Wrote review of Bosanquet today [unsigned review of The Value and Destiny of the Individual, The Nation, 12: 22 Feb. 1913, 864].

"Hardy is reading a paper about my ideas on religion and I must hear it."

"Tuesday night My Darling Love—I have only time for one line to say your 2 telegrams have come and make me very happy."

"Monday night. My Darling Love—Three letters from you today have certainly well compensated me for yesterday."

"Wed. night." "Wrote to the Secretary of the Rationalist Press Association about Schiller."

"When I got here I found a request from a new German encyclopaedia of philosophy to do a long article on the Philosophy of Nature—I don't think it likely that I shall do it."

"Thursday evg." "Today ... the last proofs [of Principia] thank goodness, then I wrote the preface, then had Wittgenstein to tea...."

[Letter # is not written on letter.]

"Friday night." "If once I had a school of mathematical logic established here, with Wittgenstein teaching, and people recognizing that it ought to be learnt, I should have no hesitation in leaving."

[Envelope doesn't belong to this letter.]

"Sat. mg. My Darling This is only one line to make sure of reaching you tomorrow."

"Sat. night." "16 years ago now I started gaily on the Philosophy of Matter, and after a year I found there were a few preliminaries to be settled, which have taken all my time till now."

"Wed. night." "Wittgenstein is in great form."

"Friday night. My Darling—It is funny that my letters no longer come by 1st post—I hope they will be all right again now—or have you still got fog?"

"Sat. mg. My Darling—Your little line which I got this mg. was a great joy, the more so as your letter last night seemed rather unhappy."

"Thursday evg." "Then Wittgenstein"

Welsh Jones read a paper.

"Wittgenstein, in his usual fury, stayed behind to explain that the poor man was the most stupid, the most wicked, the most utterly worthless creature that ever lived; he utterly refused to believe that any impression at all had been made on the man. Wittgenstein's attitude was excusable because Jones always tried to wriggle out of difficult questions by subterfuges, instead of facing them squarely."

"Sat. evg." "Yes, Wittgenstein is terribly intolerant—I take him to task about it sometimes, and he will get better as he gets older. He finds it hard to imagine minds less clear than his own, and so he thinks people dishonest when they are only confused. You would hardly believe your ears if you heard the things I say to him on the importance of not misjudging people whose thoughts are vague: he is not morbid just now, but he may become so at any moment. It is purely a question of fatigue I think. He takes more exercise than he did, which is good."

"Sat. mg.

My Darling Darling—You were extraordinarily good to me yesterday, and it was a very happy day to me."

"Sat. evg.

My Darling Darling—Only one moment, snatched from my uncle, to tell you of my great love and great happiness."

[Letter no. is not on letter.]

"Sunday mg.

My Dearest Love—Your dear little letter from the train reached me this mg. and is a great joy—your letter yesterday was so wonderful—it sweeps away all the cobwebs—and I swept them away with your help before it arrived, as I was coming down in the train."

"Monday night.

My Darling Love—Your dear little letter of this mg. has just come—I can't tell you what happiness it gives me."

"Tuesday night."

"Read for review [today] a little book consisting of a translation of Bergson's Introduction à la Métaphysique, and made syllabus of my Harvard lectures." [Published in the Official Register of Harvard University, 20 May 1913.]

"Wed. evg."

"I had a long walk with Wittgenstein today; 3 hours—part of the time we sat out in a wood."

Wrote review of Bergson [Cambridge Review, 34: 17 Apr. 1913, 376-7].

"Darling I long to write of love but Wittgenstein is marching up and down and makes me nervous."

"Thursday evg."

