"Monday night." "I have written to Mrs. Whitehead in the sense I suggested."

"Thursday aft." More on Conrad.

"I am writing my third lecture. What bores me is that there is no new thought in these lectures, only old ideas that I am trying to make easy to understand." "... I wish America was over—it is a constant worry."

"Wed. evg. My Darling Here I am on my way back from Conrad." [4 pages on Conrad, whom he's just seen.]

"Friday evg. My Darling—Following Darkness arrived this mg and I have already begun it."

"Sat. aft." More on Joseph Conrad.

"I have heard from Mrs. Whitehead. She wants to see me before doing anything. She will be in London [in] about 10 days, and I shall see her then. I think she is against doing anything."

Not sending her Lecture III.

"Sunday aft." "I make a point of writing 10 pages a day ... I have nearly finished my fourth lecture. I think I will re-write them all during the Xmas vacation, but they are getting better and I am getting more into the mood."

"Monday night" "I am now in the middle of the fifth lecture." Needs jokes: "I am told one joke at least is de rigueur in an American lecture."

"Tuesday night" "I haven't enough urbanity for [Plato]." "I am sending you lectures III, IV, V...."

"Thursday mg." "I will try to make the Zeno part easier—a good deal can be done by merely expanding it."

"Tues. mg. My Darling—It is hateful to think of you being banged and jolted all day in the cold and wet, getting your head worse and worse."

"Sat. mg." "The last of the lectures I have sent you gives a brief resumé of what I have arrived at about Matter."

On Age of Science—new developments in physics.

"Monday evg." "I have at last got really interested in my lectures. I have nearly finished the seventh...." Will send sixth and seventh when they are done.

"The lecture I am at now is on the external world—dreams—hallucinations—'reality'—etc."*

*Probably now Ch. III, "On Our Knowledge of the External World".

"My Darling—I was very glad to get your letter this morning."

[Envelope probably doesn't belong.]

"Tuesday night" "The seventh, which I have just finished...."

"I find the order of the lectures is wrong—I will rearrange them when I have finished. From what you say, I suppose the third and fourth are the most difficult; if so, I had better put them at the end. I think I can build the whole course round the problem of our knowledge of the external world, and bring in Zeno in that connection, toward the end of the course."

"Thursday evg." "I have finished my last lecture—I am sending six, seven and eight tonight. I must now re-write them...."

"I have got through the lectures [sooner] than I expected...."

"Friday evg." "The great difficulty of excellence in all productive work is to keep freshness of impulse in spite of technical training."

"I don't know yet when I see Mrs. Whitehead."

"I enclose a letter from Wittgenstein, which please return."

"I revised the first this morning...."

The Wieners showed up! [Excellent description.]

"Sat. night very late" [continues] "Sunday mg." "I find myself tempted to some perfectly light relation...."

"Now I must read the infant phenomenon's [Wiener] doctor's thesis."

"Monday night" "Yes, the infant phenomenon [Wiener] is staying here till I go to America. I have read his Dr.'s thesis, and think him more infant than phenomenon. Americans have no standards."

"Lecture VI*—all that about the bad logic produced by fading of the mystic vision was good, wasn't it? I know the last three are much better than the others—they took much more out of me."

"I have got an international book on logic to review for the Nation, consisting of articles by...." Vanity first predisposed him favourably to the book, because of the index references to himself. "But alas on reading it I find it very bad...."

Housman (A.E.).

"I shall see Mrs. Whitehead Friday."

Teaching.

*Now Ch. II?—"Logic as the Essence of Philosophy".

"Tuesday night" Logic book "totally worthless".

Lectures arrived safely.

"Wed. night" "All except the seventh are too short. I will try to get the whole thing finished as soon as possible, as I must begin to think about logic and theory of knowledge again. I wrote the review of the cooperative Logic—you will see it in the Nation in due course."*

In writing VII, "got a new idea about Matter—the distinction and relations of the three kinds of space."

*A. Ruge, et al. Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, vol. I: Logic, The Nation, 14: 31 Jan. 1914, 771-2. An unsigned review.

"Thursday night" "I started filling out Lecture I, and then Wittgenstein arrived—he has decided he must be quite alone to work, so he is going to Norway, giving up Cambridge. I expect he will commit suicide towards the end of the winter, but it can't be helped. He has done admirable work."

