The Henson Journals

[171]

Tuesday, September 20th, 1921.

Knowledge is not our proper happiness. Whoever will in the least attend to the thing will see, that it is the gaining, not the having of it, which is the entertainment of the mind. Indeed, if the proper happiness of man consisted in knowledge considered as a possession or treasure, men who are possessed of the largest share would have a very ill time of it: as they would be infinitely more sensible than others of their poverty in this respect. Thus "he who increases knowledge would" eminently "increase sorrow".

Bishop Butler

Fawkes writes to seek my judgement on his treatment of the Cambridge Heresies in the "Spectator". He encloses a letter which he has already sent to that journal. In this he makes reference to the sermon from which I have quoted above. "There wd be fewer religious disputes were the discussions of the rival sectaries opened by the reading of what is perhaps the greatest of English sermons – that of Bishop Butler on 'The Ignorance of Man'."

Clayton and I motored to Durham, where I instituted clergy in the Castle chapel; called on the Dean; dined at the club with Wilson: and spent an hour shewing the Cathedral to William. He is really shewing an intelligent interest in architecture. We returned to Auckland for tea. Pemberton brought some ladies. I had some talk with him about Bede.

[172]

General Seely arrived about 6.30 p.m. He was motoring to Scotland to join his wife, and shoot. He made himself very agreeable to everybody. Lord Thurlow and his wife came in after dinner. They have just returned from Scotland, where – in defiance of the canons – he has been shooting. The Bishop of Peterborough, who is her cousin, was with them. She was good enough to play the organ at prayers.

General Seely had the curious fortune of having as a Minister of the Crown to conduct negociations with General Botha whom as a solider he had fired at and missed. When, after the peace, the Boer leader came into friendly contact with the British officer, the two men compared notes, and were able to identify the episode. I asked him whether he thought there was any real chance that the history of South Africa would be repeated in the case of Ireland: and he replied hopefully. The two grand causes of Irish muddlement were the Roman Catholic Church and the English Party System. Sinn Fein had removed the first: and Mr Lloyd George ('that amazing little man with intuitions like a woman, which are sometimes true, has destroyed the last'). He said that Sinn Fein was now dominated by about 2000 desperate men, who had committed gross acts of villainy, such acts as in the view of criminologists do permanently deflect & corrupt the character. In the interval of the truce the Police had many opportunities of identifying these scoundrels, a fact of which the said scoundrels were not all together ignorant.

[173]

If I follow your Church for my Guide, I shall do all owe as if I should follow a company of blind men in a judgment of colours, or in the choice of a way. For every unconsidering man is blind in that which he does not consider. Now what is your church but a company of unconsidering men who comfort themselves because they are a great company together? but all of them, either out of idleness refuse the trouble of a severe trial of their Religion (as if Heaven were not worth it), or out of superstition fear the event of such a trial, that they may be scrupled and staggered and disquieted by it; and therefore, for the most part, do it not at all: or, if they do it, they do it negligently and hypocritically and perfunctorily, rather for the satisfaction of others than for themselves, but certainly without indifference, without liberty of judgement, without a resolution to doubt of it, if, upon examination, the grounds of it prove uncertain, or to leave it, if they prove apparently false. My own experience assures me, that in this imputation I do you no injury.

Chillingworth, p. 365.

Are we Anglicans in the XXth century taking up the position of the Romans in the XVIIth, & meriting such an address as the above?

[174]

General Seely went off at about 10.20 a.m. He left a very agreeable impression on everyone. Sir John and Lady Struthers went off after breakfast. Ernest had returned to Sedbergh by an early train: Clayton went off to Knutsford for some kind of a conference. Thus a large clearance was made! I wrote letters, was interviewed by the new Rescue & Refuge Lady, Miss Coleman; and prepared notes for the afternoon's function. After lunch I motored to Lynesack, stopping at West Auckland on the way to pick up Dr Short who, as a surrogate, sufficed to witness my action. At Lynesack I consecrated an addition to the churchyard, and then addressed a crowded congregation in the parish church. This is a mean modern building. I received a petition for an alteration of the boundaries between the parishes of Lynesack & Staindrop. Then I had tea in the schoolroom, and made a short speech. After this I returned to the castle.

The more I think over this Congress Sermon, the more perplexed I become. Is it wise after all to deal with the doctrinal issue at all? Is it not adding fuel to the fire? On the other hand. Is it not certain that sooner or later I must cut myself publicly adrift from these so called "Liberals", with whom I have no real sympathy, & whose tone & temper appear to me anti–Christian? And, can I look for a more suitable occasion for declaring the inevitable breach than that which the Cambridge Conference provides? And, am I not repeating the history of every liberal Anglican, if there are those liberals who do but go further than I in a direction which I have myself seemed to approve?

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