BR wrote a 2nd letter that evening and apparently mailed it with this one. See record 135207.

"Morning" "I have just been having a talk with Mrs Whitehead—she was not as alarming as I had thought she would be, though she was rather alarmed. It appears for all Mrs. Whitehead did and for all my comedy, Jane still believes there is somebody. Her behaviour has not been all one had a right to expect. Mrs. Whitehead has seen Roger, and finds him thoroughly friendly both to you and me, but hurt through his caring for you. So you will have to be kind to him, I think. He says the Stephens know, but not from him; that Virginia is the dominant one among them, and that he impressed upon her, so that she believed it, that she must avoid even the slightest joke or gossip; the argument which he thought impressed her was that it [may] prevent my doing any more work. He seems to have repeated to them and Mrs. Whitehead, as his sentiments, all that anybody could say against casual gossip. Evidently we were wrong about Vanessa; also evidently the real source of the trouble is his being hurt in his affection for you. This fits it all together, and makes it less bad. Mrs. Whitehead thinks the Smiths may still let out the truth, on the ground that they must protect innocent women wrongly suspected."

[Jane Harrison, Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell are all discussed in the letter.]

"Can't go while the Whiteheads stay" (in Camb.); doing proofs and book.

"Whitehead comes to tea to talk shop".

Jourdain.

"Wh. stayed a long time and we had a most agreeable talk about our work in general, and plans for future work. I enclose [no longer enclosed] an old letter of his, written when I was young and doubtful of my capacity for philosophy — before we had begun to collaborate. It is about an article I had written in a controversy with Poincaré, the French mathematician. You will see how much I owe him."

Date is not certain. "I don't know whether this will reach you tonight, but I will write again tonight if I can — I may not be able to tho', as I dine out, and then Waterlow is coming to see me."

"I am getting on with my book. Would you like to see what exists, still rough, and going to be improved? or shall I wait till it is in a more final shape? As I am not to deal with either religion or morals, I have had to confine myself to topics of which the interest is purely and exclusively intellectual. Thus there is not much scope for much that might otherwise be said.

Dickinson tells me I am beginning to say this is the best of all possible worlds! I must throw in some biting pessimism or he will suspect. He also said "of course one might say you were religious, as Lady Ottoline does". So I opined that Lady Ottoline might be in the right, at least this once. Nobody used to talk of you to me before, and now they all do—it is very odd.

Carlyle's letters, which I have nearly finished, are a great interest. I think he is the best prose writer of the nineteenth century—there is no one like him.—Goodbye my darling. I do hope you are getting rested. I long for you my dearest. This is a long time, but tomorrow morning half of it will be over. I can come Wednesday night, reaching Henly 8.22, if you won't be too tired. Let me know about it when you can. Beloved, I do hunger for you. Your B.

A small blank sheet of 70, Overstrand Mansions letterhead (BR's address in 1919–20) was inserted between pp. 72–3 of Sidney Colvin's edition of Letters of John Keats (Russell's Library, no. 913). The latter page has light marginal lines by a letter to John Hamilton Reynolds. Other pages — 98, 100, 104, 107 — also have marginal lines, and there may well be others. The book is inscribed "B from O | 1911. May." BR had asked Lady Ottoline Morrell to mark her favourite passages in giving him the book (record 17108).

Wed. Dinner Whiteheads.

"Evg." "I have made a new start with the Shilling Shocker, [The Problems of Philosophy] and feel it will go better now—I have at last got hold of the right style, which I hadn't before. Now I shall enjoy writing it."

"Monday midday My Darling—I am sorry you got no letter yesterday."

Monday evg. "My Darling I seem to have made a muddle of addresses—I ought to have told you to address still here today. However I shall be all the more glad of your letter tomorrow when I get it.—I went to the press on behalf of Jourdain but with no result. I got a large bundle of proofs of Whitehead's and my book—our second vol. will presumably come out some time in the autumn. Then there will be a third and last, which ought to be out about this time next year.

[Vol. II: actually April 1912; vol. III: actually April 1913. When did plans materialize for a fourth?]