"I got a ms paper on space from Whitehead wh. I had to read at once and take to be typed, so I read it with Wittgenstein—it is very good."

"Friday night" Came back from the Whiteheads tonight.

"I went to the Whiteheads as soon as I reached London, and stayed to dinner. Mrs. Whitehead persuaded me to abandon the plan of writing to Alys about a divorce, because if it came out it wd. prevent a divorce ever. Whitehead and I had a good talk about work, and I brought back stacks of his ms."

"Wittgenstein stayed late last night and read me bits of the work he has done. I think it is as good as anything that has ever been done in logic. I was utterly worn out when he went—too tired to sleep much."

"This morning I finished re-writing Lecture I*—I lengthened it by giving grounds for preferring reason to instinct in metaphysics."

*Apparently now the same as Ch. I, "Current Tendencies", of Our Knowledge.

"Sat. mg. My Darling This is just a line to reach you (I hope) on Sunday mg."

"Sunday aft." "Yes, I think Wittgenstein is making a very great mistake in going to Norway—I am sorry he should give up getting a degree here, which would have enabled him to teach later on, but what matters more is that he will have no distractions when his work goes wrong—it makes me very anxious. I did all I could to dissuade him, short of making myself really disagreeable. I hope he will soon get tired of it and come back."

"Monday mg." Wittgenstein "was explaining a number of very difficult logical ideas which I could only just understand by stretching my mind to the utmost. He was certainly the chief cause of my fatigue before. I feel him so terribly important and precarious that I go on making efforts when I should have given up with anybody else. For my own sake (and for yours) it is a godsend his going to Norway. It turns out that he can come back at any time to finish the residence for a degree and he says he means to come back when he has got something written. He has promised to leave me a written statement of what he has already done before he starts for Norway. The more he talks about it, the more admirable I think it. He is certainly quite supreme. He and Whitehead and I are all in a fruitful vein, so I feel very happy about work."

"Monday evg. My Darling, This is only a line to say if it is not too much trouble would you mind telegraphing when you know about Friday?"

"Tuesday mg." "I am reading a lot of Whitehead's ms on geometry—very interesting. When we meet, I should like to have my lectures back, as I want to re-write them. Have you read VII yet?"

"Tuesday evg." "I added to my lecture on logic, and have made it about long enough, or very nearly. Then I saw Moore, and talked with him about Wittgenstein. He says Wittgenstein tried to explain his ideas, and he (Moore) assumed Wittgenstein must be right, but he couldn't understand Wittgenstein."

"Wed. mg." "Today I am to have a last dose of Wittgenstein, but I have arranged to walk him out to Jourdain's to tea, which will diminish the fatigue of him." "He is more intellectually intimate to me than any one I ever met, and yet I shall be thankful to see him go. I feel it so hard on him that I find him trying, and that makes him all the more trying."

End: "It will be heavenly to be with you Dearest. Wittgenstein! Your B"

"Thursday mg." "... I am in a terrific rush of work and excitement, which I love. Yesterday Wittgenstein turned up as I finished with you, and was on my hands till near midnight, except a brief period when I had to deal with the prodigy [Norbert Wiener]. You saw Wittgenstein's letter saying he wanted a means of preserving his work, and therefore wanted to tell me about it. I answered that I couldn't remember it that way, and he must write it down. Then his artistic conscience got in the way, and because he couldn't do it perfectly he couldn't do it at all. I tried one method after another: he spent Tuesday at Birmingham dictating extracts from his note-book to a German shorthand writer; then there were newer things, and things not sufficiently explained. He said he wd. make a statement of them, and sat down to do it. After much groaning he said he couldn't. I abused him roundly and we had a fine row. Then he said he wd. talk, and write down any of his remarks that I thought worth it, so we did that, and it answered fairly well. But we both got utterly exhausted, and it was slow. Today he is coming again, and Jourdain's secretary [Miss Harwood] (the one who is prettier than Waterlow's bride) is coming to take down our conversation in shorthand. Mercifully Jourdain sent her this morning to borrow a book of mine, so I grabbed her. It is early-closing day so no one can be got except as a favour. Tomorrow Wittgenstein goes to London, and Sat. to Norway. Today in the middle I have to have Lucy Donnelly's young lady to tea—she will give a breathing-space. All this suits me to perfection and prevents me from feeling impatience, or indeed anything except the wish to drag W's thoughts out of him with pincers, however he may scream with the pain. We walked out to Jourdain's to tea yesterday—it was nice there, but on the walk we were on each other's nerves."

