The Henson Journals

[10]

Monday, January 26th, 1920.

Who does not change his opinions between twenty and thirty? A young man enters life with his father's or tutor's views; he changes them for his own. The more modest & diffident he is, the more faith he has, so much the longer does he speak the words of others: but the force of circumstances, or the vigour of his mind, infallibly obliges him at last to have a mind of his own: that is if he is good for anything.

Newman. 'Loss & gain'. P. 190

I motored to Weston–under–Penyard & called on Craigie. Rather to my dismay he postpones his departure "until he can find a house to go into", that is, as matters now stand, until the Greek Kalends. I had tea with K. who gave me an account of his visit to the Conference on Reunion at Oxford. Lacey seems to have 'queered the pitch' very characteristically, & Welldon was, of course, clamorously futile. I don't think anything effectual is likely to come out of these meetings. Nobody is frank, & few are quite sincere. K. is ruminating over an ecclesiastical policy for 'the Times', and inclines to disenowment, though (rather oddly) he would like to retain the Establishment. He thinks that, if the Anglo–Catholics were thrown on their own resources, they would soon discover how slight is their hold on the nation. While they can use the national endowments they can delude themselves, & others.

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