The Henson Journals

Fri 17 February 1928

Volume 44, Pages 124 to 125

[124]

Friday, February 17th, 1928.

Anima vagula blandula

hospes comesque corporis

quae nunc abibis in loca

pallidula rigida nudula

nec ut soles dabis locos!

Soul of mine, pretty one, flitting one,

Guest and partner of my clay,

Whither wilt thou hie away, –

Pallid one, rigid one, naked one –

Never to play again, never to play.

The Emperor Hadrian as he lay dying is said to have composed these lines (v. Scriptores Historiae Augustae. Hadrian. 25).

The papers report the murder of a young bank–clerk named Abbey by a burglar, who robbed the bank at Ferryhill. Abbey was a chorister in Durham, when I was first Dean, & seems to have been an estimable fellow. Taken together with the recent series of burglaries in Bishop Auckland, & the increasing audacity of the coal–stealers in the Park, this shocking crime must be taken to disclose a notable weakening of elementary morals in the population.

[125] [symbol]

["]Now there is an apprehension & presentiment, natural to mankind, that we ourselves shall one time or another be dealt with as we deal with others: and a peculiar acquiescence in, and feeling of, the equity and justice of this equal distribution.["]

Bishop Butler 'Upon Forgiveness of Injuries'

This 'apprehension and presentiment' are explicitly authenticated by our Blessed Saviour: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you".

Dr Selbie, speaking in Oxford yesterday, is reported to have said:–

"The discussions on the Prayer Book had led to a good deal of hardening of opinion among Free Church people. In the course of recent conversations he had been surprised at the extreme & obsolete Protestantism held by many prominent laymen of the Anglican Church".

This is certainly illuminating.