The Henson Journals

[469]

22nd Sunday after Trinity, October 31st, 1915.

454th day

I had a profusely wretched night: & spent Sunday in bed. Dr Stuart's advice coincided with my own feeling, & determined me to abandon the journey to Oxford which had been arranged for tomorrow. I wrote to Frank Pember, sending him the MS. of the sermon which I had prepared for All Soul's Day.

I read in bed a story about the American handling of the Philippines "The Little Brown Brother" by Stanley Portal Hyatt. It is said to have been founded on the writer's observations as war correspondent during the last Filipino revolt. The book is dated 1908: & must not, therefore, be supposed to represent very accurately what happens today: but certainly it conveys an ugly impression of depravity & infinite humbug in the American administration. It is not always easy to resist the suspicion that the Americans are not morally adequate to the high place they affect to claim in the World's politics. They wish to enjoy indulgence in high emotions without enduring the burden of discipline, or making any material sacrifice: and this involves them in the habit of unreality: & the habit strikes inwards, & colours the character. Americans, on the lines which they now choose, are apparently doomed to become the Pecksniffs of Civilization, talking sublimely and acting meanly. Their position in the world is due to their number, wealth, and remoteness: not to their history, which is recent & mean, or to their achievements, which are relatively petty. The present war seems to prove that even their zeal for international peace, & their passion for humanity are not strong enough to move them to any action entailing sacrifice.

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