BRACERS Record Detail for 133501
To access the original letter, email the Russell Archives.
Untitled list, numbered 1 to 42; all items are transcribed from files 4 to 7 in this box. Some further information is added in the list.
EDITH RUSSELL TO [ ], [1968]
BRACERS 133501. MS. BRPF
Proofread by K. Blackwell
1) $\,$I saw a peacock with a fiery tail
I saw a sturdy oak swallow up a whale
I saw a comet shower down hail
I saw the raging seas brimful of ale
I saw a glass full fifty fathoms deep
I saw a well brimful of tears that men did weep
I saw men’s eyes unto a raging fire
I saw the $\bigl( \begin{smallmatrix} \text{sun} \\ \text{moon} \end{smallmatrix} \bigr)$ as high as the $\bigl( \begin{smallmatrix} \text{moon} \\ \text{sun} \end{smallmatrix} \bigr)$ and higher
I saw the sun at 12 o’clock at night
I saw the man who saw this wondrous sight
<More than one version; 313228 in BR’s hand.>
2) Matthew X 34–36
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword,
For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother,
and the daughter-in-law against her mother in law.
And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
[“Family life” — BR]
Jeremiah XVII 9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Matthew XXIII 29–31 Acts XXVI 24 Luke XI 47 [Learning]
Matthew V 38ff [an eye for an eye]
3) The little Bertie’s imaginary country:
Country of Pincha-Dincha — Republic. “How do you know?” “Because the people know how to govern themselves.”
2 children playmates: Leka [pronounced Leeka] — good
Ganninrudelation — wicked
Leka had the room next to the nursery when Bertie thought the lady’s maid of some visitor was Leka.
4) Common are to either sex
Artifex and opifex
=
Many nouns in is we find
To the masculine assigned
Amnis axis culis [[caulis]] collis
=
Masculine are fons and mens
Calebs hyprops grips and pens
Bideus hoe, but bideups sheep
with the feminina keep
Substantives in da and go
Genus feminina show
But ligo ordo praedo cargo
Are masculine, and common Margo.*
<One version is in BR’s hand; doc. 313225>
[* the t is silent, as in Harlow]
5) B’s description of his life “Like the Curate’s egg: ‘Parts of it, my Lord, are excellent!’” [7/5/68 evening]
6) B plans a book: The Blasphemer’s Vade Mecum [7/5/68 evening (1st MS only)]
7) O my cousin, shallow-hearted! O my Amy, mine no more!
O the dreary, dreary moorland! O the barren, barren shore! [Locksley Hall, A., Ld T.]
8) Tetra cuspidal hypocycloid
9) Mr W.H., the inspirer, in his own view, of Mr W.S. [suggested story 23/8/66
10) Suggested book on “What men have suffered for”
11) “I didn’t sew <sow> my wild oats, I sewed <sowed> my tame ones” [BR 10/6/67
12) Private Memoir: “How the Wicked Flourish”
13) “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, to think it possible that you may be mistaken.”
Cromwell to ? (opposing ?)
14) “They’re at a loss to find his guilt
And can’t commit his crime” Defoe in the Stocks
15) “This way to the Gay Lunatic” BR’s message as to where he was.
16) Yorkshire Post (“Leeds”) 11/2/55: “No Comment: A friend of mine asked directory inquiries
for the telephone number of Earl Russell (Bertrand Russell). ‘Is it a pub or a person?’ the operator asked. <2nd MS has “Lords”.>
17) The Ape, so all the books of wise men say,
Enjoys his wife some fifteen times a day.
But fornication, sodomy and rape
Are utterly abhorrent to the Ape
By Dennis Robertson
[“The Ape always represents the words of the last generation.” BR]
18) “You are requested to death your God outside.” BR’s friend Fitzgerald
19) What suggested a sieve as a boat for the Jumblies? The witches in Macbeth. > for Anne de C < Anne of Cleves
20) “These great and good men neither possessed nor did they arrogate unto themselves any power of foretelling the future.”
Benjamin Jowett in a sermon at Ba<l>liol heard by Logan P.S.
21) “‘Dividends are no use to Corpses.’ Bertrand Russell” (to be embossed at the foot of all begging letters to the very rich.)
