1To Mrs. Francis Smith
2De Aar, 23 Oct. 1910
3
4
5 … Last night we had an earthquake here. I had been bad and lain down
6all day, but at 9 o’clock I went out to look at the stars and breathe
7a little. It was perfectly, deadly still not a breath of air stirring
8and I came back, and lay down on my bed again. At a quarter past nine,
9a most astonishing series of shocks began with the most terrific noise
10I ever heard in my life. The house reeled and shook, and when you
11stood up on the floor you felt like a little rat in the jaws of a
12great dog that was shaking you this way and that, and the noise was
13astonishing, a sound of bursting and rushing. After the first shock
14there was a pause and then it began again, but it was all over in
15three or four minutes and a perfect dead silence reigned again. I have
16been through several earthquake shocks in Italy, that great one that
17killed so many people in 1889, I think it was. But though the ground
18moved much more, the noise was nothing to this. This morning the hotel
19keeper’s wife in the Camp sent up the barman early before breakfast to
20ask how I was, knowing I’d been here alone, and the man told me nearly
21every bottle and glass was smashed in the bar, but I haven’t seen
22anyone else to-day to know if much damage was done.
23
24

1To Mrs. Francis Smith
2De Aar, 3rd Aug. 1910
3
4 … I am trying Upton Sinclair’s starving plan, absolute fasting. I have
5just begun; for 42 hours I have now tasted nothing but two cups of
6water, very small ones. If the de Aar water was good and I could drink
7much, which is allowed I think it would be much better. I shall keep
8on till next Thursday night. That will be 108 hours. If I find that it
9does good I’ll try it for ten days. I’m afraid you couldn’t try it if
10you are too thin. Last night I still felt hungry and when I saw my
11husband eating his supper wished so much for a slice of brown bread.
12Now I have got to the point where you feel a dislike for food or drink.
13 It is very cold weather here. We had 6 degrees of frost last night:
14the only drawback is that (it) feels a little cold. I think summer
15would be the best time to try it. I wonder if the doctors have ever
16tried it for you. The idea is that it takes all the poison germs out
17of the system.
18
19
20

1 Dear Mr Boonzier
2
3 I didn't make myself clear. I should really feel it an honour to be
4sketched by you; but I don't care to have my self printed ^& don't
5think any one here would care to have it.^ I'll write something for the
6paper when I can manage it.
7
8 Yours ever
9 Olive Schreiner
10
11 P.S.
12 I'm always hoping you will see the question of women's emancipation
13from my stand^-point^ & give us one of your finest pictures one of these
14days!
15
16
17

1 The Convent
2 Harrow
3 Aug 5 / 86
4
5 My dear E.C.
6
7 So many people are wanting copies of of your paper on Simplification
8of Life. Couldn't you publish it in separate pamphlet form. I think it
9would be rather a good thing if at some time soon you could gather
10your papers together & publish them in news a small vol=
11including the 'Interest" paper. I hope whenever you publish anything
12fresh you will at once let me know.
13
14 I have been reading Whitman of late with much more enjoyment than ever
15before. I find he's not so good as you are when one is ill & wants
16help & strength, one needs to be strong & in overflowing health really
17to enjoy him. I wonder whether you find it so.
18
19 I'm so glad to hear you saw Mrs Walters, but its only after knowing
20her for years that the beauty of her character becomes clear.
21
22 O. Schreiner
23

1 Old years night
2
3 Dear Ed
4
5 This is just a note to tell you that Cron is going to England next
6week. He sails on the 10th by the Norman, so will get to England about
7the 25th. He is going home to hold meetings & see people on the South
8African question. This hellish war is still going on, but the
9capitalists are finding the African Boer a little tougher to swallow
10than they thought; impossible as it seems when our numbers are
11considered I believe we shall yet win & our Republics keep their
12freedom. If he comes up north you might help a bit getting the working
13men together Sheffield way. His address will be care
14
15 JA Hobson
16 Elmstead
17 Limpsfield
18 Surrey
19
20 Olive
21
22 My address will be still Lyndall
23 Newlands
24 Cape Town
25
26 ^I can't leave I must stay here to see how things go. OS^
27

