Notes on Life and Letters | Page 4

receding from the world
not because of weariness or misanthropy but for other reasons that
cannot be helped: because the leaves fall, the water flows, the clock
ticks with that horrid pitiless solemnity which you must have observed

in the ticking of the hall clock at home. For reasons like that. Yes! It
recedes. And this was the chance to afford one more view of it--even to
my own eyes.
The section within this volume called Letters explains itself, though I
do not pretend to say that it justifies its own existence. It claims nothing
in its defence except the right of speech which I believe belongs to
everybody outside a Trappist monastery. The part I have ventured, for
shortness' sake, to call Life, may perhaps justify itself by the emotional
sincerity of the feelings to which the various papers included under that
head owe their origin. And as they relate to events of which everyone
has a date, they are in the nature of sign-posts pointing out the direction
my thoughts were compelled to take at the various cross-roads. If
anybody detects any sort of consistency in the choice, this will be only
proof positive that wisdom had nothing to do with it. Whether right or
wrong, instinct alone is invariable; a fact which only adds a deeper
shade to its inherent mystery. The appearance of intellectuality these
pieces may present at first sight is merely the result of the arrangement
of words. The logic that may be found there is only the logic of the
language. But I need not labour the point. There will be plenty of
people sagacious enough to perceive the absence of all wisdom from
these pages. But I believe sufficiently in human sympathies to imagine
that very few will question their sincerity. Whatever delusions I may
have suffered from I have had no delusions as to the nature of the facts
commented on here. I may have misjudged their import: but that is the
sort of error for which one may expect a certain amount of toleration.
The only paper of this collection which has never been published
before is the Note on the Polish Problem. It was written at the request
of a friend to be shown privately, and its "Protectorate" idea, sprung
from a strong sense of the critical nature of the situation, was shaped by
the actual circumstances of the time. The time was about a month
before the entrance of Roumania into the war, and though, honestly, I
had seen already the shadow of coming events I could not permit my
misgivings to enter into and destroy the structure of my plan. I still
believe that there was some sense in it. It may certainly be charged with
the appearance of lack of faith and it lays itself open to the throwing of

many stones; but my object was practical and I had to consider warily
the preconceived notions of the people to whom it was implicitly
addressed, and also their unjustifiable hopes. They were unjustifiable,
but who was to tell them that? I mean who was wise enough and
convincing enough to show them the inanity of their mental attitude?
The whole atmosphere was poisoned with visions that were not so
much false as simply impossible. They were also the result of vague
and unconfessed fears, and that made their strength. For myself, with a
very definite dread in my heart, I was careful not to allude to their
character because I did not want the Note to be thrown away unread.
And then I had to remember that the impossible has sometimes the trick
of coming to pass to the confusion of minds and often to the crushing
of hearts.
Of the other papers I have nothing special to say. They are what they
are, and I am by now too hardened a sinner to feel ashamed of
insignificant indiscretions. And as to their appearance in this form I
claim that indulgence to which all sinners against themselves are
entitled.
J. C. 1920.


PART I--LETTERS

BOOKS--1905.

I.
"I have not read this author's books, and if I have read them I have
forgotten what they were about."

These words are reported as having been uttered in our midst not a
hundred years ago, publicly, from the seat of justice, by a civic
magistrate. The words of our municipal rulers have a solemnity and
importance far above the words of other mortals, because our municipal
rulers more than any other variety of our governors and masters
represent the average wisdom, temperament, sense and virtue of the
community. This generalisation, it ought to be promptly said in the
interests of eternal justice (and recent friendship), does not apply to the
United States of America. There, if one may