The Henson Journals

[222]

Friday, September 4th, 1925.

I wrote to William and George: and, then, after finishing my letters & reading the newspaper, walked for an hour with Ralph. He is religiously somewhat perplexing. Jacks & he were together a few days ago, & lamenting the faults of their respective churches, Unitarian and Anglican. They both, he tells me, inclined to the conclusion that they would find themselves more spiritually contented as Quakers. Miss Haldane assures me that her scientific brother reports that the young men of science are, so far as they are concerned with religion, tending to Quakerism. Its supreme merit in their eyes is that imposes on creed on its professors. But institutional religion stands or falls with creeds, sacraments, & liturgies. It is a revolt against institutional religion which all these clever folks are confessing. But coming down to practical issues, one must needs ask whether the "modern churchmen" whom Ralph leads & perhaps (though I doubt it) represents, could serve parishes as pastors, and govern dioceses as bishops. They run together to read and listen to critical papers, to speculate on the fundamentals of religion, to heap scorn upon the beliefs and traditions of historic Christianity, to eulogize the smaller sects, and to canonize the most extravagant "hereticks", but could they teach simple folk the way of Christ, or bring His comforts to the troubled, or carry His redemptive message to the repentant? I doubt it.

[223]

At dinner we had quite a considerable discussion on religious and ecclesiastical questions, in which the garrulity of Gosse was silenced from sheer lack of provender! But some interesting things were said. Haldane, rather to my surprise, spoke slightingly on Storr, and favourably on Clutton Brock. He thought little of the philosophical quality of Clement Webb and Taylor. They were philosophically ruined by their ecclesiastical proclivities. I observed that Webb was handicapped by his Chair. To combine philosophy and apologetics was to ruin both: and he seemed to agree. Miss Haldane subsequently confessed her objection to Anglicanism as based on its insistence on Creeds. She instanced, to my surprise, the Article, "descended into hell" as a difficulty. I am convinced that religious & ecclesiastical objections are far more temperamental than intellectual.

In the afternoon we were taken to see a library founded at the end of the XVIIth century, & pleasantly in a white–washed building which joined on to a medieval chapel. The Bible of Montrose, carrying on its pages divers notes in the hero's handwriting was the most interesting treasure of the collection, which contained a good many books of the time. Anglican theology was rather fully represented on the shelves, a circumstance which was explained by the fact that the Scottish Archbishop of York, Drummond, left his books to the library.

[224]

We had tea at a fine house, Monzies, tenanted by some pleasant rich people named McEwan, hailing from Glasgow. Most part of the house is modern, a fire having destroyed much of the old mansion, but some of the latter survives in the rear of the present building. In the grounds are 3 noble Scotch firs said to be the oldest in Scotland.

Gosse was a great friend of the late Sir George Buchanan. He spoke to me about Harold whom he called "an impudent adventurer", but admitted that he had become such under the doating influence of silly women, far older than himself. It is an extremely repulsive thing to be driven to admit that the conventional class distinctions, which Harold's marriage with Elsie. G. so flagrantly violated, go so deep that they cannot safely be ignored. The cynical wisdom which stereotypes the boundaries of class probably justifies itself in experience. Yet many influences are driving classes together, and, in the mélange of diverse classes, it is certain that many engagements will violate the frontiers of convention. Marriages of chauffeurs and heiresses are frequently announced, and, I fear, almost as frequently dissolved. But the parade of the gentry through the Divorce Court seems to show that identity of class & culture provides no sufficient guarantee of matrimonial stability. The whole subject is as repulsive as it is perplexing.

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