"I had a terrific contest with Wittgenstein late last night, because I told him it would do him good to read French prose, and that he was in danger of being narrow and uncivilized. He raged and stormed, and I irritated him more and more by merely smiling. We made it up in the end, but he remained quite unconvinced. The things I say to him are just the things you would say to me if you were not afraid of the avalanche they would produce—and his avalanche is just what mine would be! I feel his lack of civilization and suffer from it—it is odd how little music does to civilize people—it is too apart, too passionate, and too remote from words. He has not a sufficiently wide curiosity or a sufficient wish for a broad survey of the world. It won't spoil his work on logic, but it will make him always a very narrow specialist, and rather too much the champion of a party—that is, when judged by the highest standards."

"Friday night. My Darling—I am so very sorry your cold is so bad."

"Sat. evg."

"I had another fierce tussle with Wittgenstein last night, but this time I think perhaps I did him good. At any rate I didn't anger him."

Went to Whiteheads—"Didn't see Whitehead because he has influenza".

"Sunday mg. My Darling—This is only a line, to surprise you (I hope) tomorrow morning."

"Sat. evg."

"Wittgenstein is here, which makes a sort of difficulty about writing—only imaginary, but it affects one. We have just come back from the Whiteheads—Whitehead and he had a discussion while I talked to Mrs. Whitehead. I don't know how it went off—not very well, I should say. Wittgenstein is in a bad humour, and that has made me a little cross with him, which has increased his ill humour. But he is staying to dine with me."

The transcription used to have "Spinoza on scants"; it is corrected to "Spinoza on scents".

"Sat. evg."

French proofs to finish [of the French translation of "On the Notion of Cause" in Scientia, 13: May 1913, 317-38].

"Good Friday night.

My Darling Love—I must write one line tonight as otherwise you won't hear till Sunday—just to tell you how blissfully and divinely happy these days have been...."

"Monday evg."

Mrs. Whitehead very ill again: "I don't believe she can last much longer. I don't know what will become of Whitehead."

Dinner—Moore and Wittgenstein and youth, etc. etc. Miss Maitland, Karin and her Countess.

"Wittgenstein disliked all the ladies except Karin, whom he was quite smitten with. He said Fredigood [Maitland] was 'philosophical', which is his worst term of abuse. I think he meant that he felt her sentimental. He is exceedingly critical of both men and women."

Gone from "dull German book" to Hume: "He is such a joy".

"Parts of Principia Mathematica will bear comparison with anybody."

"Easter Sunday"

Vita Nuova best book of love poetry.

"Tuesday evg.

My Darling Love—I am just back from Hindhead and have found your dear letter of yesterday and this mg. waiting for me."

"Wed. mg. My Darling Love—This is just a line to reach you when you arrive in Bedford Square."

"Thursday night.

My Darling—I have just found your 2 notes—I am very sorry I was out at the play, and now it is too late."

"If you write a line tomorrow, please return enclosed from Wittgenstein, as I should like to show it to the Whiteheads to make them like him. Poor wretch! I know his feelings so well. It is an awful curse to have the creative impulse, unless you have a talent that can always be relied on, like Shakespeare's or Mozart's."

"Sunday mg."

"Mrs. Whitehead says I have grown more dictatorial since I took to teaching, more like a governess she says!"

"Wed evg. My Darling Love—Here is Jane's* pamphlet, which I forgot before."

*[Harrison] [Number is not on letter.]

"Dearest I can't say how I long for you." [This line is written above the beginning of the letter.] "Friday night. My Darling Love—Of course I shall be more happy than I can say to see you tomorrow mg."

"Sat. night."

My Darling Love—It was such a joy to find your dear little note when I got home, all the more because at first I thought there was none."

Letter no. is not on letter.
 

"Wed. mg. My Darling—Your dear letter of yesterday has just come (by 2nd post)."

"Sunday night My Darling Love—Our little moment this mg. was heavenly—I was so very happy."

