other countries.” There had been rumors, well attested, that the young men of France had repudiated Anatole France as a leader, seeking other exponents of philosophy and echoing the adverse comments upon him by Maurice Barrès and Henri Massis, editor of _La Revue Universelle_. They contended that he failed to give them a constructive philosophy in the hour of need. He never claimed to be a philosopher; he was an observer of life, a commentator, a poet-dreamer, a lover of justice, an ironist, a stylist rather than a thinker. He was not widely read in other languages and philosophies as were Georg Brandes or Sainte-Beuve. He bore some relationship to Brotteaux of his story, _The Gods Are Athirst_, who was condemned to death because of his lack of reverence for great political revolutionists. Anatole France saw the world as a subject for keen wit that is often sardonic but seldom bitter. He found life sadly in contrast with some of his visions as a youth but he did not despair of a future of more equality of conditions, more tolerance in creeds. Paul Gsell, one of his hero-worshipers, in his records of conferences at the Villa Saïd, the Paris home of “the Master,” has recalled significant thoughts uttered by him upon “The Credo of a Skeptic,” “Politics in the Academy,” and other themes.[143] In his _Boswellian Record_ by Jean-Jacques Brousson (Lippincott, 1925) there are frank confessions of his “show conversations” and his “contradictory ideas” which caused shyness and lack of clarity of mind. He recalls “the almond icing” which he put on his first version of _The Life of Jeanne d’Arc_, to be “picturesque” and to please “the sanctimonious.” These “snap-shots” of Anatole France “en pantouffles,” in moods of relaxation, are even less interesting than some of the quotations of serious sort from the words of this master of style. Two significant sentences will be often quoted; “You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner; by planing down your sentences.”... “People take me for a juggler, a sophist, a droll fellow. In reality I have passed my life twisting dynamite into curl-papers.”[144]