1 Hanover
2 June 17 / 04
3
4 Dear old Edward
5
6 Some friends have asked me to come to England & they say you wanted me
7to come too. It can't be that I go. But its very very very beautiful
8that you any of you want me. I specially want to see you again.
9
10 It's a cold night. I am sitting in the little front room of our three
11roomed cottage with a fire at my back. We have 16 degrees of frost
12here at night often in the winter, the milk froze solid in the pantry
13the other night, & to-day a dish of water standing in the yard which
14was frozen last night was not melted except at the edges this evening
15though the sun had been shining on it all day. I have never felt cold
16anywhere in Europe except once in Geneva where a little north wind was
17blowing.
18
19 Cron has gone to the Transvaal, & I & my meerkats, & my dog & a little
20Kaffir boy of nine years old whom I brought up from the reformatory in
21Cape Town have the world to ourselves. My dear old meerkat, 'Arriet,
22is sleeping on my shoulder. She will sit there for hours wide awake
23while I write & do my work. I'm always so glad I didn't come into the
24world when people had killed off all the dear beautiful animals &
25birds.
26
27 My little Kaffir boy is so nice. He was sentenced for four years for
28killing a goat. He has served two in the Reformatory & I have got him
29for two. He is only a baby, & so sweet & dear. I am feeding him up: he
30is awfully thin. I am so fond of Kaffirs, there's a kind of natural
31affinity between me & them. And the capitalist are working for a big
32war with them soon, & we shall murder them right & left. They will
33kill a good many of us because they have been all armed & trained by
34the British during the war, & England will be greatly surprised when
35the war comes at what she has drawn on herself; but in the end the
36natives will be crushed & the capitalist will have cheap native labour,
37 when the tribal & communal system which now prevents the employers
38from blood-sucking them, is broken up. Besides some of their
39territories are rich in mineral wealth & the white man wants it.
40
41 Its pretty sad out here, Edward, in many, many ways. The saddest
42thing is the reaction that has come over us since the war, or rather
43since the "peace". The little quiet Boer woman who the day after we
44heard of the "peace" came to my rooms & when I told her that the
45"peace" had been made & the Republics had not got their independence
46unreadable ^threw^ her arms over her head & astonished me by crying,
47"Then there is no God! There is no God!" is very indicative of our
48state of mind. There is a kind of awful moral disintegration among us.
49England here is going straight on to her destruction but the effects
50of the war upon us have been very terrible.
51
52 Edith Ellis says she saw you lately & you were looking well. I'm so
53glad. I have had a very beautiful little visit to Cape Town while my
54husband was there in Parliament. It was so beautiful to see my four
55friends. Now I've come back to this strange, sad unearthly little
56village, which doesn't seem to be in world at all, & my visit seems
57like a glorious dream. But its much to have had a lovely dream. And
58now the beautiful letters I have had from Edith & Mr Lawrence & other
59friends asking me to come to England have been a great joy to me, how
60great I can't explain because no one knows how lonely this life is.
61
62 I can't go to England because I couldn't leave my husband for so long
63just for my own pleasure. I should always fancy he might be ill, or
64might need me. And I couldn't do any good by going to England. There's
65nothing to be done by talking now for this sad land. A better day will
66come, but much has to be lived through first.
67
68 Dear Edward I wish I could see. I wasn't half grateful enough when I
69was in England for all my many friends. Whatever life has or hasn't
70given me, it's given me the best friends any one ever had. (I wish you
71could see my little meerkat sitting here with her head under my chin
72as I write. She's so lovely.)
73
74 Good night. Remember me to all the old friends.
75 Olive
76
77 ^You see Edward, the terrible point in our position in South Africa now
78is that its not true. Since the 'peace' came, we, naturally, are
79acting a part. We know perfectly well that we are not beaten, & that
80we are going to conquer in the long run & that England will someday go
81out bag & baggage, & yet we are all to act as if we didn't know this.
82Perhaps, it may be said, its the only attitude people crushed for the
83moment can assume. How painful it is, how it makes one resolve you
84will absolutely say nothing at all. I think you can understand. I do
85not object to silence. But I do object to protestations of loyalty to
86the King or the Empire, when we know we are cursing them in our hearts.
87 The curious thing to see is that England can be taken in by it. This
88is private, Edward.^
89

1 Dear Edward
2
3 Thanks for your article: it's very good - first rate. I am sending you
4a copy of my speech to ^letter^ at a woman's meeting at Somerset East.
5The jingoes are very anxious the British government would take action
6against me & arrest me for high treason! They are a funny people the
7jingoes. Eyes have they but they see not ears have they but they hear
8not. Things here are going from bad to worse. They are beginning to
9take women & children as prisoners of war on the charge the woman aid
10the men. war will not be over for another year at least. The
11Republicans are
12
13^not yet beaten! The war is not over.
14
15Olive^
16

1 Hanover
2 Oct 22 / 00
3
4 Dear old Ed,
5
6 The fight still goes on here, & still I have not lost heart, but
7believe that right must in the end prevail - though most people think
8me mad for doing so.
9
10 I am sending you a speech in an African paper. I am living here in
11such a sweet ideal little karroo village nearly 5,000 feet above the
12sea, & am much better. The air is so clean & pure. How you would love
13this place.
14
15 Greetings to all the dear friends.
16 Olive
17

