The Henson Journals

[118]

Monday, February 13th, 1928.

"The evolution of the ancient world has a lesson & a warning for us. Our civilization will not last unless it be a civilization not of one class, but of the masses. The Oriental civilizations were more stable & lasting than the Greco–Roman, because, being chiefly based on religion, they were nearer to the masses. Another lesson is that violent attempts at levelling have never helped to uplift the masses. They have destroyed the upper classes, & resulted in accelerating the process of barbarization. But the ultimate problem remains like a ghost, ever present & unlaid: Is it possible to extend a higher civilization to the lower classes without debasing its standard & diluting its quality to the vanishing point? Is not every civilization bound to decay as soon as it begins to penetrate the masses?

Rostovtzeff. Social & Economic History of the Roman Empire, p. 486

These are the concluding words of the Russian scholar's book, and they are as melancholy as they are thought–provoking. Perhaps Soviet Russia is a little too clearly present to his thought.

[119]

I had a hectic hour with Fisher Ferguson, and shall be greatly surprized if he doesn't pose as a persecuted Protestant! But in making a public attack on the Abp. he exhausted my patience: & I gave him a really severe dressing down. I told him finally that I should advise Linnell to give him the statutory 3 months notice after his Ordination to the Priesthood next Trinity.

Jimmie Dobbie came to see me: & then the Bishop of Jarrow, who gave me an account of the proceedings in the House of Clergy. Then J. G. Wilson called. When they had departed I wrote letters.

The Bishop of Edinburgh and Canon Sinker write to thank me for my Cambridge Sermon.

The Evening paper announces that Lord Oxford is gravely ill. It would be a grim coincidence if Lloyd George's unexpected triumph in the Lancaster Election should synchronize with the death of his principal rival. The two men are strangely unlike, the one a typical middle–class Englishman; the other a typical middle–class Welshman, both exhibiting the respective national traits in marked emphasis. Asquith had most ability: Lloyd–George more genius. The one was generous, lethargic, & large–minded: the other ^subtle^ cunning, eager, & absorbed by self–seeking.