BR TO OTTOLINE MORRELL, 5 OCT. [1911]
BRACERS 17291. ALS. Morrell papers #209, Texas
Proofread by K. Blackwell et al.

<letterhead>
Trinity College,
Cambridge.1^, 2
Oct. 4 or rather 5, 12.30 a.m.

My Darling Love

I ought to be going to bed but I was so hurried writing to you today I must have a few moments more with you. Dearest, it is such a joy getting your letters — don’t worry if they are short — they tell me the most important things however short they are. It is a comfort to think that by this time you are settled at Meran — I hope you have comfortable rooms. I was worried while you were in Vienna by the feeling of your aching head exposed to all the motor-horns and train-bells and noises of wheels on cobbles. It must have been dreadful.

Three weeks from now we shall have met, I hope — a little over three weeks have passed by this time — it seems incredible that it is not longer — I have such a longing for you Darling. In the middle of talking to people, even about the most interesting matters, I get the feeling of holding you in my arms, and I can hardly remember what we were talking about — I shall want to hold you and kiss your lips for ever and let all the dreariness of absence melt away.

I have had a very busy day as I wanted to get the papers read before going to London. It took me very nearly the whole day till 10 o’clock. It is dull work reading 15 sets of answers to the same paper, mostly very bad. Last year Norton’s papers enlivened things but this year there is no one up to that standard.

At 10 I went to McTaggart’s. The ubiquitous Waterlow turned up; we discussed Plato and Aristotle. McT despised them both, Waterlow admired Aristotle not Plato, I, Plato not Aristotle. So we had a great diversity of views. Waterlow is one of the stupidest people I have ever known. He also decried Spinoza, about whom McT is even keener than I am.

All the time I was thinking of you, longing for you to be there — except you couldn’t stand Waterlow, though he is a good soul. Waterlow’s defence of Aristotle was that he first discovered how oysters copulate — I never thought about it before, but I can see it is mysterious.

Bergson’s philosophy is mainly based on shell-fish. There is something about their eyes which proves that all previous philosophers have erred, and that l’élan primitif is the great thing. Life originally wished to see, though as it couldn’t see it didn’t know what seeing was. For ages it remained blind, but at last one day it simultaneously acquired eyes in shell-fish and vertebrates, because it so desired them. Bergson, like Lord Dundreary, considers that “one of the things no feller can understand”.

Now it is one and I must stop. Goodnight My Dearest Dearest. I am very happy here, but I do long for you my Ottoline.

Your
B.

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  [document] Document 000209. Proofread against a colour scan of the original.

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  [envelope] A circled “209”. The Lady Ottoline Morrell | Hotel Bristol | Meran | Tyrol | Austria. Pmk: LONDON.N | OCT 5 11A | 12.15 PM