1 Dec 20th 1902
2
3 Dear Edward
4
5 Have you ever read a most rare & beautiful book called "the soul of a
6people" by Fielding Hall? To me it is the most beautiful book, the
7book that has come nearest to me of all books I have read in my life.
8Read it & tell me what you feel towards it, & towards the writer.
9
10 My heart had felt so bitter & hard of late, & it has been like a
11beautiful soft rain falling on hard dry ground to read this book.
12
13 You must get it & read it, Edward, if you have not already. It's a
14soul something like Bobs the man shows in the book; & it's what he
15makes one feel rather than anything he directly says that makes the
16book so precious.
17
18 My love to you dear Edward
19 Olive
20

1 Dear old Edward
2
3 I like Kokoro more than any book I've read for a long time. Have you
4read "the Souls of Black Folks" I advised you to get. Tell me if you
5can how it strikes you.
6
7 It's very strange the sympathy I feel with the Japs, & have always
8felt. It increases with all I know of them. That love of the past men
9& women & of your own dead. Ever since I was a child I've always
10thought if I had my ideal house there would be one room set apart
11where I would have the pictures of my dead & put flowers before them &
12anything that was beautiful to me. And I could go & sit there a little
13in quiet with them every day. It would be like a little chapel. - the
14only chapel I can think of - God, the whole life doesn't need a chapel
15- the sky is his roof. & I would have remembrances of all my animals
16that I have loved so utterly there. Buddhism is so much more wide &
17satisfying than Christianity can ever be, because it takes in the
18animal & world, & sees that all life is one.
19
20 When I was reading that book several times it came to me how foolish
21we are ever to feel lonely in this world. Some where, we may always in
22time & space there exists which feels & thinks exactly as we do. No
23one is ever really alone.
24
25 What do you think of matters in England? Is there going to be much of
26a forward movement? I fear not till the party splits & Grey & Asquith
27& the rest of their order go over to the other side.
28
29 ^I have just had a wire from dear old General Butler; to-day he has
30landed in Cape Town. He is the one Englishman we South Africans really
31love; I mean among public men. I hope all goes well with you. Have you
32any news of our Bob. It's such a long long time since I heard from him.
33
34 Olive^
35

1 De Aar
2 Feb 24 / 08
3
4 Dear Edward
5
6 Can you send this letter for me to "Bob". His address is in my desk at
7Hanover, where I shall not go for some months. Only think, Im
8expecting to see dear old Keir Hardie here tomorrow to spend a day!! I
9shall be glad to see him. He's been met by rotten eggs & all the
10modern modes of welcoming any one with liberal ideas in South Africa.
11The day will come, only a few years hence, when white people who stand
12for justice to the native will have to lay down their lives & meet
13death at the hands of mobs here.
14
15 If you could really understand affairs in Zulu-land & Natal
16
17^you would know what a diabolical game is being played there. Love to
18Kate Salt if you see her & all the old friends. You would know if you
19lived here a few months how one hungers for the folk who share at all
20ones outlook on life.
21
22 South Africa is quite 80 years behind Europe; & a century behind
23Australia & New Zealand.
24
25 Olive^
26
27

