Reference
X955/1/146
Title
To Mrs Sarah Colenutt
Date free text
11 August 1904
Production date
From: 1904 To: 1904
Scope and Content
The Cottage,Groombridge, Kent.
My dear friend
I am glad Charlie is better, a relapse is generally caused by some forgetfulness about diet. I hope he is always on the watch.
Swinburne’s poem in Harper’s Magazine shows all his old strength and command of form. (1). Substantially he is always on the right side, although I think there is a meaning in the Old Testament and in
Saint Paul which he has not seized and perhaps could not understand. Saint Paul, I confess, is hard, and I never read him without feeling that I have to stretch myself mightily in order to accommodate myself to
him. In fact, the last time I tried the Epistle to the Romans I had to give it up. Still, he does stand for something; his character is noble, and there is much truth in what has often been said, that Christianity is
his work. Swinburne.s new preface is very good. I especially applaud his defence against the charge of egotism. There is a frank egotism like tat of Wordsworth, to take Swinburne.s example, which is innocent and in no way repulsive. It is quite different from conceit. It cares nothing for applause; self is not the centre of it.
Yes; France and the Pope have greatly interested me. I shall not live long enough to see the end of that conflict. Sometimes I fear darkness will in the end prevail. I get very disheartened about the future at times.
I have a Russian friend who was aide-de-camp to Alexander II and was intimate with him. He was a General in the Russian army, and knows Russia thoroughly. He tells me that the people abhor this war and
that it was begun by the Tsar and finance-mongers and is maintained by them. (2) The Tsar hates the Japanese, because when he was in their country he was wounded in the face by a fanatic, and the capitalists, amongst whom is a Jew who has the Tsar's confidence, are eager for concessions in the Corea. (3) The Japanese are not worthy of complete sympathy, not indeed of much of it. They have taken up all that is worst and materialistic in European civilization; they want to rule the extreme East, and the speculator and jobber pull the strings. It is shocking beyond words but it is true that wars are begun and carried on, hundreds of thousands of people are killed and industry is stifled by the passion or greed of half a dozen madmen or thieves.
Molly is very well. She had her nephew Bobbie with her. I have not been very well lately. I have had a miserable faintness, not exactly fainting, but oppression and depression, hanging about me. It is an old and familiar enemy. I should like to go away for am month or six weeks if I could be transported with no trouble to some quiet place. I do hate travelling.
Ever affectionately
W. Hale White
1) The Altar of Righteousness. Harpers Magazine, June 1904; reprinted in A Channel Passage and other Poems.
2) Russo – Japanese War 1904 -5.
3) Former spelling of Korea.
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