I went to pay a dinner call at the Mirrlees' but nothing of interest happened. Otherwise my time has been occupied in tidying up, throwing away, packing etc.—all occupations which I resent as unworthy of an immortal soul, or even more rash in a mortal soul which must make the most of its moments. My mind grows distraught and stupid after very little of the mechanism.

I am to lecture to some summer school at Girton in August on philosophy and common sense—I shall give them a chapter of my shilling book. They give me four guineas, which is why I do it."

"Tuesday mg." "By masterly tactics I have managed so that I shan't want a cab till I get to Malvern, and shall be able to bicycle half the way there. I bade an affectionate farewell to my bedmaker. She says the gentlemen is so proud now-a-days they won't hardly speak to you. Not like they was in the old days. Now I was telling the elp 'there's the Hon. Russell, he's like the old-fashioned gentlemen he is, he will speak to you now and again'. You see she resembles Clive Bell. She and I are very good friends—she tells me her history and ailments and talks politics—she is a keen Liberal."

"Tues. night"

"My Aunt Agatha is very kind and nice, but longing to find fault with Alys. I have had to cope with her, hating the false appearance of generosity. I feel such a Tartuffe, it is loathsome. That's why I am so furious with Jane*—she forced me to do a dirty job for nothing. I have no objection to plain lying, but lying that makes oneself out a saint is fancy lying. However it doesn't really matter. My Aunt asked if I could get freedom, and when I said no, she said that was very hard on me. But she wouldn't sympathize if she knew the truth.

*[Jane Harrison]

Dearest, dearest, I do want you. It is ages since I saw you last."

[This letter was begun at Rozeldene on the 27th and finished in the train and in London on the 28th.]

"Worcester Sat. aftn. My Darling—I have been to the Cathedral (not worth seeing), enjoyed the river, which is beautiful, and eaten my luncheon. Now I am waiting for the train in which North [Whitehead] is coming."

"I will finish this at Malvern and post it tomorrow morning."

"I have not yet got to work on the book. This mg. I have been busy with letters and French proofs—the proofs of the address I gave to the Paris mathematicians. ["Sur les Axiomes de l'Infini et du Transfini", Soc. Math. France. C.R. Seances de 1911, no. 2: 22-35.] Of the other two addresses I have in Paris, one is published and the other will be soon."

"Monday mg. My Dearest heart I am not sure the next post will reach you tomorrow mg so I am writing just a line now in great haste."

On North Whitehead.

"Wed. night" "I never find out about books for myself—I have always lived among people who kept me going, so that I never read book reviews or know anything except what I am told." [Letter is not signed; it concludes as letter no. 137.]

"Fri evg." Good on Aris. Soc. "Moore was very nice and he is much more friendly with me than he used to be."

"Sat. mg. ... Like most people who do original work, I am not at all well-read. But it is time I became more so."

His growing reputation.

"Sat. evg. My Darling—I shall hope for a letter either tonight or tomorrow mg., but I won't wait for that."

"Sat. night." Letter is about North Whitehead.

"2 Thursday mg. The latest of your trains will do for me."

[Fragment of letter beginning on page 2; conclusion of letter no. 137.]

Writing on Problems of Philosophy going very well—"I am getting well into it."

She has his ms. "I have written 2,000 words this mg., I think the best so far. I began with 2 pages on Plato* which delighted me as clear exposition."

[*Probably the beginning of Chap. IX, "The World of Universals".]

More than half book done.

First 4 chapters to be typed. "Doing this book has given me a map of the theory of knowledge, which I hadn't before".

Most of the book written. "The one thing I absolutely must not tell about is what happened 9 years ago. It is possible I may be able to some day. At present I am absolutely bound not to."

Wants ms. of chaps. 1-4 sent him at Trinity College so can take to be typed.

"Sun night" "Mrs. Whitehead I have a friendship which I would not lose for a great deal—indeed could not lose."

Address is Radlett so BR is still probably at Battler's Green. Reading William James's posthumous book.

"Much my strongest affection, after my love for you, is my affection for Mrs. Whitehead. This is rooted in years of difficult and very painful cooperation in tasks which both think very important—chiefly in keeping Whitehead from knowledge of things that would upset his balance. It is not a feeling in which there is anything to cause you jealousy, but it is quite indestructible and very deep. Since I have lost Crompton, none of my other friendships go into the depths except North [Whitehead], to whom I have a feeling of protective responsibility."

