The Henson Journals

[406]

Thursday, September 7th, 1916.

766th day

Cunningham went back to Cambridge after breakfast. Our other guest, Professor Bower, went to do his duty in Newcastle by an earlier train. I received a letter from the Dean of Windsor asking for my text; and a telegram from the Acting Master of the Household appointing my train. "If quite convenient to you carriage will meet you in Windsor G.W.R. station on Saturday train arriving 6.17." A 'reply paid' form was enclosed. Also I received letters from Olive and Ernest. The morning was spent in revising and partly re–writing the Windsor Sermon. I attended Evensong, whereat the Archdeacon made his appearance. Logic manifested so much reluctance to follow me in a walk that I turned back. The heat was, perhaps, too much for him: but I must needs think his behaviour an evidence of waxing age.

[404]

"Nor does the want of religion in the generality of the common people appear owing to a speculative disbelief or denial of it, but chiefly to thoughtlessness & the common temptations of life."

Butler, "Charge at Durham"

Would it be reasonable to infer the individual immortality of coral insects from the enduring nature of their work? Why, then, attach any significance to the superior power of survival possessed by human works (e.g. Durham Cathedral) as compared with the pitiable brevity of man's lives? I spent an hour in walking round the cathedral with Prof. Bower, who is an intelligent and interested observer. He has made collecting expeditions in Ceylon and Jamaica. He told us some of his experiences in these expeditions. Of the negro population in Jamaica he spoke with much approval. Unlike the negroes of the United States the Jamaican negroes are mostly of unmixed blood. He said that the climate of Jamaica was pleasant, & that the bad hygiene reputation of the island was largely undeserved. In the Puget Sound the tides were extraordinarily irregular.

The 'British Weekly' contains a hostile column on the Somme Films, that is, hostile to me: but the films being Lloyd–George's peculiar contribution to the process of popular education, it follows that the radical–socialist journals are forward in their advocacy. The local Durham paper gives much space to the correspondence on the whole subject. Mr Wallis of St. John's College, who is now a military chaplain, told me that he had seen the films, & thought that those which displayed the actual dying of the soldiers were objectionable. We dined quietly, and had much talk after dinner before going to bed.

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