1 De Aar
2 Feb 6th 1908
3
4 Dear Edward
5
6 Months ago I began the enclosed letter. I haven't written because I
7wanted to go on with it. But it's too big a subject to take up at a
8moment's odd time.
9
10 Yesterday I got your little pamphlet - very good - thanks. I've sent
11one copy to my friend Constance Lytton who when she wrote had been
12some weeks ill in bed as the result of influenza & found your book
13Love's coming of age her best companion. I always among so many other
14things want to come to England that I could show you to eachother. She
15is a "born" socialist; one who couldn't have been anything else in
16what ever country or age she had been born. One to whom the letter of
17socialism is not necessary because they always live in its spirit. How
18are you, dear old pall? I sometimes get afraid when I think I never
19come to England & see your, dear old face again.
20
21 For five months I have been living at a Railway camp in the desert
22called de Aar. Here four railway lines crossing South Africa meet; it
23is the greatest in fact the only great junction in the Colony & in the
24war it was one vast military camp much the biggest in South Africa. It
25was the great central camp & for miles & miles around the veld was
26trodden absolutely bear, & is still covered with their relics. We are
27living in one little room about a mile or three quarters of a mile
28from the camp ^station^, alone in the veld. Being here one is a little
29out of the dust & smoke of the trains. I have been very happy in this
30little room in spite of dust, & heat, & sand, & I am quite sorry my
31husband is building on some more rooms. It's really wonderful how the
32nature of your house simplifies & alters all life! But when the house
33is done in addition to the other rooms there will be one tiny spare
34room always ready for a traveller from Milthorp, if he should turn up.
35It will have a nice little plain blue paper on the wall, & be
36absolutely quiet. I've never had a spare room before except at
37Johannesburg. How it really seems to me perhaps you will turn up!
38
39 You would like de Aar better than most people, because you like heat &
40in summer the thermometer stands at 110 & 111 in the shade on a
41verandah but the winters are just pleasantly warm - then you like
42railway men, & here there are nothing but railway-men; "niggers"; &
43the few hotel keepers & shop keepers who supply their wants. There is
44no "society" here except the bank manager's wife, & the English
45clergyman's wife, & the Engineer's wife. And only the Bank Manager's
46wife has called on me. I think she was so shocked at my little room
47with its bedroom & bathroom & study all in one that the others never
48came. De Aar is a low, drunken cursing swearing place; but anyhow it's
49free! In other upcountry towns you are prosecuted if you play golf on
50Sunday & fined, but there they play cricket & foot ball.
51
52 The terribly oppressive shadow of the big Dutch Church, which rises up
53as the physical & mental centre of life in all upcountry towns &
54village, is very modest here, is very small & stands quite in the
55back-ground, & one can breath. My life is a very solitary one here,
56Cron goes to his business in the camp soon after seven in the morning,
57& I do not see a human creature again, except the little boy that
58brings the milk or water till near seven in the evening when Cron
59comes up for his bath & wash, & we we go down & have supper at the
60Hotel, where he has his dinner & breakfast. After supper we come up
61here generally about 8 o'clock: Cron works at his books accounts a
62little or goes to bed & reads, & I read or write & then go to bed: but
63its not nearly so lonely as Hanover as I do see Cron in the morning &
64evening & know he's well. I have my three dear little meerkats still,
65the eldest of whom is now over 7 years, an almost unheard of age for a
66meerkat, & Cron's little dog Ollie, who is the daughter of my dog &
67dear friend Neta.
68
69 I have just been reading a book which if you have not read it you must
70at once, you will find it very interesting, "Eskimo Life" by Nansen.
71He must be a lovable man there is a most delicious letter in the book
72from a Greenlander to his missing [page/s missing]
73
74 ^Good bye, write to me soon.
75 Olive^
76
77 ^Have you any late news of Bob & his family. I think the last letter I
78wrote to them must have been misaddressed. If not too much trouble
79give me their new address. I've had two very nice notes from your
80cousin. I want her to come & see me here in the winter.^
81

1 Portlock
2 nr Graaff Reinet
3 Cape of Good Hope
4 Jan 7 / 11
5
6 Dear old Edward
7
8 It's born in on me I must write to you, though why I don't know. I'm
9staying on a farm high up among the mountains fifteen miles from the
10nearest railway station, to escape the great heat at de Aar for a
11couple of months. Its much cooler here, & I'm able to work a little. I
12wonder if you are writing anything. Write & tell me about yourself &
13all the dear friends. You'd like this place, it's so peaceful. A
14little lonely - but all places in Africa are that. Just as in England
15one would be if one slipped out of the 20th century into the 17th.
16
17 We are just about 200 years behind the times, & as far as the natives
18& Indians go & our treatment of the them we are in the dark ages. Our
19"labour" members here (fine labour members!) have only one idea, to
20crush & keep down the native. They want to pass laws to prevent any
21coloured person from being allowed to do skilled labour, & they would
22like by law to limit their wages!!
23
24 How is dear Isabella Ford? And Bob? And George Adams? If the spirit
25ever moves me drop me a line. I have a little book on the woman
26question coming out soon. I'll send you a copy. It's nothing much &
27that terrible man Unwin is I believe going to bring it out from the
28rough proofs I sent without waiting for my corrections in which case
29it will be absolute nonsense!
30
31Send me anything you write.
32
33 I shall be here for a couple of months longer. I am boarding with the
34people of this farm; dear folk with three nice little children, but
35its a bit lonesome at times.
36
37 Yours ever
38 Olive
39