"Monday evg. My Darling I ought to have realized that it wd. be just as hard for you to write letters at Radlett as to receive them—I hope I shall get a letter late tonight or tomorrow mg."

"Friday evg. My Dearest I cannot yet find words to tell you all that is in my heart."

"Sat. night" "Remarkably good review of Principia Mathematica [James Strachey wrote the review, Spectator, 22.7.11] in this week's Spectator".

"Friday night". On his conversion experience.

BR mentions the time he saw an aeroplane [airplane] at Marlborough.

"Saturday aftn". The Whiteheads want him in first week of August. Took a sheet of proofs to Press. Booked [?] his typescripts (of Problems of Philosophy). Have to take other chapters to be done.

Re Principia.

"Sunday evening." "My mind remains very full of Prisons".

[This is the book on philosophy of religion, not extant.]

Microfilm contains envelope only; postmarked Cambridge.

"Monday afternoon" They intend to write "Prisons" at Ipsden. "I only wish I were done with the S.S. and could get on to Prisons."

"Friday evg. My Dearest Dearest—Yes, it was divine."

"Sat. mg. My Darling The dinner last night was mildly agreeable—I sat between Hawtrey and Charles Trevy—Dickinson was there, and Bob, and Charles Buxton and various others."

"Sunday My Darling—Your two letters this morning were a very very great joy."

"Sunday night" "What has been written might do as a summary at the end." [Seems to be Prisons.]

"Monday afternoon" [written on Peppard Cottage letterhead; pmk. London*] "I think there is already enough material for a book; and it is clear it ought to be a book."

—Too bad he can't do an imaginary biography.

—Began yesterday and finished today chap. on truth for Problems of Philosophy.

—Ref. to "A long polemical article by a German mathematician, [Schönflies, "Uber die Stellung der Definition in der Arithmetik", JSBR. Der dtsch. Math.-ver., 20 (1911), 222-55] mostly against me. It ends with a statement in italics: for Cantorism, but against Russellism!

BR is secretary of Cambridge P.S.F. [*Although pmk. London the letter was written in Cambridge; he then got on the train and mailed the letter in London.]

"Friday 5 p.m." "It was dreadful leaving you, although it is such a short time till Tuesday. I am utterly filled with love—every thought I have is for you darling. I long to do better things for you than I have ever done yet. My whole energy is bent to making our love great and fruitful. I live in you, and through you in a world where everything is great and solemn and beautiful—like the evening light in our wood. My soul is filled with things for which I cannot yet find utterance, but it will come. I do feel now that we are really united, and it is a union which nothing can shake because it is independent of physical love and of everything accidental—it is our inmost being where we meet most fully. You mustn't think you do very little to help me as you said today. That is utterly untrue. You free my spirit from all inward trammels, you give me the good that I respond to, all my best leaps to meet your thoughts, and you make me live. Before, I had great difficulty in making myself think about philosophy, but now I think about it easily and well—something in our crisis made love become a stimulus to abstract thought instead of a distraction—partly, too, it comes simply of seeing you. Between lunch and tea today I wrote a whole chapter (11 pages) on the limits of philosophical knowledge, [ch. XIV, the penultimate chapter of Problems of Philosophy] as I decided while we were together in the wood this morning."

"Goring. Sat. 9 a.m. My Darling I had half hoped there would be a letter this morning at Ipsden, but I shall hope for one at Trinity. Last night I had to ride as far as Goring before finding a box to post my letter in; after that I had proofs to do, and I finished the third book of the Republic. All the stuff about the kinds of poetry and music that are to be tolerated is disgraceful—the spirit is that of Mrs. Grundy on the nude. Altogether of course Plato suffers from a belief in authority and system. The Athenians having been beaten by the Spartans, he thought everything Spartan must be better than everything Athenian, and praised the kind of rigidity that Sparta exhibited. In his republic there would have been no philosophers, because every one would have thought as his grandfather thought. Plato conceives wisdom as something to be learnt once for all by a definite unchanging curriculum, not as something only kept alive by the constant exercise of going beyond what one knew already. The laws of Lycurgus are his model. I think the French are still in this stage. It is the kind of view that leads to persecution.

