The Henson Journals

[535]

Thursday, December 16th, 1915.

500th day

Penelope went home by the morning train: & I had my hair cut by the local barber, a humiliating performance, but, in the circumstances, unavoidable. Dennett, Cully, & Gaymer called successively upon me. I wrote to Macartney, authorising him to go on with the work in the Tower. Ella brought some S.P.G. folks to lunch. I walked with Logic, losing him en route, but he found his way home, & then attended Evensong. Afterwards I wrote letters.

After dinner I read an English translation (sent to me by the publisher) of Pierre Lots's 'Jerusalem'. It is elaborately posed, & therefore lacks the indispensable note of sincerity. He is the melancholy modern in search of a faith, given up to an immense self–pity born of an exorbitant self–esteem. Accordingly, at every juncture, the reader is 'held up' by little geyser–like eruptions of egotistical sentiment.

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