BR TO OTTOLINE MORRELL, [22 JUNE 1911]
BRACERS 17198. ALS. Morrell papers #120, Texas
Proofread by K. Blackwell et al.

<letterhead>
Trinity College,
Cambridge.1^, 2
Thursday 7 p.m.

My Dearest Dearest

It was very nice getting two letters from you this morning — any scrap was written before the second came. I had proofs to do, then Meredith turned up — then I read your book by Two3 — it delighted me so much that I sat out reading it all this afternoon — I have never read anything more amusing. The poor dear ladies are so very mild, and Spencer is so incredibly absurd. I am delighted to know the book. Do you consider that all philosophers are alike? At any rate I have no love for “impure purple” —  and I hope my jokes are better than his.

I went to see Verrall but found him gone away, so I went to the James Wards who live next door. They are nice people. He was once a congregational Minister, but had doubts and took to philosophy. He has kept all the earnestness still — his philosophy is too religious for me, but as a man I like and respect him greatly. His wife is a scatter-brained clever Irish woman, secretary of the Suffrage Soc. here and therefore inclined to bitterness, but today she was very genial. The youngest daughter, who was also there, is clever but insincere and affected — I don’t like her. Ward said he was surprised at Karin getting a star, but all the examiners told him there could be no doubt of her deserving it. We discussed monarchy — Ward and I against, Mrs Ward for. Since then I have written more of my shilling shocker — I am getting into it now gradually, and I think I shall probably get it finished in July. I hate having to write to order — it is so much pleasanter to write as the spirit moves one. Still there are ways of moving the spirit.

I was glad to hear about the debate on the Bridge. Alfred Lyttelton would be awful to agree with — he is my special bête noire.a I long to see the rings.

My Darling this will greet you, I hope, when you wake on your birthday. I am so glad I shall see you — Wherever I go and whatever I am doing you are always with me like remembered music. Your flowers are still beautiful, and very full of you, my Beloved. You make the whole world wonderful to me — the extraordinary feeling of infinity that comes to me in our love is impossible to put into words. The world is so full of prisons — “the world’s a prison, and Denmark one of the worst wards”4 used to be always in my mind — and now there is no prison for me. — I reach out to the stars and through the ages, and everywhere the radiance of your love lights the world for me. It is all so great that I feel almost lost, and I wonder that I should be capable of it — but indeed it is your greatness of soul that has come into me and transformed me.

Goodnight my Life and my Light — all my heart goes out to you in utter devotion —

Your
B

• 1

  [document] Document 000120. Proofread against a colour scan of the original.

• 2

  [envelope] ??.

• 3

  book by TwoHome Life with Herbert Spencer (1906).

• 4

  "the world's a prison … worst wards"Hamlet, II.ii (from separate lines).

Textual Notes

• a

  bête noire italics added