BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [6 DEC. 1916]
BRACERS 19112. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<London>
Wed. mg.1^, 2

My loved one

Your beautiful letter has just come.  I am through the black fit now.  I have been writing, and thinking of things to write, every spare moment.  Nothing but doing things is any good against the black fit.  I will tell you my schemes tomorrow.  There must and shall be hope for the world.  The thought of Nicod3 getting shot seemed to bring things to a head.  I must find things to do.  The N.C.F.4 is not enough now — it has been, but it isn’t what I want now.  Dearest one, I love you with all my soul — but sometimes hard pain seems to shut one in — and it is no use to shirk those times — it is out of them that actions come.  There are times when one realizes what the war means — mercifully they are rare, but they are necessary.

I am not going to Garsington,5 I want to be on hand in case of anything turning up in connection with Allen.6  So I shall come back from B’ham.7 Sat. morning.

My dear dear love, your letter is full of strength and real love — it is a help. Thank you for it.  Goodbye.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200084.

• 2

  [date] This letter was misdated in RA files by Jo Vellacott as 1917. The current date is based on the references to Nicod and Allen.

• 3

  Nicod Jean Nicod (1893–1924), philosopher and logician, one of BR’s logic pupils in the autumn of 1916. BR related Nicod’s telling him he may be shot in his letter to Colette of [29 Nov. 1916], BRACERS 19082.

• 4

  N.C.F. No-Conscription Fellowship.

• 5

  Garsington Garsington Manor, near Oxford, the county home of Lady Ottoline and Philip Morrell.

• 6

  Allen (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For further information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 7

  B’ham He was delivering a series of lectures in Birmingham, “The World as It Can Be Made”. The series ended on 8 December.