BR TO ALYS RUSSELL, 9 AUG. 1893
BRACERS 20361. ALS(M). Camellia Collections. SLBR 1: #9
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by A. Duncan and K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
<Trinity College crest>1
Aug. 9. 1893

Dear Alys,

I am delighted you are coming. I have got lodgings for you in Trin. Str. which I think ought to be fairly convenient but I was unable to get a room with two beds except at the Hotel where I thought you would very likely prefer not to be. I hope you will arrive to luncheon as then it will be possible to spend the afternoon on the river and get up to where it gets nice which otherwise would be impossible. Could you wire and let me know if you would like me to ask the Amoi to lunch and go up the river or not? One word, yes or no, would do. Or if not would you like to see them some other time and when. I would suggest the following trains.

No later trains to be considered. My valuable time is valueless just now as I have done so much work already that I am grown incapable of any more for some time and want cheering up. You will find me in deep despair I assure you. So I must hope as it is my valuable time which is your consideration that you will not be so unkind as to consider it.

Yours very sincerely
Bertrand Russell.

P.S. On reading your letter over again I find it is at the Hotel you want rooms but I hope you will not greatly mind their being lodgings. I had a notion you had said lodgings in your letter. Some lady extensionists have just evacuated the said rooms.

<“Wishes and Opinions”>2

There are two entirely distinct questions: (1) what, supposing two people completely reasonable, would be the most desirable state of their wishes and opinions? (2) what is the state of my own wishes and opinions. It was as to the first I expressed an opinion: the second I knew to be influenced by a sentiment for whose permanence I could not answer, and which I regarded (rightly or wrongly) as unreasonable. The influence of this sentiment was to make the whole idea of physical connection distasteful to me, so that it was only by an effort of will I could dwell on it at all; and when I forced myself to do so it appeared as a thing so far from desirable in itself that but for the prospect of children I could not have tolerated it. But this frame of mind appeared to me morbid and I endeavoured to bring my practical opinion more into harmony with my theoretical opinion. Moreover I regarded my practical opinion as applicable only to myself, being based on a sentiment which I believed more or less peculiar to me and not likely to be found in a healthy mind. On the general question I therefore held the views I expressed, and my own private feelings seemed irrelevant.

• 1

  [document] Document 300003.

• 2

  <“Wishes and Opinions”> This sheet is stapled to the photocopy of the letter. However, the letter makes no reference to this manuscript.