The Henson Journals

[94]

11th Sunday after Trinity, August 7th, 1921.

Before getting up I read in my Loeb the description of the rapid degeneration of the Greeks under the condition of civil strife which Thucydides gives with reference to the dissensions in Corcyra (bk. III, lxxvii–lxxxiii). Our recent experiences, & the reports from Russia, give an aspect of relevance to his words which is highly disconcerting. He especially emphasizes the emergence of compete distrust, & the disappearance of all good faith.

"So it was that every form of depravity showed itself in Hellas in consequence of its revolutions (^[Greek verse]^), and that simplicity (^[Greek verse]^) which is the chief element of a noble nature, was laughed to scorn and disappeared, while mutual antagonism of feeling, combined with mistrust, prevailed far & wide. For there was no assurance binding enough, no oath terrible enough, to reconcile men: but always, if they were stronger, since thy accounted all security hopeless, they were rather disposed to take precautions against being wronged than able to trust others. And it was generally those of meaner intellect (^[Greek verse]^) who won the day: for being afraid of their own defects & of their opponents' sagacity, in order that they might not be worsted in words, & by reason of their own opponents' intellectual versatility find themselves unawares victims of their plots, they boldly resorted to deeds. Their opponents, on the other hand, contemptuously assuming that they wd. be aware in time, and that there was no need to secure by deeds what they might have by wit, were taken off their guard and perished in greater numbers."

[95] [symbol]

I wrote to George: and then went with the rest to the parish church. The service was Mattins, omitting the prayers for the Royal Family and for Parliament, and a sermon, if thus I may term a piece of ranting garnished by many vulgarities & delivered with much gesticulation. Quite clearly there had been no preparation: obviously there was much devotion.

We lunched with Arthur Rawle in his hotel very pleasantly. He is an excellent fellow, of a type which the war has almost extinguished, the loss of which will not easily be made up. We attended evensong in the lower church (not lower in type of worship, but in situation), and were much pleased with the service, and also with the sermon. The form in the Prayer–book was (with one petty exception) actually followed throughout. I was told that the preacher, whose rich brogue proclaimed his origin, was named Rice, and was vicar of Chard. The congregation impressed me by the enormous preponderance of women, mostly young. In the pews about me I counted 42 women & 3 men! When, after dinner, we strolled for an hour on the front, the proportions appeared to be in some degree reversed, the majority, swollen by the men from the camp on the hill, & by a number of very old boy–scouts, was clearly masculine. It is, of course, an excellent thing that women should be devoutly disposed, but it is unfortunate that their superiority in devotion should be so publicly disclosed, for the spectacle of churches crowded with women creates a general impression, which it is very difficult to remove, that there is something essentially unmanly about church attendance, that Religion is really an affair of women.

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