Wants to make lecture VII into II—as it is easier. "I think everything can be grouped about the problem of the external world, and the difficulties kept till later." "Wittgenstein makes me feel it is worth while I should exist, because no one else could understand him or make the world understand him."

"Now I must stop. Wittgenstein and Jourdain's secretary will be here directly and then I shall have to start a fierce tussle with the combined difficulties of logic and human nerves."

"Monday evg." "I got three lectures into final shape, and nearly finished getting a fourth in order."

"Tues aft." "Wittgenstein is gone, and Matter is past the really difficult stage—both these are a help."

"In the train, Sunday night. My Darling Darling—They were happy days, and they grew happier and happier down to the very last moment in the dining room."

"Wed. evg." "I have prepared a two-page discussion of whether and how physics is verifiable, which I shall read to open the conversation." [For a student meeting.]

"Friday evg." "The Whiteheads are staying here." (Cambridge)

"Sat evg." "This morning I went on till Whitehead came about 11. Since then we have been discussing and arguing till we were both nearly dead. I took the opportunity of making him read Wittgenstein's work with my exegesis—he thinks just as well of it as I do. Whitehead has done stacks of good work on geometry, which we talked about; and then I explained my ideas on matter, which pleased him. Our world is buzzing and very encouraging."

"Sunday mg." "... Whitehead arrived at 11 and stayed till nearly 5—we discussed work the whole time, very profitable and very enjoyable." A German turned up—"he and Wittgenstein used to come together, and I remember at first I thought them both foolish, and only gradually discovered that Wittgenstein was mad but not foolish."

"Today I got my fifth lecture finally finished, so now I have only three more to re-write."

"My last year here Wittgenstein took up all my time and energy, but this year I shall get at many more people."

"Wed. mg." Zeno—"I have got interested in a question of pure erudition, which I seldom do." [See Our Knowledge on Zeno: Ch. VI has much "pure erudition" on Zeno.]

[Envelope, pmk. 21 Oct. 1913 doesn't belong to this letter.]

"Friday mg." "Tonight I have to read about time* to the Moral Science Club. I have been looking at the stuff on theory of knowledge that I wrote in the spring. It seems to me the early part is as good as I thought at the time, but that it goes to pieces when it touches Wittgenstein's problems, as he said at the time. I hardly thought then that he would get out as much as he has lately, and it seemed not worth waiting. Now his work has put a completely new face upon whole vast regions. [Do regions have faces?]—I have heard from him—from Norway, quite happy so far."

*Perhaps Ch. VI of Pt. I of the unpublished book on Theory of Knowledge.

"Thursday evg. My Darling—Your dear letter came just as I was starting for my Thursday lecture—I had a good crowd and they looked intelligent and interested."

"Thursday mg. My Darling Your dear letter has just come."

"Sat. mg." "In the evening I read a paper on Time—it was compressed and no one understood a single word."

Zeno—"I wish I had a staff of trained underlings—I want some one to collect all references to Zeno in antiquity...."

"It is difficult to arrive at a man's doctrines from the refutations of those who haven't understood him."

"Sunday night" "I had a very agreeable time at the Whiteheads...." Finished lecture VI—"the only erudite one of the lot".

"Monday night" [3 Nov.] "Today I finished lecture VII".

"Since dinner I have written another review of the cooperative logic I reviewed for the Nation." [Cambridge Review, 35:27 Nov. 1913, 161.] "Will you read enclosed from Wittgenstein and tell me what impression you get from it?"

"Wed. evg." Left his "stuff" (only Zeno stuff?) with Jourdain's secretary to type.

"I hope to finish the last of the popular lectures on Saturday or Sunday. Then I shall be free to go on preparing the other two courses I have to give in America—each about 36 lectures, which means a lot work."

"Thursday evg. My Darling—I was very glad of your little letter this mg."

"Friday evg." "I have heard [from] Wittgenstein, quite a calm sensible letter. I wrote to him yesterday."

"Sat. mg." "I am in the middle of my last lecture...."

"Sunday evg." Santayana. Finished lectures yesterday. "Today I had to make a syllabus [not found] of the other two courses and send it off to Harvard. But they are less of an anxiety." "On Tuesday I lunch with the Whiteheads."