1 De Aar
2 May 6th 1911
3
4 Dear Edward
5
6 Many years ago, I think it was in 92 or three 93 - just after I first
7came out to Africa I met a man in Cape Town. I only saw him for a few
8hours but he impressed me very much, he said he knew you & I think he
9said he knew Bob. He was a rather tall well built man, dark in the
10face something like myself if you imagine me a big man. I think he was
11a mining engineer, any how. He had come to Africa with the man who was
12with him to prospect or see about certain mines, I fancy in Wes
13German West Africa, but can't say just where. Emily ?Conebeare
14introduced him to me. He had some business connection with her brother
15he was interested in developing mines out here.
16
17 He spoke as if he knew you well. The curious thing is that I can't
18remember his name it was Lionel Brackenbury or Brailsford, or some
19such long double name with a B - I'm not even quite sure of the Lionel
20- Perhaps the name was Brackenborough. I'm not sure it began with a B
21but it had a B in it! You will will say "What ever to you want to know
22for?" - I can't say, but I'm always wondering what's become of him. A
23party of us went for a walk up the Devil's Peak & he & I dis-cussed
24socialism & other things He was rather short of speech & carcastic,
25but he wrote me a very nice little note before he left - I only saw
26him on that walk - the note ended "shall we ever meet again & where?"
27I have always expected to meet him but have never. There are three
28other people that haunt me in the same way, a French man I passed in
29the street in Paris, a beautiful prostitute who travelled in a bus
30with me in London, & fashionable little woman I once meet ^saw^ in a
31restaurant, but did not even speak to. In some subtle way all four
32have a connection with me mentally that I can't explain, I can never
33forget them. You will wonder I have forgotten his name - but I never
34think of people by their names. When I think of you I never think the
35word Edward Carpenter - I see your face. I always see things in
36pictures not words.
37
38 I
39
40 Good bye dear Edward. Try to remember that man I met & tell me whats
41become of him. His name might have been Crabenthorp I don't know if he
42was a very good & noble man, or the other way round, but it was to me
43like meeting some one who belonged to me I or whom I'd known in a
44pre-state of existence! It might be Bracksbury but I think it had a
45"brough" at the end. I think he was rather wicked but saw too little
46of him to say
47
48 Olive
49

1 De Aar
2 July 4th 1911
3
4 Dear E.C.
5
6 I wrote you a longish letter to go off by this week's mail but I must
7have put it into an envelope addressed to some one else by mistake,
8for gone it is! Fortunately there was nothing it would matter any
9one's reading.
10
11 //Thank you for that interesting notice of the man, but he's not my
12man. He was quite the opposite type Tall, dark, powerfully built,
13rather reserved & sarcastic - fonder of asking questions than of
14giving answers - the man who might make a revolution - but would never
15talk of one! I think he was a mining engineer. He came out I believe
16to prospect some mine in or lands in the interests of a man called
17Conybeare, who used to be member of parliament.
18
19 Its long long years since I met him; it must have been in 1991 or 1992
20or at at very latest 1993.When I went to England in - 93 that time
21when Bob had just got engaged before I married my impression is that
22when I spoke of him to you & Bob you both said you knew him! We didn't
23say much about him, I just mentioned that I'd met him & he said he
24knew you, & you as though you knew him very well. He was the type of
25man who might have been a public school man & a University man. I
26think what attracted me to him was the sense of deep, restrained,
27passion. When I say his eyes were wicked - I mean that they were the
28eyes of a man who if he wanted anything very much would be driven by
29passion to strike down every thing that stood in his way; & who could
30yet be very tender. We only spent one afternoon together up on the
31mountain side. He told Miss Conybeare he wanted to meet me & he & his
32friend were only in Cape Town for a few days, so she asked us all to
33go for this climb on the mountain, & we lay among the silver trees
34high up on the Devils Peak & talked. I had a curious feeling that
35there was a singularly close friendship between him & his little fair
36common place companion - a may man almost his own years age I
37should say he was then between 25 or or 28 so he must be far
38over 40 now.
39
40 It is very curious why I want to know if he's dead or what became of
41him! I always used to expect to hear of him turning up among the rich
42mining engineers at Johannesburg. But I don't know if he was a mining
43engineer or but it was my impression he was.
44
45 I spend my life so entirely alone now, most of it shut up in this room,
46 that my mind goes roving much over the past, & things & people I knew
47when I still lived among humanbeings seem so close & real to me.
48
49 I wonder if you & Bob have got the copies of Women & Labour I sent you
50yet? Its a curious idea of yours that Gibbon! of all people had
51anything to do with my view in the book. Its always seemed strange to
52me that Gibbon seems almost to ignore the existence of woman! &
53certainly never touches on any problem of sex.
54
55 Where he is valuable is in his dissection of the rise of Christianity
56but above all he, & he only, paints widely & clearly the causes which
57have led to the division of Europe into its present form of nations.
58Monson's Rome, now, teams with interesting information with regard to
59woman; & all the old Greek plays & Homer, & even dear old Heroditus
60pours light on the question of woman & her position in ancient times.
61
62 I am going to have a great pleasure tomorrow when Ida Hyett is coming
63to stay at the hotel for a week, & I shall see her every day. We are
64having the best weather of our year now beautifully cold & dry & the
65veld has quite a tinge of green after the late rains, so I hope she'll
66enjoy it. No one has ever been to see me here since Keir Hardie was
67here some years ago, so its a grand event.
68
69 My brother Will has gone to attend the Universal Races Congress in
70London, or rather sails tomorrow. I wonder if you'll be going & meet
71him there. He's a grand old fellow - his nature & sympathies deepening
72& widening so wonderfully as he grows older. He is also taking his son
73& daughter to Cambridge.
74
75 Good bye dear old Edward.
76
77 Thine ever
78 Olive
79

