The Henson Journals

[204]

Monday, July 25th, 1927.

Among the laws which he made is one providing that for any offence committed in a state of intoxication the penalty should be doubled, his object was to discourage drunkenness, wine being abundant in the island.

v. Diogenes Laertius 'Pittacus' (p. 79)

Pittacus is credited with the saying ^[written in Greek]^ 'It is hard to be good', and he may therefore be supposed to be sympathetic with human weakness, which is never more pathetically disclosed than in drunkenness. I incline to think that his method of discouraging drunkenness by using the penal law is sound, and might well be adopted in this country. The gravity of drunkenness will never be realized by the mass of citizens until it is expressed in the law. Especially since the advent of motors, the necessity of emphasizing that gravity had become apparent. It is still a common practice to offer drunkenness as an extenuation, and not, what it properly is, an aggravation, of offence. In the multitudinous and close–knit society of our time the mere spectacle of drunkenness, apart from the risk or injury to the public, is a grave offence, and ought to be punished as such. This, and not the crude absurdity of Prohibition, is the direction in which the State should move.

[205]

I had a frank interview with Laws, and told him that I expect the gardens to be kept in better condition, if I add a 4th gardener. Then I told William Bryden that I would employ him regularly. This adds £100 yearly to my wages–bill, but it keeps an excellent young man employed, and it ought to keep my gardens more creditably.

I finished a hasty reading of Rufus Jones's "Spiritual Reformers in the 16th and 17th centuries". He demonstrates the derivative character of the Quaker movement. There was nothing original about George Fox except his colossal conceit! In Germany the ideas of Quakerism had been anticipated, and in Holland, the discipline. England provided a favourable milieu for both, and in the companies of "Seekers" Fox found his followers ready–made. Nothing could be truer than the spiritual witness of all these sectaries, yet nothing could be more extravagant than their pretensions, or more complete than their failure.

I walked in the Park, where the High School Girls were holding their Sports, and I fell in with three rather sorry–looking miners who have just been thrown out of work by the closing of their mine.

The Papers report the deaths of Sir William Ashley, the economist, and General Dyer of Amritsar fame.

Mr Baxter, an Ordination Candidate, came to see me. Ella and I dined with General & Mrs Surtees. We picked up Lady Eden on the way. The Ramsays were dining.

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