The Henson Journals
Fri 11 December 1925
Volume 40, Pages 17 to 18
[17]
Friday, December 11th, 1925.
The notion that because men do not agree in mater of religion, therefore it must be taboo in education, is quite as grotesque as it would be to exclude poetry from the schools & colleges because a large number of men read only prose or because critics fall into violently conflicting groups as to the importance and influence of individual poets on schools of poetry.
Nicholas Murray Butler. Presidential Address to Columbia University. 1925.
Nicholas Murray Butler – how the childish individualism of America loves to enunciate the full name at every turn! – sends me his presidential address, presumably because he makes in it a quotation from my "Evening Standard" Article on the Decline of Preaching. The address contains many wise sayings such as that which I have extracted. It is, of course, obvious enough, and yet it is thoroughly well worth saying; for the very opposite is habitually assumed. I suppose it might be pleaded that the practical difficulty of teaching religion in State institutions when the community is religiously divided is so great that it prevails over the theoretical absurdity of ignoring religion.
[18]
I spent most of the morning in bringing my table into some kind of workable order. It was a laborious and dust–defiling task!
The chemistry professor, Masson, and his wife came to lunch, and I showed them the Castle. When they had departed, I walked round the Park. Then I wrote a letter to the Times on the Shrewsbury Bishoprick Measure. The discussion in Parliament must take place next week, and I am engaged almost every day. So I could only get to London by a serious dislocation of plans, and a letter to the Times might be quite as effective as a speech, to say nothing of the discomfort & expense of the journey. But it is not without a sense of melancholy disappointment that I find myself driven to acquiesce in a practical abandonment of Parliamentary duties. It is yet another instance of the futility of expectations, for the principal attraction of episcopal office has ever been the chance of playing a part in national politics. I attain the position only to discover that the distance from London makes attendance at Westminster too difficult for any sufficiently regular attendance. An occasional visitor can effect nothing in the House of Lords.