BR TO W.W. NORTON & COMPANY, INC. / WARDER NORTON, 18 NOV. 1934
BRACERS 47117. ALS. Norton papers, Columbia U.
Proofread by K. Blackwell and A. Duncan

<letterhead>
Telegraph House
Harting, Petersfield.1
Nov. 18, 1934

Dear Warder

Thank you for your letter of Oct. 31, which only reached me two days ago. I am glad to hear a reprint was called for so soon. Does it not contain the numerous additions to the Index which I sent via Unwin? I fear not. He undertook to get a competent man to do the Index, but got a lazy fool.

Re eugenics, I don’t want it tried yet, because our knowledge is inadequate, but I think ultimately it may become very beneficial. To oppose it in principle is only possible if one denies congenital inequalities, which is an 18th-century superstition of the “enlightenment”.

Re Mumford, I know his work, but have never liked it. I think his over-estimate of the Emerson–Lowell group absurdly high. His view of me is the inevitable counterpart of mine of him.

I don’t think I want, yet, to have a contract for a book on “The Cult of the Ego” (which I think more nearly describes what I want to do). It is a large undertaking. I meant to start with Rousseau and Wesley, but they presuppose Luther, and he presupposes St. Augustine. I want to do it slowly, and probably subsist on smaller books by the way. But all this is doubtful, so at the moment I would rather remain un-contracted. A volume of essays for next autumn I can almost certainly manage. Please tell me about the President.

Thanks and best wishes

Yrs sinc
Bertrand Russell.

P.S. What “difficulties with the Shelleys”?

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