22) Proposed Book: Notes for Intension and Extensions (has to do with Gödel<’>s paradoxes)
23) “I smell a rat; I see it floating in the air; but, mark me, I will nip <it> in the bud.”
He also said he couldn’t be in two places at once like a bird.
Sir Paul {Roche or Roach} in the House of Commons [1887]
24) The Escalation of Horror: War is horrible. What is being done in Vietnam? We are used to Concentration Camps. They were
in the beginning. Then “weed killers”. Then Napalm. (Explain these) Now dams. Bombing hospitals and orphanages first.
Get ready for Nuclear War.
25) “The cat would eate fish but dare not wet her feet.” From Thomas Heywood’s list of proverbs.
26) National anthem of Siam: “O WA TA NA Siam”
27) “How wonderful that we agree.
On everything from A to Zee!”
“How wonderful”, I, answering, said,
“On everything — from A to Zed.” The Times 16/6/61
28) Willie, dressed in the neatest of sashes,
Fell into the fire and was burnt to ashes.
Presently the room grew chilly,
But no one liked to poke poor Willie. <2nd MS has “chillie”.>
[Nursery Rhyme]
29) “I often wonder what the Vintners buy
One half so precious as the stuff they sell.” Omar Khayyam
30) “The Establishment: those who hold no views that are an obstacle to being included in the Honours List.” BR 9/4/62
31) I prophesy the unparalleled embarras<s>ment of a battalion of harassed postilions guaging <gauging> the symmetry of a potato
peeled by a lovable but grisly Sibyl.
(test of spelling)
32) $ = the Pillars of Hercules and the Serpent of Ocean
33) Malo Malo Malo Malo
(I had rather be up an apple tree than a bad boy in a bad way.)
34) onery twoery tuckaby seven
Allerby crackerby tenaby eleven
Pin Pan Lunskie dan <“Ping” has q deleted on two MSS.>
Twiddleum twadleum twenty-one
(BR’s infant “Eeni Meeni Mini Mo” remembered 26/9/66 Plas P.)
34) Oath BR commanded by the trainer to use when Cox at Trinity:
By the Holy Hind Leg
Of the Holy Lamb of God
SWING!
35) There was a young bride of Antigua
Who said to her spouse “What a pig-you-are!”
He replied “Oh my Queen,
Is it manners you mean,
Or do you allude to my figu-a?”
36) Learned by B from his tutor when he was 14. His tutor knew Marx’s daughter.
<Another copy, in BR’s hand. ER says he learned it at 12.>
What is a Communist? One who has yearnings
For equal division of unequal earnings
Idler or bungler or both, he is willing
To fork out his penny and pocket your shilling.
Tutor sacked by B’s people for his agnosticism [BR. 1/1/58]
37) Darius to his Ministers — “Tell me every night: ‘Oh King, Remember the Athenians!’” from Herodotus (who was in the pay of the Athenians)
Draw<er> full of letters still to be answered called by B. “the Athenians”.
38) B’s nurse addressed as: Ihro Hochwohlgeborne Fräulein Marie von Radin
39) B’s recipe for keeping the temper: “the factors of
a3 + b3 + c3 – 3abc are
a + b + c
a + wb + w2c
a + w2b + wc
where w is one of the imaginary cube roots of 1
[w $= -$ ½ $\pm \sqrt{-1} × \sqrt{3/2}$
the cube of w $=$ 1]
40) Ecclesiasticus: XXV, 5 O how comely is the wisdom of old men.
XXV, 25 Give the water no passage, neither the wicked woman liberty to gad abroad
XXVI, XLII 9–11 Keep a sure watch on a shameless daughter.…
From garments cometh moth, and from women wickedness
Proverbs XI 22
41) Desmond MacCarthy on Dr Stone of Eton and Broadstairs: “That sometimes extravagantly gay old man with a wise heart and a random
fastidious mind.”
42) If 6 saws saw six cigars in six minutes, how long does it take for 600 and 6 saws to saw 606 cigars
Si six sie scient six cigares en six minutes
Combien de minutes faut-il pour que six cent six sient six cents six cigares?
Six minutes
<Editorial note: there is more than one version of several of these, and not all intentions are clear.>