"Shelley on genius, 'looking at things really'" Read the full letter
| Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Havelock Ellis 2006.29/11 |
| Archive | National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown |
| Epistolary Type | Letter |
| Letter Date | 3 November 1888 |
| Address From | Alassio, Italy |
| Address To | 98 Earlsbrook Road, Earlswood, Surrey |
| Who To | Havelock Ellis |
| Other Versions | Cronwright-Schreiner 1924: 145-6 |
| Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
| Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National English Literary Museum (NELM) for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Manuscript Collections. The address this letter was sent to is provided by an attached envelope.
|
1
Alassio
2 Italy
3 Nov 3 / 1888
4
5 Please put 3/- of stamps in the enclosed letter & post it. Wilde only
6sent me one copy of W's W.
7
8 I long to be at my story making. It's a glorious day here after the
9pouring rain of yesterday.
10
11 I'm not like old Tolstoy!!! Everything he teaches according to PMG is
12what I believe. His falseness lies in this, instead of saying simply
13"I see these things as truth," he wants to force them into the world
14under the old name of Christ. ^If^ Wwhat Jesus saw was truth, & in so
15far as it was every ^one^ who pierces as deeply into the laws of human
16nature & life as he did will find again.
17
18 Be Neither Christ on Tolstoy nor any one of us now living has yet seen
19& preached that doctrine of love & forgiveness as it will be preached
20in ages to come.
21
22O.S
23
24^It is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
25world. You have never understood the strife & agony of these last
26years, it has not been to forgive, it has not been magnanimously to
27over look that is easy enough It is to love. If there be one soul you
28cannot love then you are lost.^
29
30^Please buy & send me a bible, as like my old one in size & print as
31you can. Its was one of those cheap bibles published by the ^British &^
32Foreign Bible Society. Not with the very fine print.^
33
34I am always quoting from the bible sometimes for the devil's own
35purposes & I find as the years pass my memory sometimes wavers with
36regard to an exact ^wording of a^ passage.
37
38 O.S
39
2 Italy
3 Nov 3 / 1888
4
5 Please put 3/- of stamps in the enclosed letter & post it. Wilde only
6sent me one copy of W's W.
7
8 I long to be at my story making. It's a glorious day here after the
9pouring rain of yesterday.
10
11 I'm not like old Tolstoy!!! Everything he teaches according to PMG is
12what I believe. His falseness lies in this, instead of saying simply
13"I see these things as truth," he wants to force them into the world
14under the old name of Christ. ^If^ Wwhat Jesus saw was truth, & in so
15far as it was every ^one^ who pierces as deeply into the laws of human
16nature & life as he did will find again.
17
18 Be Neither Christ on Tolstoy nor any one of us now living has yet seen
19& preached that doctrine of love & forgiveness as it will be preached
20in ages to come.
21
22O.S
23
24^It is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the
25world. You have never understood the strife & agony of these last
26years, it has not been to forgive, it has not been magnanimously to
27over look that is easy enough It is to love. If there be one soul you
28cannot love then you are lost.^
29
30^Please buy & send me a bible, as like my old one in size & print as
31you can. Its was one of those cheap bibles published by the ^British &^
32Foreign Bible Society. Not with the very fine print.^
33
34I am always quoting from the bible sometimes for the devil's own
35purposes & I find as the years pass my memory sometimes wavers with
36regard to an exact ^wording of a^ passage.
37
38 O.S
39
Notation
The final insertion is on a torn-off attached fragment of paper. Cronwright-Schreiner's (1924) version of this letter is incorrect in a range of respects.
The final insertion is on a torn-off attached fragment of paper. Cronwright-Schreiner's (1924) version of this letter is incorrect in a range of respects.