BR TO KATHARINE TAIT, 8 DEC. 1946
BRACERS 52606. ALS. McMaster. SLBR 2: #476
Edited by N. Griffin. Proofread by K. Blackwell

Trinity College
Cambridge.
8 Dec.1946.

Dear Kate

Thank you for your very good letter of Nov. 15. I am sorry for you about Gothic;1 you feel about it as I did in youth about geometrical optics and spherical optics and spherical astronomy, two subjects of incredible dullness which I had to get up. I feel strongly, however, that you should persist in the Ph.D., as it will very greatly increase your earning capacity, and you cannot tell what may be necessary — you might, e.g., find yourself some day a widow with two young children.

I am interested to hear that you are in love again, and the man sounds suitable for my parental blessing.2 You may tell him from me that you are a very lovable person, and would make an admirable wife if you loved your husband. I should like you to be married, as I think children would add greatly to your happiness; but you should not marry a feckless person like Amiel, whom you would have to mother. Children, not husbands, are the proper objects of maternal emotions; otherwise intolerable psychological tangles result.

What you say about John and Susan is encouraging; I got the same impression from his letters. He wrote telling me she was threatened with a miscarriage and couldn’t travel, which is a pity; I hope all will go well with her.

Dear Kate, you needn’t apologize for the “earnestness” of your letters; I like them so. Your are right and John is wrong about wickedness: it is not all ignorance. As to your doubt whether we “know” anything: “knowledge” is a matter of degree, not an absolute. There is a graduation:

Present perception → recent memory → more distant memory, → concordant testimony on matters of fact having little emotional interest → inferences to future occurrences in accordance with well-attested regularities (tomorrow’s sunrise) → scientific laws. For all these there is evidence of varying degrees of strength; for religion, none. As for fear of Hell, I suggest the following hypothesis: God values veracity above all other virtues, and has refrained from giving us evidence of His existence; therefore He[tn]

His ... He written over his ... he[/tn] will damn all those who believe in Him, as having sinned against veracity.

Ask your Lutheran friend about I Kings VII, 23.3

You should think seriously about religion; but remember the First Commandment: “Thou shalt not believe what there is no reason to suppose true”.

I hear you gave John $100. As I have given him $200, I have suggested his giving back the $100 to you.

Conrad is still happy and flourishing. Peter is well and happy and calmer than I have ever known her. Much love. Merry Xmas.

Your
Diddy

There is nothing I want except your letters.

• 1

  Gothic A subject she was studying without much pleasure at Radcliffe.

• 2

  I am interested to hear that you are in love again … blessing. Nothing came of this relationship.

• 3

  I Kings VII, 23 The passage reads: “And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was round all about, and his height was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits did encompass it round about.” It is difficult to imagine what point was to be made with its help — except, perhaps, that the sea’s circumference ought to have been given as just over 31.4 cubits, a not-very-serious lapse of precision on the part of the good book.