The Henson Journals

[240]

Monday, August 25th, 1930.

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["]Men have brought their powers of subduing the forces of nature to such a pitch that by using them they would now very easily exterminate one another to the last man. They know this – hence arises a great part of their current unrest, their dejection, their mood of apprehension.["]

Freud. "Civilisation & its Discontents"

Is this a true, or an adequate, or even a helpful diagnosis of our present discontents? Probably those who realize the destructive potencies of modern science are but a tiny fraction of the people. Would it not be truer to say, that the root of the mischief lies in the fact, that civilization armed by science manufactures appetite so far more quickly than the satisfactions of appetite, that the margin of unsatisfied appetite grows ever wider with the result that we are generating a mood of disgust with the conditions of secular life so vehement & unreasoning as to predispose men to any procedures, however extravagant and criminal, which yet hold out some kind of promise that the entire framework of living will be transformed?

[241]

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Another brilliant morning. The Bishop of Blackburn went away after breakfast. Mrs Herbert, who is a rather unusually good driver, taking him to Darlington in the car.

The papers announce the death of Miss Wood of Coxhoe. I wrote a letter of condolence to her brother.

The obituary notice of the late Duke of Northumberland in the Manchester Guardian of Friday contains the following:–

"The Duke was a man of striking appearance, and fine carriage. He looked & spoke like a soldier. He had physical powers above the ordinary, and in 1911 walked on foot from Montreal to Ottawa a distance of 111 miles, in 3 days."

How he impressed me, I have stated on p. 237. I have heard him described, I think by his aunt, Lady Frances Balfour, as 'a little rat', & the description, if severe, is not in my opinion wholly without excuse. Mrs Herbert said that she agreed with me that he was most 'insignificant' in appearance. But what is the value of human testimony, when on so simple a matter, and one respecting which prejudice can hardly enter, there yet can be so gross a discrepancy of evidence?

[242]

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The Bishop of Calcutta arrived about 5 p.m. and I had much talk with him before dinner. He seems to be pleased with the outcome of the Lambeth Conference: but is perturbed (as I am) at the probably (perhaps inevitable) effect of the decisions on 'Birth Control', while holding with me that those decisions were right. We discussed the situation in India, the gravity of which he saw clearly. "We must either satisfy the new nationalist aspirations, or re–conquer India." He assured me that the Nationalist movement had now spread throughout India, & could not be ignored or suppressed.

Brooke & Fosca Westcott arrived in their motor, and decided to stay the night. She has rather a crumpled, exhausted look which might well cause a measure of anxiety. Certainly so long a motor drive as Brooke had projected would have been an excessive strain, & it is fortunate that she can break her journey. Motoring is a rather deceiving process, & takes more out of us than we perceive or suspect. This poor human physique, the casket of our spirit, is more sensitive than we care to remember.

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