The Henson Journals

[32]

9th Sunday after Trinity, August 13th, 1922.

"We were now treading that illustrious Island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses: whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona."

v. Dr Johnson. "A Journey" p. 346.

The temper of mind disclosed by this passage is not far removed from the romantick which found such free and noble expression in the writings of Sir Walter Scott. Sentiment is an idealizing faculty, whether its main concern be ethics or history. Dr Johnson was always and everywhere a moralist. Scott was predominantly an historian. Both fed their fancies from the past.

[33]

"A man who has settled his opinions, does not love to have the tranquillity of his conviction disturbed; and at seventy–seven it is time to be in earnest" (v. Ivid p. 280). If Johnson had said that "at 77 it was time to be at rest", it wd perhaps have been more natural. "To be in earnest" distinguishes the honest seeker after truth, not the secure possessor of it. But evidently the Doctor has in mind rather the firm refusal to re–open questions for which answers have laboriously been found, which may not unfitly mark the old man's attitude towards scepticism. He may fairly resent being invited to undertake at the end of his life labours of inquiry which could only be reasonably embarked upon at the beginning. Bigotry is more nearly legitimate in the aged than in others, for they alone have no time left for unlearning or for learning. And bigotry is desperately in earnest, the more so since its zeal is always quickened by the irrepressible suspicion that it may be mistaken! For every challenge detracts something from certitude, & a belief which knows itself to be challenged becomes fanatical in self–defence. Hence the often observed phenomenon that beliefs are often more fervently professed when they are on the verge of being abandoned. The felt but abhorred consciousness of doubt operates as a spur to the affections which attach themselves with the more ardour to the object which the reason and the conscience are beginning to disallow. It is the grace of very few old men to acquire Gamaliel's temper of charitable caution. Mostly they hold with Dr Johnson that "at seventy–seven it is time to be in earnest".

[34]

"Almost all remarkable events have evil for their basis: and are either miseries incurred, or miseries escaped. Our sense is so much stronger of what we suffer, than of what we enjoy, that the ideas of pain predominate in almost every mind. What is recollection but a revival of vexations, or history but a record of wars, treasons, and calamities? Death, which is considered as the greatest evil, happens to all. The greatest good, be it what it will, is the lot but of a part".

Ibid. p. 250

Is this morbid posing? Or is it profound insight? 'Recollection' is certainly more than "a revival of vexations" in normal lives. There are the pleasures of memory, and any observant hearer of human conversation will notice how much of it consists in the rehearsal of experiences which flatter pride or kindle affection. No doubt it is the case that "distance lends enchantment to view, but the original prospect must have been pleasing to provide materials for this magic to work upon.

We attended the morning service at Streiton. The church includes some remains of a medieval building in which were two recumbent figures lying under a rather elaborate tabernacle. These were monuments of the Kennedy family. The minister, who was at one time an assistant to Fleming at S. Columba's in London, read his sermon rather woodenly, but the sermon itself was unobjectionable. Both at Dalton last Sunday and at Streiton this morning I was surprised at the badness of the singing. There was nothing worth calling a choir, and the congregation was silent.

[35]

I had some conversation with Mr Robert Pollock–Morris, mine host's brother, who appears to be rather unusually interested in ecclesiastical questions. He himself is a loyal Presbyterian, attending when in London the ministry of Archie Fleming. He said that he often "sat under" Bernard Vaughan in Farm Street, and admired his preaching. The fashion in Scotland a generation ago was to attend Episcopalian services, but now the lairds commonly attended the parish churches. In Ayr a large Episcopalian church had been built at great cost, but now it was "a white elephant". He thought that the narrowness of the Scottish Episcopalians was a great barrier to reunion. Patronage was, in his opinion, the great blot on the Church of England: but I told him that our system was preferable to such a system as exists in Scotland. Rather to my surprise he defended extemporaneous prayers with some energy.

After dinner the General spoke much and in a very interesting manner of his experiences during the War. He gave several examples of gross lies which had been published as to the proceedings in Gallipoli & Palestine, which he had been able to contradict of his own knowledge. He said that he had been led to the conclusion that history must be utterly unreliable. I reminded him that Richard Baxter had reached the same conclusion by the same reasoning. He said that towards the end of the War there were many cases of British soldiers deliberately getting gassed in order to "go sick", and be sent home! The nearer one gets to the truth of War, the more shoddy a business it is found to be.

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