Hermione and her Little Group of Serious Thinkers | Page 5

a lute or something, and just stands there and LOOKS Greek. And then he goes back behind the screen and changes into the next garment she needs.
Of course, there are lots of men couldn't stand it as well as Achilles. But when you come to that, there are lots of men who don't look so very well in bathing suits, either.
And, of course, our American men don't have the temperament to carry off a thing like that.
Of course, if we all turned Greek it would be quite a shock at first to see everybody come into a dining-room or a drawing-room looking like Achilles does.
Not that temperament makes so much difference as it did a few years ago, you know -- temperament and personality are going out and individuality is coming in.
Have you thought much about automatic writing?
It's being taken up again, you know.
Not the vulgar, old-fashioned kind of spiritualism -- that was so ordinary, wasn't it?
The new ghosts are different. More -- more -- well, more REFINED, somehow, you know. Like the new dances as compared with that horrid turkey trot.
One should always ask one's self: "Does this have a refining influence on me; and through me on the world?"
For, after all, there is a duty one owes to society in general.
Have you seen the new sunshades?

AREN'T THE RUSSIANS WONDERFUL?
Aren't the Russians marvelous people!
We're been taking up Diaghileff in a serious way -- our little group, you know -- and really, he's wonderful!
Who else but Diaghileff could give those lovely Russians things the proper accent?
And accent -- if you know what I mean -- accent is everything!
Accent! Accent! What would art be without accent?
Accent is coming in -- if you get what I mean -- and what they call "punch" is going out. I always thought it was a frightfully vulgar sort of thing, anyhow -- punch!
The thing I love about the Russians is their Orientalism.
You know there's an old saying that if you find a Russian you catch a Tartar . . . or something like that.
I'm sure that is wrong. . . . I get so MIXED on quotations. But I always know where I can find them, if you know what I mean.
But the Russian verve isn't Oriental, is it?
Don't you just dote on verve?
That's what makes Bakst so fascinating, don't you think? -- his verve
Though they do say that the Russian operas don't analyze as well as the German or Italian ones -- if you get what I mean.
Though for that matter, who analyzes them?
One may not know how to analyze an operate, and yet one may know what one likes!
I suppose there will be a frightful lot of imitations of Russian music and ballet now. Don't you just hate imitators?
One finds it everywhere -- imitation! It's the sincerest flattery, they say. But that doesn't excuse it, do you think?
There's a girl -- one of my friends, she says she is -- who is trying to imitate me. My expressions, you know, and the way I walk and talk, and all that sort of thing.
She gets some of my superficial mannerisms . . . but she can't quite do my things as if they were her own, you know . . . there is where the accent comes in again!

HOW SUFFERING PURIFIES ONE!
Oh, to go through fire and come out purified! Suffering is wonderful, isn't it? Simply WONDERFUL!
The loveliest man talked to us the other night -- to our Little Group of Serious Thinkers, you know -- about social ideals and suffering.
The reason so many attempts to improve things fail, you know, is because the people who try them out haven't suffered personally.
He had the loveliest eyes, this man.
He made me thin. I said to myself, "After all, have I suffered? Have I been purified by fire?"
And I decided that I had -- that is spiritually, you know.
The suffering -- the spiritual suffering -- that I undergo through being misunderstood is something FRIGHTFUL!
Mamma discourages every Cause I take up. So does Papa.
I get no sympathy in my devotion to my ideals. Only opposition!
And from a child I have had such a high-strung, sensitive nervous organization that opposition of any sort has made me ill.
There are some temperaments like that.
Once when I was quite small and Mamma threatened to spank me, I had convulsions.
And nothing but opposition, opposition, opposition now!
Only we advanced thinkers know what it is to suffer! To go through fire for our ideals!
And what is physical suffering by the side of spiritual suffering?
I so often think of that when I am engaged in sociological work. Only the other night -- it was raining and chilly, you know -- some of us went down in the auto to one of the missions and looked at the sufferers who were being cared for.
And the thought