[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
Your letter of March 13th arrived yesterday, in the proper ten days. You will have learned by this time that we must disagree about the relative merits of your portraits! How ridiculous to speak of a ‘washed out, soft looking creature’ – I won’t say that it looks hard, but a very firm and formed character, which I should always approach with some awe – nothing prettypretty about it at all, but the real thing. But there, I don’t believe any of us has the slightest notion of what he or she really looks like; and if you want to know what you look like ([sic] and how you ought to look you must rely upon competent critics like myself. Anyway, if I am very happy with both photographs, as I am, that is the main thing for me. AsHale, Emilyas actor;v8in The Yellow Jacket;b1 for the Chinese lady, I had some difficulty in recognising who it was – which is perhaps tribute to the make-up – but probably I should have identified you had I seen the performance.
I'drugs'activity ('being useful');a1 am wondering if you are not being too much of a Martha, with your continuous activities,1 and whether the ‘poor state of control’ of which you speak, is partly due to that. For very often I find, myself, that using activity (whether necessary or unnecessary) to quiet my unsatisfactions and loneliness is sometimes merely an irritant; for you wear yourself out and are then weaker to resist the restless depression. The temptation with me being to dwell in mind upon the things I have and would like to be without, and on the things I should like to have and cannot have. Nor is it enough merely to plunge oneself in sympathy into the affairs of one’s friends: for if they are happy there is always some pain in it, and if they are in trouble there is always the danger of using their troubles as a solace for one’s own, instead of giving them pure sympathy and help. IChristianitylove;c1loving one's neighbour;a1 mean, I seem to discover more and more profundity in ‘The Summary of the Law’;2 the love of one’s neighbour is not enough in itself, but it must follow, and follow from, the love of God. And there is a distinction between the things one can just ‘control’ and those one cannot. BreakingChristianityasceticism, discipline, rigour;a9making and breaking habits;a3 bad habits, and forming good ones, seem to me a matter for ‘control’ but there are insistent feelings which suddenly rush up unawares, and persistent desires, which cannot be just controlled, for that is mere suppression – and suppression is always a possible source of danger, as one does not know one’s limit of strength; these can only be kept in place (I find) by finding some other and better desire that can be satisfied. Even though it may be only at moments that one can feel the higher desire keenly enough to delight in its satisfactions. But, so far as habit goes, I do find that regular daily religious exercises, however perfunctory and mechanical they may be on one’s dullest days, are a great help: the actual physical discomfort of getting up to go to Mass early before breakfast – I had to get up this morning at 6 o’clock – is a great help; and a few minutes of Bible reading and leisurely meditation, not very intense, at bedtime. I have not gone very far, I know; but I am sure that man’s power over himself is very great as soon as and whenever, he feels that he can call upon superhuman power to aid him. Things are made much more difficult than they need be, by our environment; for all the pressure of the time is towards convincing us that there are certain crude needs that must be satisfied. And so they must, until one recognises that supernatural values and emotions can be just as real as any natural ones. I used to suffer such anguish – and sometimes still at moments – from deprivations until I worked at this.
IHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin)TSE shares EH's frustrations with;a5 am only surprised that you had never had any friction with E.H.3 before. You know, I have wondered myself whether I shall be able to get on well and happily with them, next winter – probably seeking [sc. seeing] them once a week or so; or whether I shall be tempted to break a vase or two – metaphorically speaking. It depends partly on the extent to which they will recognise the difference of the life I have led in the meantime to theirs. It seems to me (from what little I have seen of her) that E.H.H. understands the world pretty well with her mind, which is a very acute one; but not in her bones, like a person whose emotions have been involved in everything learned by observation. I could easily shock them, deliberately; but they are just as likely to shock me – and could never be made to understand why I was shocked, or what right I had to be. But I do think that there is some sense of reality lacking in her plays: it is all in the head and none in the guts.
I must stop now till after Easter. But when you say of yourself ‘to have been alone so much has been a poor thing’, I think that perhaps you are magnifying your disabilities. I used to feel in a way inferior because of all the experiences I have not had which others have had: but remember that one has probably learned things, and in learning had experience oneself, that others have not had; and that you have as much wisdom and experience to give them as they have to give you.
1.‘Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, does thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou are careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her’ (Luke 10: 38–42).
2.‘The Summary of the Law’: ‘Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’
3.Eleanor Holmes Hinkley.
5.EleanorHinkley, Eleanor Holmes (TSE's first cousin) Holmes Hinkley (1891–1971), playwright; TSE’s first cousin; daughter of Susan Heywood Stearns – TSE’s maternal aunt – and Holmes Hinkley: see Biographical Register.