"Thursday evg. My Darling Darling—I am sorry your head is so bad, but your little letter was a very great joy to me."

"Wed. night." "I wonder whether I shall be able to do the sort of writing we talked of. I will certainly try after America unless something happens to prevent me."

"Friday night" About Simpson and [ordination service]. Tomorrow night dines with Mirrlees to introduce her to Whiteheads.

"Sat. aft." "Whitehead came this morning for a talk, which was both pleasant and profitable."

"Monday mg." Chicago wants him from June 15 to the end of July for £200. Undecided yet.

"Wed. evg. My Darling Our time ended very happily didn't it?"

"Friday mg. My Darling Love Your dear letter has just come."

"Sat aft." "I have been reading George Trevelyan's essays called Clio a Muse."

"Sat evg. My Darling Darling—I was so very sorry that you felt so sad—as far as I am concerned, it is all pure nightmare from fatigue."

"Sunday evg." "I have finished my lecture on 'Mysticism and Logic'. It is not very good—it is mostly made up of scraps from the other lectures—but it will have to do. I am anxious to get on with technical work, and I still have the Poincaré preface to do before term begins."

Forstice.

"Now I am free from that weight" of work for America.

"My Darling Darling Our little moment this mg., I don't know why, was quite incredibly happy—it seemed gay and easy like very early days."

"Thursday aft." The blasphemer: "If I can find out exactly what he said, I am thinking of committing his crime and challenging the police to imprison me. It would be great fun, but I fear his words may be so disgusting that I couldn't bring myself to utter them."

Re the blasphemy prosecution of Dr. Nikola.

"Friday mg. My Darling Darling—The first part of your letter made me very happy—I really will believe in your love."

"Saturday My Darling Love—I had meant to have written sooner but I was so overcome with sleep that it was impossible."

[Date uncertain.]

"Sat. aft." He's found out exactly what blasphemer (Dr. Nicola) said—not indecent—thinking seriously of repeating his words in market-place. Re blasphemy prosecution. Parson controversy.

"Monday evg." "I have been reading Poincaré, the book I have to write a preface to."

"I am also concocting a reply to the enclosed criticism, mostly by the parsonic bigwigs of this place."

"Sunday night My Darling Love By this time you must be in Lausanne."

"Tuesday evg." "I am very busy—typed lectures to correct, my answer to the Parsons to write (I finished it this morning)*, Poincaré to read, etc.

Nicod.

*"The Ordination Service. Mr. Russell's Reply", Cambridge Magazine, 3: 6 Dec., 229, 231.

"Wed. evg." "Certainly Wittgenstein's absence makes life easier."

"Morning" "I have asked Whitehead what he thinks [about blaspheming] but have not heard yet. I must decide today."

"Friday aft." "I have abandoned the blasphemy plan. The Whiteheads are against it, and every one else seems to be. I don't quite know why, but I suppose they must be right."

Monday will lunch with Whiteheads.

"Sat. aft." Gave last lecture yesterday.

Went to hear W.E. Johnson on "Possibility"; all about him.

"Monday night" "Mrs. Whitehead made me definitely give up the blasphemy."

Then went to Melian's*—then to a concert (Eroica).

Goes to Whiteheads again tomorrow.

*Stawell.

"Tuesday night" "—I had had a dreadfully worrying visit to the Whiteheads as he is very overwrought (don't mention this)"—again there today for tea and dinner.

"Thursday night" "Tomorrow I go to the Whiteheads again."

"Sunday evg." "Yes, the sense of having a thousand things to do is a sure sign of fatigue."

"Sunday evg." Sends caricature by

Counsell of Wiener and ?

Counsell "Contemplates doing me as puck leading the divinity professors."

[A cartoon of BR did appear at this time in the Cambridge Magazine.]

"Wittgenstein's absence" and pills for liver that prevented him becoming odious this term.

"Tues. evg." Will dine Sunday with Whiteheads.

"At last I have finished the Poincaré preface* ... it cost me a frightful lot of time and thought for such a short thing. It was a delicate matter, as the book contains a fierce attack on me, which I thought ignorant and unfair, but which nearly destroyed my reputation in France."

Thursday, a lecture to which all the world seems to be coming.

Sends her preface, of which he's made fair copy for publishers.

*Preface to Henri Poincaré, Science and Method (Lon.: Nelson, 1914).

"Sunday night. My Darling Your telegram was waiting for me when I got back."