"Monday night"

"I am very happy about that scheme of lectures [the initial scheme for the Lowell Lectures]. I don't know whether to call it 'The Search for Wisdom' or 'The Search for Insight.' I think perhaps insight is better. I have been walking round the streets thinking about it. I can think of the following heads:

I. Nature and Importance of the Problem
II. Insight in Politics: Lincoln, Mazzini
III. Insight in Human Relations: Who? Lamb
IV. Insight in Poetry: Dante
V. Insight in Science: Galileo
VI. Insight in Philosophy: Spinoza
VII. The Nature of Insight.

I want one more heading, to make eight lectures. Perhaps History?

I feel convinced I can do the lectures—they will be what Prisons failed to be." [Doesn't think "Insight" is right word.]

[Sent off article to "New Statesman".]

"Tuesday aftn.

My Darling Love—I keep thinking of you being rattled and jolted up to Burnley, wondering if you are very tired and if you have your Lady."

"Wed. mg. My Darling Darling—Two dear letters from you have made me so happy—I can't say how I loved them."

"Thursday mg.

My Darling This is a wretched place as regards the post—there is only one in in the mg. and one out in the afternoon—it was just gone when we arrived yesterday so I couldn't write."

"Friday mg. My Darling Darling Your 2 dear letters of Wed. have just come—I was so glad of them."

"Saturday." Wants to write more for New Statesman [but didn't do so for a long time].

"Tuesday mg." Still keen on those lectures.

"Wed. mg.

My Darling Love—Your dear dear letter written last night has just come—it does give me such joy that you feel as you do."

"Morning. My Darling Love Your dear letter of last night has just come."

"Friday evg."

"I finished my book and wrote the review of it—the book was short and worthless." [Perhaps of F.B. Jevons' "Personality", of which an unsigned review by BR appeared in The Nation, 13: 14 June 1913, 431. See also letter #747.]

"Friday mg."

"Wrote a reply* [yesterday] to a criticism of my article on Bergson which Wildon Carr had published in the Cambridge Magazine—I read half of a book I have to review for the Nation, I had a profitable discussion with Moore, which led me to write out a sketch of Theory of Knowledge, much better than anything I had done before in that line...."

*"Mr. Wildon Carr's Defence of Bergson", Cambridge Magazine, 26 Apr. 1913, 490, 492.

"Sat. mg."

"'Philosophy and life' is the sort of thing" for Lowell Institute. "There is a certain attitude towards life and poetry and everything which somehow fits in with my philosophy, and is rather different from the attitude of other people—this is what I want to bring out. The importance of the non-human (I include God with the human) is what seems to me omitted in most philosophies."

At end of 1912, nearly 500 copies of vol. I sold [of Principia], nearly 300 copies of vol. II. "I can't think who buys it— it must be libraries."

"Sunday evg. My Darling Love—This is just one line to greet you tomorrow morning."

"Wed. mg."

"This morning I am working on Theory of Knowledge with a view to my lectures ... I want it to be a book—for a long time I have planned a book on Theory of Knowledge, then I thought I could do Matter first, but now I see that even apart from having to lecture, Theory of Knowledge must come first—chiefly because of dreams."

"Wed. evg.

My Darling—This can only be one line to say I haven't time for a proper letter—first Hill came, and now Wittgenstein is here."

"Tuesday aftn.

My Darling Love I meant to write in the train but it was too full—I should have been overlooked."

"Thursday mg."

"Wittgenstein stayed until 12.30, when I turned him out. (I was sleepy, and slept till 10.15). He had been reading Lytton's little book*, which he didn't like—he said it made an impression of effort, like the gasps of an asthmatic person.—I got out the book, but couldn't see what he meant. The contemplation of him is instructive to me. I find I no longer ever talk to him about my work, but only about his. When there are no clear arguments, but only inconclusive considerations to be balanced, or unsatisfactory points of view to be set against each other, he is no good; and he treats infant theories with a ferocity which they can only endure when they are grown up. The result is that I become completely reserved, even about work."

*L. Strachey, Landmarks in French Literature (Home University Library).

[Envelope doesn't belong to this letter.]

