The Henson Journals

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Wednesday, November 6th, 1912. Cambridge, Mass.

I find it a good rule, when I am contemplating a person from whom I want to learn, always to look out for his strength, being confident that the weakness will discover itself.

Maurice. Essays. 305.

Mine host & I went round to the Union last night in order to hear reports of the election. There was no excitement save among the dons: the youth were mainly engaged in playing cards. But the result of this election is so generally anticipated that public interest is not easy to arouse. The polling, however, is said to be abnormally heavy. I asked whether the fraternity system obtained in Harvard, & I was assured that it did so only to a small extent.

Squirrels degraded by indiscriminate almsgiving:–

Prof. Peabody was in chapel, & had some conversation afterwards. I commented on the tameness of the grey squirrels: 'Ah!' he said 'the squirrels are being totally demoralized by the B.I., as we call the benevolent individuals who give alms indiscriminately to all who beg of them. These creatures within the college campus have come to depend on the bounty of the benevolent, & have actually lost the old thrifty instinct which once made them store the nuts!'

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The papers report an overwhelming victory for Wilson, & a great humiliation for Taft, who is at the bottom of the poll. There seems general satisfaction at the calamity which has overtaken the Republican Party, which had become the party of the 'Trusts' & the Tariff which made them grossly prosperous at the cost of the general mass of citizens. There is certainly much food for thought in this popular movement against Protection in America precisely at the moment when the Unionist Party in Great Britain have inscribed 'Tariff Reform' (i.e. Protection) on its banner.

I took the passage in Zephaniah i. 12 ('I will punish the men that are settled on their lees, that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil') for my little preachment in the Chapel. There was quite a good attendance, & the men were very attentive.

My vigil in Wadsworth House was uninterrupted save for a man who wanted material for an article on the Putumayo question. He asked me whether there was not some veiled design of securing a new sphere of British interest! I assured him to the contrary. He said that he had been in the diplomatic service himself, & had had experience of British officials in South America, where he found that they were continually working against the United States, & sowing suspicion of American diplomacy in the minds of the South American people!

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I preached for the 3rd time in the Cathedral, taking for my text the words from the Parable of the Good Samaritan: "Who is my neighbour?" The congregation was distinctly larger.

The Chapel at Andover College was well–filled at 4.30 p.m. when I delivered the 2nd lecture of my course. My subject was 'The Problem of Belief'. The demure & constrained manner of the presiding pundit suggested to me that he at least disapproved of my doctrine: but mine host was enthusiastic in his approval, & so was Professor Scofield, who talked to me afterwards.

The history of the Andover Theological College would hardly suggest much sympathy with liberal views in theology. It was founded in the interests of a rigid orthodoxy in order to rescue the youth preparing for the ministry from the destructive influence of Harvard, then an Unitarian institution. It removed itself to Andover in order to assist purity of faith by absence of heretical temptations. But this arrangement broke down before the reluctance of the youth to resort to this citadel of truth. Meanwhile Harvard had been itself undergoing a silent revolution which practically put an end to its Unitarian character. So the College, swallowing its dignity, resolved to return to Harvard. Here it has re–established itself in very fine new buildings, the finest in the University, & has begun again to attract students. But enough of its original orthodoxy yet attaches to it to render it rather sensitive to fits of nerves when anything intelligibly destructive of its traditions comes into sight.

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Issues and controversies: Putumayo