Today I have a lecture and supper at the Cornfords—tomorrow nothing—Monday two lectures, and come to London immediately after the one at Girton.

I am thinking a good deal about Prisons—not about the matter so much as about the form. I am rather stuck for the moment, but I think it will come right by the time I have finished the S.S., of which I have only one more chapter to write. It may take longer, though. Probably I shall have to make experiments to see what sort of plan will work. I think I must read Sartor over again. Plato is best for my purposes, but I want other reading too. Ought I to read Marcus Aurelius (who must have eaten so much!) and...."

"Sat. aftn. My Dearest Darling Your little letter greeted me when I arrived today at one—I was very glad of it."

"Sun aft." "It is a nuisance how proofs go on after one's mind has travelled on to other things—I feel I have done with the topics the mathematical book deals with, and I find it hard to take an interest in it."

With letter no. 158 (to O. Morrell, record 17238) but could not have been enclosed with it because it was written later.

"Friday mg."

"The paper has just come, with the news about the Parliament bill. It is a great event: I am glad to be alive at such a time. After living through the war and the years that followed, and all the anxiety over Tariff Reform, it is a wonderful thing to find oneself in a great age, making landmarks for the future. Politics affect my happiness profoundly—I remember when Tariff Reform began, going about London and looking at the working men and seeing them in my thoughts ground under trusts and landlords, robbed of half the poor livelihood they had, from being deluded by interested sophists. It seemed to me so terrible that I had to do something for free trade, little as it was. And now the world is so different. Sometimes I think people who see politics from too close don't realize the greatness of the age—they don't quite feel what is being done, because they are so aware of what is not being done. The reform bill was a heroic epoch, yet in Place's diary you find nothing but abuse of 'the dirty sneaking Whigs' for not doing more. Compare this government with most, and they are angels of light.

Darling, your dear telegram has just been brought to me. How very dear of you to send it—it is a great joy. I hope you are not very tired this morning, but I fear you must be. I am very fit—I wrote two pages of my chapter last night, and have written four more now. I shall easily get it done today. I enclose a letter from Gilbert Murray about the book, also a letter from the firm. Read Gilbert's first, you will see he is quite satisfied. He hadn't yet had the two chapters I read yesterday. You might give me back the letters on Tuesday.

I loved reading the Spinoza with you. Ever since I first read Pollock's book, which was when I was an undergraduate, Spinoza has been one of the most important people in my world. But I find his importance grows greater and greater to me—all my own thought makes me understand him better, and see the things he is meaning to say more clearly and with more knowledge of their importance. I felt an uneasiness until we had shared him. What I want to say is extraordinarily like what he says. He is the only one of the modern philosophers who has anything of that sort to say."

"Monday eve." [Date is possibly one week later, 4 Sept.] "I have finished the book, written a rather long chapter on freedom and necessity, and added a page on justice."

[Letter begins] "Monday mg." and then continues "Monday eve"

"Sat. mg. [Either late July or August 1911.] My Darling—Your 2 dear letters came this morning—it was a joy to get them."

"Sat. night." Has bicycled over to stay at Lockeridge.

The letter at record 135242 was orginally catalogued with the present letter.

"Tuesday night" "My Darling—I am sorry to have had to write such scraps today—it is very difficult here to get away and be alone. You suggest that I should not forget you. Of course it is very difficult not to, but I will try to remember your existence once in a way if I can manage it. If you have to go to Marienbad the end of this month, we are terribly near the end of our time. It will be difficult going back to brief and occasional meetings. But we shall never lose what has come to us in this time. We are united now in all that is most important to us both, and that ought to make times of separation more bearable. Still, I feel they will be very difficult.

I have been trying tonight to talk a little about religion, to see how the things we have spoken of together would sound before other people. It was only a moderate success, but I couldn't bring myself to say very much. When I am away from you, the chief thing I think of is your faith in good things, and the way it makes all my best live. But I must not grow too dependent on you in that way, and I must not let my life grow soft."