"Friday night—My Darling Love—I have only a few minutes, as Hardy has been here and now it is nearly post-time."

"Sat. afternoon" "I shall begin my 'Theory of Knowledge' by criticism of other theories." Going to fit in his dream theory—"only a mathematical logician could have thought of it."

"Friday mg." "I went a long walk with Wittgenstein".

[Yesterday].

"Sunday evg. My Darling Love—Just one line in answer to your telegram to say I will come up by the 8.30, and be at my flat by 10.15."

"Tuesday evg. My Darling Love—It was a very happy time, in spite of your being ill—I was sorry to find you so knocked up, but it didn't prevent me from being very happy indeed."

"Wed. mg. My Darling Darling—Such a dear letter from you just come—it is such an unspeakable joy to me that you feel happier now."

[In Italian] "Dolicissima amata...."

[On T.C. printed stationary.]

"Thursday aft. My Darling Darling I am sorry you got the impression that I was hurt—I really wasn't in the very slightest—it was only the feverish feeling that the moments were slipping away."

"Friday aft." "Wittgenstein has just been here saying with all solemnity that logic is driving him into insanity. I think there is a danger of it, so I urged him to let it alone for a bit and do other work—I think he will. He is in a shocking state—always gloomy, pacing up and down, waking out of a dream when one speaks to him."

"Sat. mg. My Darling Love—Your little letter written under the eyes of Desmond arrived by 2nd post, when I was only just awake—I am sorry you had such a long day and such a bad head."

"Sunday night" "Still sketching out my book on Theory of Knowledge—I have got the early part quite elaborately sketched, and the whole pretty fully in my head. If I can write it while you are away it will keep me happy.... This work is just what is needed before tackling Matter—in fact I can bring in the most interesting part of the problem of Matter. I have begun to think again that I may get Matter completely polished off before I die. If only I could sleep 8 hours a night, I could perform miracles."

"Monday night" About Winston [Churchill], and Mrs. Whitehead.

"Tuesday aft." Has been to hear the Brahms Requiem in Ely Cathedral—because of Wittgenstein.

"When the ladies were gone, Winston asked me to explain the differential calculus in two words, which I did to his satisfaction."

"Thursday afternoon" [Perhaps began Theory of Knowledge yesterday.] "It all flows out.... " "There will be an introductory chapter, which I shall probably leave to the last—the first substantial chapter, which I have nearly finished, is called 'Preliminary Description of Experience' [The Monist, 24: Jan. 1914, 1-16]. Then I shall set to work to refute James's theory that there is no such thing as consciousness, then the idealist theory that there is nothing else. Then I shall classify cognitive relations to objects—sense, imagination, memory. Then I shall come on to belief, error, etc., then to inference; then finally to 'construction of the physical world'—time, space, cause, matter. If I go on on the scale on which I have begun, it will be quite a big book—500 pages of print I should think. It is all in my head, ready to be written as fast as my pen will go. I feel as happy as a King. If I write 10 pages a day it will take 50 days—so it should be nearly finished when you come home."

"Friday afternoon" 10 pages today—"mostly of quotations from James and Mach" ["Neutral Monism", The Monist, 24: Apr. 1914, 160-87].

"Wed. night My Darling Love—This is only one line because on thinking it over I was afraid my letter this morning was not so entirely happy in appearance as I really was when I wrote it. I only spoke of less happy times by way of contrast.

This afternoon I went to see Jourdain (the paralyzed mathematician) in answer to the enclosed note from him. I enjoyed my visit (we talked a lot about Waterlow), and on the way back I came to the point of beginning to write on Theory of Knowledge. I have now written several pages of the beginning, and I see no reason why I shouldn't go straight on to the end. I am glad to have got started.

Goodnight Darling. Don't think I meant to be depressing this mg. or was thinking depressing thoughts. I am perfectly happy dearest; really very very happy—I send a thousand kisses & all my love.

Your B"