1 De Aar
2 Sep 16th 1911
3
4 Ed dear,
5
6 I'm sending you another copy of my book. I think the mystery is solved
7as to what becomes of all the things I post.
8
9 I sent twelve copies of my book to England, & except Ellis & Alice
10Corthorn no one seems to have got them. I sent one to Isabella Ford &
11one to Bob, but neither have written to say they'd got them. I sent a
12copy to General Hertzog too in this country which hes never got. I
13have been in despair & written to the general post office to complain.
14Now it appears (Cron has just found it out) that Cron's little office
15boy - who always takes the letters & parcels to the post has been
16robbing him right & left. He's taken money to the tune of 10 or 12
17pounds in small sums, & has made a system of selling the stamps in the
18post office. Cron says he has no doubt he has taken my parcels &
19letters for the sake of the stamps on them! I suppose he thought he
20wouldn't be found out if they were sent so far away as England. Please
21ask Isabella & Bob if they got their copies. I can't send them any
22more because all my copies are done.
23
24 I am working hard at my little garden. Gardening is such a passion
25with me. I've been reading a most fascinating book on Education in
26Greece boy ^by^ a young Cambridge man called Kenneth Freeman, who is
27dead. The Greeks were so wise in making the learning of poetry one of
28the great methods of educating young children.
29
30 I wish we had a library here. The kind of books I want to read are
31nearly always expensive books.
32
33 Good bye. Your old pal,
34 Olive
35
36 I wish you could see my little niece Ursula Schreiner who's just gone
37to Cambridge. She's such an interesting girl 19 years old. Ever since
38she was a little child she's had such a curious instinctive hatred of
39in-justice. The other day she got in a railway carriage & a poor
40shabby old man got in, & the guard bullied him most unjustly. She at
41once took up arms & wrote a letter to the paper to defend him. She's
42very reserved & one doesn't
43
44^get to know her soon - like the elder sister.^
45

1 De Aar
2 April 24th 1912
3
4 Dear Edward
5
6 I now & then hear a word of you from some one who has seen you & they
7say all seems going well.
8
9 We are having a real old De Aar sand storm at this moment, Great
10clouds of sand marching across the veld like armies & sweeping over us.
11 It is the afternoon, but the sand makes it so dark one can hardly see
12to write. My cat & two dogs have rushed in from the garden to take
13refuge in the house. Animals are still as much joy to me as ever, &
14reading. But perhaps the thing that gives me most pleasure in life is
15the thought of the new young girls growing up like my niece Lyndall so
16beautiful & free & strong; knowing nothing of all we have lived
17through. My niece is studying law for which she a great liking. She
18may never practice as a barrister if she marries or finds her work in
19politics; but she will, I hope, break the way through for other women
20to gain the freedom to practice if they will.
21
22 My sister Ettie who has practically been dying of heart disease for
23two years still lingers on, fighting bravely. For four months she has
24not been able to lie down, & has to have some one always to hold her
25up in bed. I have only seen one other such terrible struggle with
26death.
27
28 We have just got the full news of the loss of the Titanic, & dear old
29Stead's passing. You know I've never loved the sea as I have the land
30& the sky, the dear, wonderful sky.
31
32 Things are going very badly in our political world; the one little bit
33of brightness I see is that the natives are slowly awakening. But the
34white men are determined on a great native war.
35
36 Good bye. I love you dear old Edward
37 Olive
38

1 De Aar
2 April 29 / 13
3 /13
4
5 My dear old Edward
6
7 I wonder how the world goes with you. I often wonder just what your
8feeling about the suffragettes is. Every year my horror not only of
9war, but of the argument of brute force all round grows stronger &
10stronger. If ever was the exercise of force was justified it is in the
11case of millions of women fighting from freedom. But is it ever
12justified - are not the evils greater than good? Cromwell, Washington
13all the worlds heroes who fought for freedom were they justified? I
14see so much to be said on both sides. Now I can only say I am for
15passive resistance, but I dare not condemn those who are not. Of
16course theres the narrow question of tactics - is it wise - even if
17right - at any given time to fight?
18
19 Things as far as the working classes in England go seem advancing
20quickly. But the fight for freedom will have to go on through the
21centuries, because as soon as one class or party or race becomes
22dominant it oppresses the others. Look at our Dutch here?? But one day,
23 far away I guess we shall come to a full bloom.
24
25 I've no news of myself to give your. We are still living in our little
26cottage in De Aar with the sand & deserts about us, all in the old way.
27 Cron thinks of going for a visit of some months to Europe this year,
28but I can't afford to. Perhaps he will see you if he comes. Its sad to
29think good old George Adams is gone.
30
31 Thin ever as of old
32 Olive
33

