BR TO LUCY M. DONNELLY, 16 JUNE 1911
BRACERS 58511. ALS. McMaster
Edited by M. Forte. Proofread by K. Blackwell

<letterhead>
Trinity College,
Cambridge.1
June 16. 1911

My dear Lucy

Thank you for your letter — I was interested by all you say about the students and their lack of independence — very much interested by their views on divorce. Girls’ views on divorce usually depend on whether the accident of talk has brought up the possibility of a man’s wishing for divorce or a woman’s. Like men, they usually think the other sex should be bound and theirs free — but they think the two at different times — at least that is usually my experience. Try them with a case I read the other day of a man who got 6 weeks for kicking his wife to death when he was drunk — he habitually ill-treated her but gave no ground for divorce. I sat next a person in Hall the other night, who said he had turned against Women’s Suffrage because most suffragists were in favour of freer divorce — so then I began to argue divorce with him. As I expected, he lied, pretending it was on secular grounds that he opposed divorce. Of course he said divorce was bad for the children, so I instanced the above drunkard. Thereupon he said life is greater than logic. I suppose drink is greater than either since it destroys life, but otherwise I failed to see the relevance of his remark. — Margaret Davies is working hard for divorce, and starting a movement among working women, with great success. Of course religion is the enemy. Écrasez l’infâmea should still be our motto. — I read your literature paper with interest. I suppose it is all right but it rather made me shudder to think of Keats and Shelley being crammed for examination.

You will have heard that Karin got a First with distinction, which is the best thing possible, and in many years is not got by anybody. I think she quite deserved it. She has great ability in philosophy. A certain Scotchman named Laird, who has been working at the subject about 3 times as long, did equally well, and was much annoyed at being no better than Karin. The exam as it stands tests ability rather than knowledge — he has much knowledge, and therefore thought there should be more testing of knowledge — In Edinburgh, where he was before, they require much more erudition, and he was praising this. But earlier in the evening he had said that until he came to Cambridge it had never occurred to him that philosophy had any connection with life — e.g. that one’s philosophic views on the Deity had anything to do with whether one should go to church. I thought — and so did he on reflection — that the two were connected. It seems to me that people who have much to learn have no time to connect it with life, and that for really able people, at the end of their time, it is good to have very little to learn. The mathematical Tripos has been altered so that the ablest men have very little to do at the end of their time, and I think the effect wholly good. You will see this bears on your question about the girls and the unreality of their work on Shelley. I have no doubt they have too much work to do. The work ought to be so arranged as to keep stupid people busy, but leave the others leisure; and public opinion and their own tastes ought to lead them to spend their leisure intelligently.

It is now generally known that Alys and I are going to live apart, she with Logan, I at Cambridge — tho’ we remain friendly. It has been difficult and painful coming to this decision, but I am sure it was right — we were wasting each other by the unhappiness we caused each other. She has been suffering but will, I feel sure, be happier in the long run — and I think she thinks so too. — Ray is married, which is very satisfactory. I remember saying to you that the Stracheys were her anchor, and Oliver is the nicest of the Stracheys. I am writing a Shilling Shocker on philosophy, which the publisher hopes to sell largely in the Middle West. All well with me.

Yrs aff
Bertrand Russell

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Textual Notes

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  l’infâme accent supplied editorially