"Monday My Darling Your dear letter was here when I came in after lunch."

"Monday night"

"Tonight I dined with Frau v. H. [Hattingberg] in a restaurant on the Aventine, and then walked home with her. We had a sort of éclaircissement. I told her that I should certainly never again care for anyone as I do for you, and she told me she would quite certainly never give more than friendship in return for anything I had to offer. So that cleared the air, and we had a very happy time, talking of a hundred things. There is no reason now why I should not remain friends with her, which I should certainly be glad to do. The danger of drifting, which worried me, does not exist any longer. I am dining with her tomorrow."

[Incorrect envelope for this letter.]

"Wed. mg. My Darling Love Your dear dear letter from Florence has just come and makes me so happy."

"Evg. My Darling Love Your little letter from Aigle was waiting when I got home this evg., and was a very very great comfort."

"Frau v. H. is gone away to rest after Xmas. I may see her again Monday, but if so I shall probably not see her again after that. I do not think it would be possible to be on merely friendly terms, or on more than friendly terms. I like her very much indeed. Her husband holds all her imagination and passion, just as you hold mine; and yet I feel nothing light or slight is possible, and therefore nothing is possible."

"Sat. might My Darling Love Your letter written on Xmas day reached me tonight—you are so infinitely good and patient with me, and I feel crushed with shame. It is nothing in you that keeps me from being happy, but only the situation. It came to a crisis through complicated worrying and perplexity about Frau von H., though there was no real reason to worry. I am often unspeakably happy when I am with you, and at other times I am not unhappy if I am busy and work goes well. But the situation doesn't bear thinking about, and that makes life feverish and difficult. There is no use trying to think of things to do. Certainly it was a mistake coming abroad alone; but it is only in small expedients that things can be made better."

"I am most bitterly sorry that I cannot find a more complete contentment in what you give. It really is not for want of trying hard. But I think any normal person would tell you that the situation is essentially hardly bearable; it only becomes bearable when my thoughts are fully occupied with other things."

"Tuesday" F. von Hattingberg "read poems by a man named Moericke whom Wittgenstein has always raved about—he even left a volume of him in my rooms, hoping I should read him, but I never did. However, I liked the poems she read."

"Sunday mg." "I see how Wittgenstein tires me, and it makes me understand better how I must wear you out."

"Friday night. My Darling—This is just one line to say if you write Sunday please send the letter to my flat as I shall leave here before the 2nd post arrives."

"Sat. mg. My Darling—I was very glad to get your letter this mg."

"In my flat, Wed. My Darling—This is only one line to greet you tomorrow mg."

"Thursday night. Just one line my Darling to correct the impression of my rather pessimistic letter earlier."

"Thursday mg. My Darling—I am very sorry you are so depressed."

"Friday mg." On Monday the 16th, BR has Aristotelian Soc. and lunch with Aunt Maude.* "Wittgenstein has left the Society. I think he is quite right, though loyalty to the Society would not have let me say so beforehand. I have had to cope with him a good deal. It is really a relief to think of not seeing him for some time, though I feel it is horrid of me to feel that." "... all but finished the pile of Whitehead's ms I brought."

A hilarious letter on what BR might do in a state combining excitement and fatigue.

*Stanley

"In my flat, Sunday night. My Darling, It was very selfish of me to write such a depressed letter earlier in the day, please forgive me and don't take it seriously."

"Wed. evg. My Darling Love. Here I am back again in my room, thawed by tea and my fire after a bitterly cold journey."

"Friday mg." "Tonight I have to dine with Lady Jebb to meet the Bucklers from Baltimore—people I used to know fairly well, but haven't seen for ages. I am sorry as Wittgenstein is reading a paper which I wanted to hear."

"Providence House. Tuesday mg. My Darling Your letter this mg. was a great joy—such a dear letter—".

"Sat. evg. My Darling—Please read enclosed from Conrad before you read this, as you won't understand this otherwise."

"Sunday evg." "... the sheer delight of clear vision as to the problem of matter makes the whole world look bright."

"Monday evening. My Darling I cannot give you up—if you decide that it is best to break, I cannot wonder—but I cannot imagine life afterwards—all my life these years has been turned to you so completely—every moment of it has been lived with you in my mind—you have such ineradicable roots in my inmost being—I have sometimes spoken of feeling a gulf, but that is in the things that are not the deepest."