[No surviving envelope]
ThisChristianityasceticism, discipline, rigour;a9the necessity for;a1 encouraging thought came to me, tonight, during my prayers, and I had to get up and set it down for You. One goes on day after day with regular prayers, and devotions, and communions, and at the time it may seem nothing but going on with a tedious and inconvenient habit started in a moment of enthusiasm; and then suddenly – we feel that routine has not been merely routine, that it hasn’t been just senseless habit, and that although we have not known it consciously the eternal has taken the prior place above the transient. What was merely a habit fitting in with other habits has become an imperative need. SoChristianitymysticism and transcendence;c3'doubleness';a4 gradually we learn to live on two planes at once; we are in two worlds at once. This sense of ‘doubleness’ of appearance is what becomes most important to me in people I meet. One may have it unconsciously and yet give it consciously to another; I have got it consciously from people who are probably not conscious of having it. I go into some households and feel: it is here; and into others and tell myself: it is not expected here. But the odd thing is that the more you get this awareness, the more you [become] compassionate and put up with those who have it not no ‘doubleness’.1
People talk a great deal about ‘sublimation’. The answer to sublimation is that nothing is a substitute for anything else; it is not until you see and feel and touch that something else is more real, that the other fades. This comes to me very rarely; most of the time I am merely a beast raging in the jungle;2 that is why I have got up to try to put down at once something I have just felt, which is now only a memory. I must not pretend, in my ordinary moments that anything is better than what at my ordinary human moments I want <that I am at a higher moment than I am>.3 I want (to take a symbol) to be perpetually washing dishes with you, or drying the dishes you wash, or vice versa. At the moment when I want that, I cannot cajole myself into thinking that anything else is better <feeling that I want anything else more>. But there are rare moments when something else comes of itself. And afterwards I admit that it is not any ‘sublimation’, but just this routine of belief and prayer and habit of devotion which from time to time suddenly shows me other real things. In short, there is everything to be said for going to church regularly, and especially when we don’t feel like it.
AHügel, Friedrich vonparaphrased for EH;a1 saying of Baron v. Huegel’s often comes back to me; IChristianitybelief;b1and conversion;a3 don’t remember the words; to the effect that he believed in encouraging people to practice their own faith with more devotion, rather than in converting them to his own.4
You see that I have been altering this from day to day!
Itravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8EH urged to reflect honestly on;b3 want you to be as truthful as you can – first with yourself and then with me – and tell me – if you don’t know yet, when you do, whether my visit to Claremont was for you, on the balance, more benefit or injury. I mean both outside and inside; whether there has been any malice or glory (how I should glory in that, if you had aided your prestige ever so slightly – it would reconcile me to being a small public figure); but still more, the spiritual good or damage. You must be truthful, and the effort to be truthful with me would help to be truthful with yourself – which is more important than anything – I think you have an exceptionally honest mind, and that I prize – but you have also habits of putting the Best Face on things, Sparing people’s Feelings, and that nonsense. I don’t want you to be Brave, or Good, or any other abstraction with me except Honest. If one tries to spare another person’s feelings it is not Friendship. One thing you said that distressed me a little; you spoke (lightly it is true) of having been on your best behaviour while I was there. As if I, of all people, should not delight in seeing you on your worst behaviour! DoChristianitysainthood;d4TSE's idea of;a1 youHale, Emilyreligious beliefs and practices;x1and TSE's definition of sainthood;a4 think when I call you a Saint that I have a conventional notion of saintliness? I mean something much deeper than what passes by that name, and which is perfectly compatible with devilishness. WhatHale, EmilyTSE's names, nicknames and terms of endearment for;x3'Emily of Fire & Violence';b4 has always attracted me has been the Emily underneath Goodness, the Emily of Fire & Violence. Don’tHale, EmilyTSE's love for;x2increases his desire to quarrel with EH;c1 you know that I should like you to Snap at me? YouHale, Emilybaited over how to boil an egg;c2 know how happy I was in trying to pick a quarrel with you over the best method of boiling eggs. You seemed afraid of exhibiting an Emily whom I should find trying: I only wanted to be tried, and how happy I should be in the ease with which I should put up with you at what you would call your worst. I will remind you that this paragraph is to ask you a question, stated at the beginning. AsHale, Emilyrelationship with TSE;w9runs to a 'kiss';b9 fortravels, trips and plansTSE's 1933 westward tour to Scripps;a8TSE reflects on;a9 me: I have learnt what a kiss is, and I have learned (since boiling eggs) what companionship is; that would not seem much to the homme moyen sensuel: that was worth all those thousands of miles from London to Claremont to find. I am even able to be glad that you do not feel exactly towards me as I do towards you! And in my last letter I put it rather badly: I said that whatever Emily etc. I should keep my conviction about her. I meant rather that to me everything that Emily etc. would be right: because Emily is a standard of rightness.
I have begun, you see, putting down notes each night (or during the day) to include in any letter. If you object, say so.
16.ii.33
YouHale, Emilyappearance and characteristics;v7as a Botticelli Madonna;b9 see, I don’t think of you merely as a Botticelli Madonna by any means! By the way, what nonsense people talk about Botticelli women. They think of two or three paintings only. There is a beautiful Madonna tondo (it is in the National Gallery) which looks rather like you. Black hair and similar blue-grey eyes.
1.Correction made by hand.
2.Cf. Henry James’s story ‘The Beast in the Jungle’ (1903).
3.Correction made by hand.
4.Gwendolen Greene records: ‘“I never want to convert any soul that is practising in good faith what religion it possesses,” he once said, “I only want to deepen and strengthen what that soul has already got …”’ (Letters from Baron Friedrich von Hügel to a Niece [1928], xxxix). Letter of 4 Oct. 1920: ‘Neither in that book [Mystical Elements] did I, or do I aim at making Roman Catholics: that would be odious presumption. That God and his grace are (in various degrees, no doubt) everywhere – but specially, very especially, in Christianity. That the presumption is always in favour of souls remaining, as to institutional appurtenance, where they are – it being God’s affair to make it clear to them if, doing their best where they are, He wants them elsewhere’ (102–3).