"Friday night." [Prisons; Table of Contents]
"Chapter I—The Nature and Value of Religion
Chapter II—The World of Universals—Mathematical Abstractions
Chapter III—The Physical World—Matter, Space, the Beauty of Nature
Chapter IV—The Past—History—Preliminary Discipline Finished We Apply Contemplation to Purify Emotions and Actions
Chapter V—Contemplation and Emotions
Chapter VI—Contemplation and Action
Chapter VII—Union with Universe"

"I stay at Grosvenor Hotel in London, as I start from Victoria. c/o Miss Morris, Basset Manor, Checkendon, Reading, Sunday night. Aug. 26-7, 1911."

Wrote 17 pp. today: "My chapter".

"Friday night [Letter is postmarked 29 August which is a Tuesday night; envelope therefore doesn't belong.]

My Darling Love—Your most wonderful letter was here when I came back."

"Friday night. In the train to Goring. My Darling Love—Now I am on my way back to Ipsden, feeling rather sad to think that you are no longer to be found there."

"Sunday aftn."

"I shall hope to get a good deal of my Arist. address finished before I leave here."

"Wurzburg. Wed. 10.50 p.m." "I have no German stamps, ... I can't write properly in this very shaky train."

"Opposite N. Fenland. Thursday aftn. My Darling—It has been such a comfort all through this journey having your little letter with me."

"Friday mg." "I am going now to take Life in the Universe to a typewriter." (Re Prisons.)

"Sat. aftn." "My imagination is empty for the moment because I put it all into Prisons."

"I am writing by the river near South Stoke".

"My Darling—Your letter reached me at one today instead of 8."

"Wed. My Darling Love Your dear dear little note is such a joy to accompany me on my voyage."

"Mon" "Prisons will be back from the typewriter on Saturday. I will send it you as soon as I know a safe address. I shall have another copy. I doubt if it will seem as good when you read it to yourself as when I read it to you. Things read by the writer always sound better."

"Wed aft." Written a report on Broad.

"Wed. nite." "Already have some quite new ideas for my Aristotelian paper." ["On the Relations of Universals and Particulars", Proc. Aris. Soc., n.s. 12: 1911-12, 1-24.]

"Thursday night. My Darling—Trelawney's Letters are perfectly delightful—I have neglected my work shamefully and sat up late and finished them, and now I can't go to bed because they have interested me too much."

"Friday. 22nd Sp. My Dearest Dearest—Your letter telling of mother Julian's death has just come."

"Fri nite." Not yet actually written any of his Aristot. paper.

"Saturday My Dearest Dearest—Your long letter of Wed. and Thursday has just come—I am so glad to have it—I was terribly impatient for it."

Lot about Aris. paper—wrote 20 pp. today; on writing.

"Sat. night." Continues "Sunday".

"Wed. night (or rather Thursday mg.)" This letter is located next to letter 240 (record 17326) on the microfilm printouts.

"Sun nite." Reached end of Aris. paper but it needs addition in middle. "Poor Whitehead is there [Cambridge] by himself all this time, learning about astronomical instruments, which are part of the duties of his new post. Must be dull."

Just finished Aris. paper and adds.

"Tuesday mg." Going to Marlborough for day to see Whiteheads.

"In the train Tuesday mg. My Darling—I will finish this after my visit to the Whiteheads." "9.40 in the train. I got a fair budget of news from Mrs. Whitehead." [At the end of this section he signs the letter for the first time.]

"Wed. afternoon. Sp. 27 1911 My Dearest Dearest—I was well rewarded for not staying the night at Lockeridge by finding two letters from you when I got back and yet another by the 1st post this mg."

"Reading. 3 o'clock My Dearest Love—As no letter came I realized that my letter telling you to write to Reading must have been the last you had got so I flew here borne on the wings of love, which, disguised as a bicycle, covered the 11 miles in 46 1/2 minutes—I was rewarded by finding your dear letter here."

"Thursday mg." "My Darling—No letter from you came by first post, perhaps you sent your letter to Reading."

"Thursday evg." Mailed with letter no. 198, record 17280.

"a kind of mental biography"—8 pp. of autobiography.

"Friday aftn."