1 De Aar
2 July 23rd 1913
3
4 Dear Edward
5
6 I am sending you an account of our Sundays meeting. If you want to
7understand the labour position out here read ?Balmsfords speech. If
8they shoot us down so the moment the white labourers strike, what will
9it be whenever the natives move: & we are bringing more & more
10oppressive laws against them. We have just passed a terrible native
11land bill - the worst bit of work we have done for years. I will try &
12send you a copy of my brothers speech in the senate on it. It is
13beautiful how liberal & broad & human he is growing as he grows older.
14I am perhaps coming to England in December on my way to Florence to
15try is a heart specialist there who has so greatly relieved my friend
16Emily Hobhouse can do anything for me. I shall be only two weeks or
17less in England as I can't stand the climate at thisof England in
18winter, but I do hope I'll see you, Edward. In the end I may not be
19well enough to leave; but it would be nice to see you all once more.
20
21 Good bye dear old Edward.
22 Thine ever
23 Olive
24
25 Do you ever see dear Isabella Ford? Send on the newspaper cutting I
26send to her. If they do have a general strike they are going to shoot
27us down all over the country, with their British troops & their
28"Defense Force" - "Citizens Destruction Force" - it is really.
29

1 De Aar
2 Oct 26th 1913
3
4 Dear Edward,
5
6 Thank you for your letter. I sail from Africa on the 6th of Dec= in
7the Edinburgh Castle & arrive in England on Tuesday the 23rd just
8before Xmas. I am going to Alice Corthorns for the short time I am in
9England. Her address is
10
11 30 St Mary Abbotts Terrace
12 Kensington.
13 London W.
14
15 Pethick Lawrence has promised me that he or his wife will be in
16readiness to take me on to Italy as soon as I am able to be moved.
17Isn't it good of them? I do think I have the kindest & best friends in
18the world. It seems to me that no one has just such friends. I shall
19likely stay on the Riviera for some time till I get stronger, & go on
20to Florence to try the cure when it is a little warmer.
21
22 Botha, the Prime Minister here said the other day in a ^public^ speech,
23"Socialism will never enter South Africa"! Mrs Partington & her broom!?
24
25 Good bye, dear old Edward.
26 Olive
27
28 ^Remember me to Isabella Ford & Mat if you see them.^
29
30

1 Le Grand Hotel et d'Alassio
2 Alassio
3
4 Dear Ed
5
6 I feel I want to write to you this evening. I wonder what you think of
7our Cape affairs; what we are drifting towards is a military
8dictatorship. I always knew these things must come but I had hoped it
9would have taken longer.
10
11 Is your old friend "?Cholmundy" the man I saw at Millthorp who sang
12the Italian songs now in Italy with his wife? There was a man here the
13other night who looked exactly like him but he was gone the next
14morning. He has a long beard.
15
16 I shall leave for Florence at the end of this month. I shall of course
17not send your card to Herron as so soon after his wife's death he will
18not want to be troubled with strangers. I shall send the other card as
19I shall be glad to know some one in Florence. The two people I used to
20know are away now.
21
22 I've been ill in bed for some time with my old trouble stone in the
23kidney, but am quite better again. The people visiting in the hotel
24were most kind to me took it by turns to sit up with me at night & did
25all they could. Their kindness was most touching, especially when I
26think that a month ago I'd not seen one of them. I seem to have met
27with nothing but love & kindness since I landed in England.
28
29 I've got a curious shrinking from leaving this dear place & going to
30Florence. If I were superstitious I should think it boded some
31misfortune, but when one has these foreboding feelings they sometimes
32turn out nothing. It was grand to see dear old Bob again. You don't
33know what that little peep of you & him meant to me. He sweeter &
34finer than ever but not so strong. I think he works too hard at the
35kind of work that is not joy to him. He was never meant to be a mere
36teacher; but each of us must take life as it comes. Whan an almost
37terrible resignation one regards life with at last.
38
39 I have just finished reading the life of Lafcadio Hearn by Nina
40Kennard, its good but she doesn't understand him so well as you or I
41would. But you'll find it interesting if you've not read it. Some of
42the things written about him have been so full of lies - as all lives
43must be written of people whoby those who don't understand them. I
44suppose no man's life ever was or could be truly written except by God.
45
46 Good night, dear old Edward.
47
48 I wish you were coming to Florence too. Ellis said he'd come, but I
49don't know if he'll be able to. At first I have to go & stay at a
50horrid cold hotel the Hotel ?Pavle away at the top end of the Lungaro,
51but I'll only stay there for a week & try to find some more congenial
52place. One has to be on the Lungarno or some where one can get sun at
53this time of year.
54
55 My love to you.
56 Olive
57
58 ^Hasn't Edith Ellis developed so splendidly. She's finer than ever.^
59
60 ^Did I tell you I'd got a long letter from Ida Hyett.^
61
62
63

