BR TO ALYS RUSSELL, 17 NOV. 1893
BRACERS 20379. ALS(M). Camellia Collections. SLBR 1: #16
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by A. Duncan and K. Blackwell

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<Trinity College Cambridge crest>1
Nov. 17. 1893.

My dear Alys

I was glad of your two letters: it was so horrible to think of you as unhappy, and it hadn’t occurred to me before that you might be, when I was so much the reverse that I couldn’t imagine your being troubled about the rightness of our conduct. It is really impossible to make rules about a thing so entirely dependent on personal conditions. I wonder what my grandmother will have said to your mother: she is very persuasive and will very likely have changed the opinion of my uncle and aunt: but so long as there is no chance of your having any more doubts the whole of the rest of the world doesn’t matter. I should be glad tho’ if my grandmother could be satisfied that it is all right as I honour her almost to idolatry. What she is to any one in trouble, and how wonderfully she has borne a succession of the very worst sorrows, such as most people never experience, it is impossible to say. I think she will never be quite satisfied unless she could get to know you well enough to be really very fond of you: and I am almost afraid she is too old for that to be possible. But my aunt I think you would be sure to get on with. — I wonder you succeeded in winning over Logan: I had thought he was altogether too wise. I will try and express myself to him when I see him but I shall find it difficult as in all our conversations we have always been both of us very cynical and it is not easy suddenly to adopt a different tone. Also on all matters of feeling I do not wish to acquire a habit of expressing myself to men: it would not increase their respect for mea and in most cases would be apt to destroy friendship. Men, or at any rate Englishmen, cease to value or believe in any feeling as soon as it is expressed: they think it a pose or an affectation. But these remarks I know do not apply to Logan. — I sent him a bundle of old clothes and £16 which I collected from my friends: I believe he thought I had sent it all myself, judging from a letter I had this morning from him.2 I hope your meetings have gone off successfully and that the Yb young Women were pleased with your speech.3 Is it Temperance you have been talking on at your other meetings? I have been very busy this week: I have been writing a paper for the Society which I have called “Can we be Statesmen?”4 by which I meant Can our political opinions be determined on reasonable grounds? I have come to the conclusion that it is quite impossible and I fear everyone will agree with me. I have also written an essay to prove our desires are not always for pleasure (for Sidgwick),5 and I have read a great deal about der Dingbegriff6and kindred subjects. As I have also had to entertain my brother and play whist with him I have hardly had time to turn round. But nothing can deprive one of the night, which is the really best time for pleasant thoughts. — I shall hope for a letter from you on Monday and I will write again some time next week and tell you what time I shall arrive on Sunday. It is a good thing your conscience is all right again: tell me all about what my grandmother said and whether you have continued to be quite happy.

Ever yours
Bertie

• 1

  [document] Document 300020.

• 2

  I sent him … letter I had this morning from him. Logan was collecting money and supplies to aid a miners’ strike in Barnsley. Russell published the letter he refers to in his Autobiography, 1: 94.

• 3

  I hope your meetings … your speech. In her letter, Alys had sent an impressive list of meetings at which she had to speak.

• 4

  “Can we be Statesmen?”12 in Papers 1: 79–82, apparently Russell’s first paper to the Apostles.

• 5

  I have also written an essay … (for Sidgwick) See Papers 1, pt. v, for Russell’s surviving papers for Sidgwick. It is difficult to identify one written at the right time which fits this description, however.

• 6

  der Dingbegriff  The concept of thing.

Textual Notes

• a

  me written over illegible word

• bY omitted in SLBR