BR received ts. of Prisons and corrected it. Sent 1 copy to Whiteheads and 1 to Ottoline in Vienna.

"Sat."

May add something about Bergson to Aristotelian paper for his presence.

"The business about Tripoli is very bad. Really the powers are no better than they were in the 18th century. It seems to me also very stupid on the part of Italy." (Re politics.)

"Sat. evg." "My Darling—Your first letter from Prag [Prague?] reached me here very soon after my arrival, so I have had two letters today to reward me for none yesterday and very likely none tomorrow."

"Sunday" "My Darling—Your letter began in the train on the way to Vienna reached me this morning, which was an unexpected joy."

"Mon mg."

McTaggart and he "agree entirely about Broad and he tells me Whitehead also takes exactly the same view."

"Tuesday afternoon"

"My dinner last night, contrary to expectation, was not unpleasant. The Master, though kind, is a greasy old humbug, and I had him on one side. (It is an official occasion when ladies are not asked.) But young Charles Darwin, son of George and brother of Mrs. Raverat, was on my other side and was very pleasant. Broad sent word he couldn't come as he had had a domestic bereavement. The Master was much exercised and hoped it was not a near relation. Darwin told me it was his dress clothes he had been bereft of or rather had not brought. It is to be hoped the Master won't find out before the election.

This morning I have been reading the essays of the candidates—there is a three-hour essay paper they all have to do. Most of them were poor. Broad's much the best. One of the subjects set was Whitehead's remark in his Shilling Shocker that we ought as far as possible to do things without thinking, that operations of thought are like cavalry charges, only to be made at decisive moments. On this one of the candidates (a man who had been to my lectures) said that Whitehead outdid Shaw and Chesterton in brilliant paradox. I shall rag Whitehead about this. One of the candidates, Gow, son of the headmaster of Westminster, whom I scarcely know, quoted whole chunks out of my discussion of ethics in my Philosophical Essays. I think it is held to be prudent to read books of examiners."

"Tuesday evening"

On Mrs. Whitehead's illness—she was dining with Whitehead's mother.

"Wed."

No proofs of Shilling Shocker yet; Prisons arrived. "Yes, the war is horrible. Italy's behaviour is quite monstrous—but so is everybody's behaviour to Turkey ever since Abdul Aamid was got rid of. I don't see what Sir E. Grey could have done—the situation is full of risk or worse."

"Oct. 4 or rather 5, 12:30 a.m. My Darling Love—I ought to be going to bed but I was so hurried writing to you today I must have a few moments more with you."

"Thursday night" "My Darling Darling—Your little line posted at Innsbruck was waiting for me when I called at Chelsea P.O., and no doubt the letter you sent to Cambridge will reach me tomorrow."

"Friday aftn." [Address taken from body of letter.]

"Whitehead is frightfully busy and I don't see as much of him as I should like, we talked about two hours yesterday, but only about space and time, not about the things in them. We go back to Cambridge together tomorrow. His mind seems to me more vigorous than ever. I believe he will do good work at 80, when I shall be in my dotage."

"Saturday"

"Whitehead is on the Council of Boro' rd Polytechnic, and is enthusiastic about Roger [Fry's] frescoes."

"Saturday night" [continues] "Sunday"

Whitehead only read bit of Prisons. Whitehead likes his Aristotelian paper.

"Sunday night or rather Monday mg." (Sunday was the 8th.)

"My Darling—It is late and I ought to go to bed but I had so little time to write to you today, and tomorrow I may have equally little, as we may take all day over Fellowship election."

"Monday afternoon" "My Darling—The Fellowship election is now over, quite satisfactorily to my mind."

"Monday night" [continues] "Tuesday" [10 Oct. 1911]

Sent off Aristotelian paper for printing.

"Wed. evg."

"I wish my pocket were large enough to bring you to the Aristotelian—visitors are admitted but it would be madness for you to come. They are a queer seedy crew. No good philosophers live in London."

"Wed. mg." "My Darling Love—Your dear letter of Saturday night was a great joy—it only reached me this morning—"

"Thursday" "I more or less agreed to write about Bergson next term" for Ogden's Heretics. ["The Philosophy of Bergson", The Monist, 22: July 1912, 321-47.]