[No surviving envelope]
ICharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)'Conclusion';c4TSE on giving the lecture;a1 was very happy to get your letter yesterday afternoon before my last lecture; it was a good omen. I had been apprehensive, as I was very anxious to end well – I was not satisfied with the lecture, but I think the audience was; the hall was quite full and people standing; and they seemed quite sufficiently enthusiastic. It has, you may imagine, been a busy week, and I yearn to take things easy instead of doing what I ought to do, viz, answer all the letters that I have left for three weeks; makefinances (TSE's)TSE's Income Tax;a1 out my income tax form; callEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister);b7 on my sister Margaret; reviseInstitute of Modern Literature at Bowdoin;a1 theBowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine;a2 lectureLear, Edwardagain at Bowdoin;a5 I am to give on Thursday at Bowdoin;1 write'Two Masters' (afterwards 'The Modern Dilemma')delivered to Unitarian ministers;a1 out the talk I am to give on Monday week to the Unitarian ministers (I don’t know where; Dr. Perkins says not at 27 Marlborough St., he will be away).2 Meanwhile I have written (yesterday) the talk to the Episcopal parsons; I have no notion of what they are like or whether they will like it; I felt impelled to go for Dean Sperry (of Harvard) with the gloves off, and whether I shall have any support I do not know. ThisClement, JamesWayland weekends with;a3 afternoon I am going to Jim Clement’s in Wayland for the weekend; vegetation, and I hope a couple of walks, though the weather is rainy. Thank goodness next week is the recess here, so I don’t have to give lectures in my course; andChristianitythe Church Year;d8arduous;b9 can somewhat prepare for the ardours of Holy Week the week after. IChristianityconfession;b3more dreaded than dentist;a2 dread making my confessions more than the dentist. ThisHinkley, Barbara (TSE's first cousin)TSE revises criticism of;b4 last week, besides a dinner party at Barbara’s (I think Barbara is very dull, very worldly, quite uneducated, very provincial, but goodnatured: what do you think of that for a criticism? I felt a little more excited about it this time, becauseDane, Barbara (née Welch, later Sturtevant)TSE's pity for;a1 her daughter Barbara was there, and she is a sweet little thing – also quite uneducated, and will probably, in her environment, also become dull, worldly and provincial: RogerWolcott, RogerTSE on;a3 is an amiable lout; youngDane, Ernest Blaney, Jr.;a1 Barbara’s husband is a child, like herself, pitifully undeveloped.3 I hate to see such a waste of good material)[,] I had to talk to the students in History & Literature, takeSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece)TSE cultivates;a9 Dodo to dinner (I am trying gradually to get acquainted with her and gain her confidence, as I don’t believe any intelligent older person has it; it is a slow business) and that’s all. NextSargent, Daniel;a3 week dine with the Sargents (informally, Maritain is coming) andNoyes, Penelope Barker;c2 on Saturday with Penelope. (ByNoyes, Penelope Barkerlaments TSE's returning to VHE;c3 the way, it is a funny thing, but Ada told me that Marian told her that Penelope said to her that it was a pity that I should have to go back to V. I had not thought that Penelope was so observant).
IHale, Emilytakes motoring holiday via San Francisco;c4 am glad that youScripps College, Claremont;d2 are having a holiday, glad that you are getting away from Scripps for it, and glad that you have discovered cousins in S. Francisco. I hope also that your letter implies that you are getting to know more people. DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle);b1. Perkins told me of your cousins when I rang up yesterday to know if they had any news of you, I hope you are not Offended. I shall not expect any letter from you this week, it is impossible to write letters except in one’s own room. Of course you won’t get this for some days, butAmericaMaine;f6;a4 I shall write again before I go to Maine. Thank you, my dear Girl, for your letter.
1.Loucks, ‘The Exile’s Return’, 27: ‘April 6–7. With Theodore Dreiser and others, TSE participated in an event at the Institute of Modern Literature at Bowdoin [in Maine], lecturing on “The Poetry of Edward Lear” and joining in a round table conference (“Bowdoin College Program”).’
2.TSEChristianityasceticism, discipline, rigour;a9the case for unattainable ideals;a9 concluded his address ‘Two Masters’ – the title taken from the Sermon on the Mount – to the Boston Association of Unitarian Ministers, 3 Apr. 1933: ‘And the suggestion may be added, that the Church, in setting very high standards up to which it must know that the majority of its communicants will not live, is practicing a certain hypocrisy. Would it not be better, people may ask, if the standard set were not that of an ideal asceticism, but rather that of the highest natural human life; for then, perhaps, more people would live up to it? An unattainable ideal, they may say, makes for dishonesty, and compels laxity in the treatment of the weaker members. Such a criticism, I think, is no more valid than the criticism of celibacy which maintains that celibacy cannot really be the highest life because if it were, the human race ought to come to an end. Perhaps the simplest retort is to ask what is the alternative. What happens when you trim your ideals down to fit the behaviour of the nicest people? Instead of compromising practice you have compromised the ideal, and that is a more serious matter. When you think that you are getting rid of hypocrisy, you are merely descending to complacency and self-conceit: an ideal which can be attained is one of the most dangerous of booby-traps, for its attainment leads to spiritual pride. TheChristianityvirtues heavenly and capital;e1greatest of the virtues;b8religion, religious beliefs
3.‘[Y]oung Barbara’ was Barbara Welch (1910–97), who was at this time married to Ernest Blaney Dane, Jr.
2.JamesClement, James Clement (1889–1973), Harvard Class of 1911, marriedClement, Margot Marguerite C. Burrel (who was Swiss by birth) in 1913. In later years, TSE liked visiting them at their home in Geneva.
6.MargaretEliot, Margaret Dawes (TSE's sister) Dawes Eliot (1871–1956), TSE's second-oldest sister sister, resident in Cambridge, Mass. In an undated letter (1952) to his Harvard friend Leon M. Little, TSE wrote: ‘Margaret is 83, deaf, eccentric, recluse (I don’t think she has bought any new clothes since 1900).’
6.BarbaraHinkley, Barbara (TSE's first cousin) Hinkley (1889–1958) was married in July 1928 to Roger Wolcott (1877–1965), an attorney; they lived at 125 Beacon Hill, Boston, and at 1733 Canton Avenue, Milton, Mass.
12.PenelopeNoyes, Penelope Barker Barker Noyes (1891–1977), who was descended from settlers of the Plymouth Colony, lived in a historic colonial house (built in 1894 for her father James Atkins Noyes) at 1 Highland Street, Cambridge, MA. Unitarian. She was a close friend of EH.
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.
34.DanielSargent, Daniel Sargent (1890–1987), historian, biographer, and poet, taught at Harvard, 1914–34, and was thereafter a full-time writer. Author of eleven books including Thomas More (1933). He lived at 30 The Fenway, Boston Mass., and was Secretary of the Boston Art Commission.
2.TheodoraSmith, Theodora ('Dodo') Eliot (TSE's niece) Eliot Smith (1904–92) – ‘Dodo’ – daughter of George Lawrence and Charlotte E. Smith: see Biographical Register. Theodora’sSmith, Charlotte ('Chardy') Stearns (TSE's niece) sister was Charlotte Stearns Smith (b. 1911), known as ‘Chardy’.