BR TO ALYS RUSSELL, 29 OCT. 1893
BRACERS 20374. ALS(M). Camellia Collections. SLBR 1: #14
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by A. Duncan and K. Blackwell

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Oct. 29. 1893.

Dear Alys

I have more time for writing today than I have on week days, so I will begin my letter now. — I am rewarded for my long fast by your three letters, which were as you may imagine most welcome: I only got the first on the 25th, and the time had begun to seem quite interminable. I won’t complain of the shortness of the other two, as I know you must have had all your time thoroughly filled up. I too, having observed the arrival and departure of the mails in the papers, had hoped to get your first letter on Sat. last; the New York post must be very ill-managed, or I should have got it then. — I am very glad you have enjoyed yourself: from all you say Lady Henry must be delightful, and of course you must enjoy seeing so many friends again. I think I should have enjoyed the Temperance meetings, only I should have found it impossible to take them quite seriously: when I look at philanthropy from a distance it seems the only thing worth doing, and I think myself a worm to be engaged for instance in trying to prove that the view that a good will is absolutely good and the only ultimate good involves contradictions, as I have been doing all this last week;2 but I know that everything in which human happiness or misery does not directly appear strikes me first on the laughable side when I see it close: especially if I have a hand in it myself.

I am afraid it is almost necessary we should have a good deal of discussion on theological questions: I am sorry because I shall unavoidably appear in a rather brutal light as I am so utterly out of sympathy with Christianity. It would be no use at all hoping that I shall ever believe that God is a Person: no reader of Metaphysics could I think be brought to such a view: it is almost assured discredited in Philosophy as Circle-Squaring in Mathematics. But I do not mean to put nothing in its place: on the contrary I am convinced that as soon as we begin to reflect seriously on religion we shall find Pantheism as far finer, a far more inspiring faith: so that the other appears almost as Atheism in comparison. But the idea of Pantheism is rather difficult: I should be very glad if you felt enough interested to read a little Metaphysics as I am confident you would soon be convinced of its superiority in every point of view. McTaggart said once in a letter to me that no religion involving a personal God could be a religion of love: and this view be made clear I think in his pamphlet. You will see that all its conclusions are only possible if you regard every man as God incarnate and God as existing only as incarnate in individual spirits. This opinion I think is the one on which modern philosophy is most unanimous: it is taught in lectures even, and the orthodox view is openly scouted by all who teach Metaphysics. — I agree with you that human relations and work can neither of them afford satisfaction by themselves without faith: faith is involved in belief in work, and without it the value of human relations is purely ephemeral: but the faith required is not belief in this or that dogma, but rather in the perfectibility of the world and in the ultimate attainment of such perfection. But no amount of faith will I think make one happy without some more substantial source of joy: I have seen the very purest and strangest faith completely powerless against misfortune, and I think it would be so in my own case probably. But there is about great happiness something eternal which is satisfying even when the immediate cause of happiness is removed. The fact that such a thing is possible is such a revelation that it seems to make everything else endurable: especially when one is convinced that this feeling is not mere sentiment but can be supported by reason. — I shall be able to come next Sat. and stay the night, which will be delightful.3 I shall probably be able to arrive abouta twenty to two at Grosvenor Road; but I may be able to come earlier. I am very sorry you had not got my letter when youb last wrote: it must have come the next day. I hope you will have written on the ship and post it from Liverpool. How delightful to be addressing a letter to you in England again. — I read about your storm in the papers and felt for you: I never experienced sea-sickness but I am sure it must be horrible. I am glad to hear of your swearing: it is a great relief. Exams taught me the habit as they teach it to every one who does Mathematics. The peculiar beauty of mathematical exams is that one always sees how to do some very valuable question just as the clock strikes, or worse still discovers a fallacy in a long piece of work one had thought sound. —

It must have been very delightful for you to find so many women who were grateful for your mother’s book:4 respect and gratitude towards those one is fond of are even more delightful than towards oneself. I will finish this letter tomorrow.  — I should like very much to read your mother’s book with you.

Monday. I have a letter from Logan, still in town and with no prospect of leaving. Doesn’t this make it necessary you should explain matters more or less to him, if I am toc come on Sat.?5 You could of course say as much or as little as seemed necessary but something I should think would be unavoidable. — He is very much afraid of my becoming Hegelian and indulging in “perfumed dreams”: hatred of every kind of religion is his ruling passion just now. But I don’t think perfumed dreams are much in my line, at least as thingsd to be believed in.6 — I had also a letter from your mother to tell me of your cablegram on starting home again, which was very kind of her. I hope you won’t want to improve my mind too much: when it is one’s business it doesn’t strike one as nearly such a fine thing as it would if one were more practical in one’s work. However if music can count as mental improvement all good music is always delightful to me, far more so than poetry or anything else of the kind. There was a glorious concert here last Wednesday which I should have regarded as transporting me to heaven for an hour and a half, if I hadn’t reflected that music, being a process in time, will be impossible in heaven, in spite of the conventional harps. — I hope your home journey will have been calmer than the voyage out; also that you had the journey with your friend which you hoped for. How interesting people are who have a problem in their life. I have begun to think very meanly of purely intellectual occupations, though I continue to enjoy them more than ever: but it seems as if all the practical things were so far more pressing and so far easier to get definite results in; so that I shall be rather glad when I am done with academical hair-splitting. Auf baldiges Wiedersehen.

Ever yours
Bertrand Russell.

• 1

  [document] Document 300015.

• 2

  trying to prove … doing all this last week See Russell’s essay for Henry Sidgwick, “The Relation of Rule and End”, 33 in Papers 1: 216–17.

• 3

  I shall be able to come … delightful. From America Alys had invited Russell for a weekend visit to her parents’ London home, 44 Grosvenor Road, to see her after she returned.

• 4

  your mother’s book Probably Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (1875, and much reprinted). In her letter of 16 October Alys had suggested that they read it together. They never did.

• 5

  you should explain matters … come on Sat.? Logan had still not been told about their relationship. Alys had suggested that Russell tell him, but in the event the task fell to Alys.

• 6

  becoming Hegelian  … things to be believed in A few months later, Russell did become a Hegelian and remained one until 1898, though his direct debts to Hegel were slight. “Perfumed dreams”, however, were hardly part even of his Hegelian philosophy.

Textual Notes

• a

  about after deleted just in

• b

  you replaced I

• c

  to inserted

• d

  , as things inserted