The Henson Journals

[9]

Wednesday, June 23rd, 1926.

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For the first time since my operation I have had a bath!! The "catlap" method of clinical ablution is a very mockery of physical Puritanism! The Bath carries more than physical absolution.

I dictated a letter to Lord Londonderry, endeavouring to mitigate his feeling against the Vicar of Dawdon, and wrote to Robin about his accident. Such an experience might well be the making of him. At lunch–time there was a thunder–storm, which did something to relieve the oppressiveness of the atmosphere. Captain Johnson and his wife called. He is our new adjutant of D. L. I., a pleasant young officer with a pleasant young wife.

My mind begins to concern itself with another article for the Evening Standard. But the question of a suitable subject is not easy to answer. I think, perhaps, I might develop the argument that recent happenings, political and economic, have brought liberty into real danger: that, as Lord Acton used to maintain, the test of civilization is the amount of personal liberty which is secured to the citizen; that, so tested, modern civilization must take a very low place in spite of its mechanical resources. I might point out the circumstances which expose the wage–earner to the privation of personal liberty. Insecurity of employment the pressure of class opinion, the strength of class organization, the inconvenience of individuality, the conditions of artisan education, work, & social life – all make it extraordinarily difficult for a modern wage–earner not to "toe the line" of common agreement. And there are still operative all the ancient factors of enslavement – ignorance, sacerdotalism, etc.

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