The Henson Journals

[27]

Tuesday, April 24th, 1917.

995th day

A beautiful day, & so warm that my study–fire was unlighted, & I felt no discomfort. I attended Mattins; & afterwards, settled to work at the Anson letters. [The following, wh. I noticed by chance in turning the pages of a dull book, may still hold good:–

"After dinner I had renewed conversations with Sir James Macintosh. Alluding to the style of speaking in the House of Commons, he characterized it by saying, that 'the true light in wh. to consider it, was as animated conversation on public business'; and, he added, it was 'rare for any speech to succeed in that body wh. was raised on any other basis'." (v. Rush. "A residence at the Court of London. 1819–1825[^"^]. 2nd series. vol I. p. 44.)

From the strangers' gallery I have listened to debates in the H. of C. from time to time during my residence in Westr (1900–1912), and I am disposed to accept the phrase "animated conversation" as a fairly faithful description of the speaking.]

After lunch I went to the potato–patch, & laboured for rather more than two hours. My letter on Horton's Sabbatarianism appears in the "Times", and is followed by a letter from Gamble. I amused myself after dinner by looking at Huxley's 'Life'. Many of the letters, there published, are quite undeserving of publication, but there are some good things. He was severe on Newman: ("That man is the slipperiest sophist I have ever met with. Kingsley was entirely right about him.") He could not stomach Positivism: "Of all the sickening humbugs in the world, the sham pietism of the Positivists is to me the most offensive." He has a strongly–expressed letter (vol. III. p. 121) in answer to a correspondent who had asked his views about "alcohol as a stimulant to the brain in mental work".

"The circumstances of my life have led me to experience all sorts of conditions in regard to alcohol, from total abstinence to nearly the other end of the scale, & my clear conviction is the less the better, though I by no means feel called upon to forgo the comforting and cheering effects of a little."

On the whole, I think, that is about my own opinion.

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