I am more and more delighted with the exquisite book. It is indeed lovely. My sister Florence and many others have been rejoicing in its beauty. I have been rejoicing in its beauty. I have only read the preface straight through once. I do not think it strikes me as necessarily very revolutionary, tho’ I can believe some people might think the aim that Morris sets before us can only be obtained by revolution. I do not think this, and did not notice that he says so. What struck me was not that it was revolutionary, but that I did not feel that it was very true. There are people to whom Art is a very great joy, and to whom pleasure in making lovely things is great; and one could believe the number might and should increase, and the joy increase. But I think there are, and may rightly be thousands, the main work of whose days may be some little or even great effort, and their work be joyful rather in its result than in its doing; and that this effort is a natural and right discipline. The joy of many, by far the greatest, is the home joy which glorifies and gladdens the daily work. And this I may say without forgetting the blessing of all natural and created beauty; without wishing to explain away the undue sadness, and unhealthy conditions of much modern work. Only I think Morris over-estimates the sorrow for most men.
Perhaps few but Cambridge men will remember the joke referred to in the following letter. Doctor Thompson, of Trinity, said of a young Fellow whose action on a certain occasion he had resented, that “the time which he could spare from the adornment of his person he devoted to a conscientious neglect of his duties.”
Larksfield, Crockham Hill,
April 11th, 1892.
My dearest Miranda.
I fear you must think me very neglectful, but I really seem to have my time very full. You see, there is all “the time I spend in the neglect of my duties,” to say nothing of the rest. You will not suspect me of devoting much to “the adornment of my person;” but I have ordered a new hat and dress.
RUSSIAN PERSECUTION OF JEWS
Mr. Mocatta came in on Friday, and so did Miss Astley and a friend. Mr. Mocatta gave a very interesting account of the Jews’ expulsion, and what they are doing.... He says that they are mainly descendants of the Jews, who were spoiled by the Crusaders; and that they found themselves obliged to migrate from the whole line of march of the Crusaders, and settled in Poland.... There they lived in peace till the partition of Poland. Then the Russians restricted them to the “pale,” which was large, all towns, no villages or country. Certain people, university graduates, retired soldiers, etc., might “live out of the pale,” and gradually others did so also, by bribing police or escaping notice.... Then lately the old laws were enforced, and people, who for forty or fifty years have lived elsewhere, were all ordered back to the pale. He says they all want to get to America, and used to come to England hoping to be helped further.
He spoke, with great approbation, of Baron Hirsch’s scheme. He has a vast tract in the Argentine Republic—lovely climate and fertile soil; but it must take a year to get ready.
Larksfield,