1 The Windsor
261 & 62 Lancaster Gate, W.
3
4 Durrants Hotel
5 Manchester Square
6 London W.
7
8 Dear old Edward
9
10 I think so much of your tired face as you went away. You know Edward
11can live through all this but its crushing us, who had such hopes for
12the future 20 years ago. If you come to London come & see me. We'll go
13on the top of the tram to Hampton Court & look at the pictures there.
14
15 My darling nephew Oliver Schreiner who was doing so brilliantly at
16Cambridge has become an English officer & joined his regiment so may
17be sent to the front at any moment guarding he is now in Kent guarding
18the coast.
19
20 In Africa things are very terrible. We shall bath the red sands of
21German West Africa with the best blood of our youth, going to rob it
22from the Germans who have never done anything to us. De Aar is the
23first big place toward German West Africa - if the Germans are driven
24to come into the Cape by our attacking them that is where the first
25big fighting will be. When I think of my husband my heart feels sore.
26
27 Good bye dear. Edward
28 Olive
29
30 I wish I could feel with you that this war is going to bring the
31kingdom of heaven. I feel it is the beginning of a half a century of
32the most awful wars the world has seen. First this - then another war
33of probably England & Germany against Russia, then as the years pass
34with India, Japan & China & the native races of Africa. While the
35desire to dominate, & rule & possess empire is in the hearts of men
36there will always be war.
37

1 Kensington Palace Mansions & Hotel,
2 De Vere Gardens, W.
3
4 Dear Edward
5
6 Lady Low came to see me & I dined with her last night. I find her a
7most charming person with great gifts of mind & large gifts of heart.
8She knew & admired your sister so much. I am sending you a cutting
9from the Cape. The labour men there are standing out better than I had
10hoped. Cron is a member of the Labour Party. I am a member of nothing,
11I keep free. I am writing an article on war (enclosed).
12
13 I hope I shall meet Jean Langent the French socialist when th he comes
14over to that International meeting of socialists here this week.
15
16 Love to you
17 Olive
18

1 Kensington Palace Mansions & Hotel,
2 De Vere Gardens, W.
3
4 My dear old Edward
5
6 I think you think I am a horrid person, but you know its just because
7you've always been to me so exhalt, so far above all national & class
8prejudice that it almost stunned me to believe you approved of the war.
9 I don't care a bit what ordinary people think & feel. I have not
10exchanged one word on the way with a living human being for three
11months, except you, & Isabella Ford - who being a quaker of course is
12against it. I suppose it's because I've lived through a great war, &
13seen that the evils that result from it & follow it are infinitely
14greater than the war itself. The militarism, the spirit of hate &
15inhumanity which affects all people who have lived through a war, are
16much worse than the fighting & dying.
17
18 South Africa is again bathed in blood - the hatred of course has never
19died - which was left by the war of ten years ago. Love begets love, &
20hate & war beget hate & war as surely as black men beget black
21children & white men white. For a time there may be no actual war; but
22it will begin again when the seed has had time to grow. I'm going up
23to Hampstead on the 11th of Jan. till then I shall be here. My address
24at Hampstead will be 15 Carlingford Road Hampstead Heath. I shall not
25be quite so lonely there as I am here as dear little Dollie Radford
26lives there & I can sometimes go to see her. I haven't known a person
27be as lonely as I am in England now. In the Boer war many liberals &
28working men were opposed to war; but now we are but a tiny handful. In
29four years time - when the pay day comes we shall be a multitude -
30what will that help!
31
32 Now I'll never never talk about the war to you again, if you'll only
33come & see me when you come to town. What a dear man that George was
34who came with you. Give him my love & give it to Ida Hyett when you
35see her.
36
37 Yours with a lot of love
38 Olive
39
40
41

1 30 St Mary Abbotts Terrace
2 Monday
3
4 My dear Edward
5
6 I'm writing to you just to give myself a little pleasure. It was so
7fine seeing you.
8
9 I'm writing a little tiny thing for the Labour Leader. Whether they
10put it in or not, I'll send it you; I know you'll understand. I call
11it "A few words to the young men of the No-Conscription Fellowship".
12They are having a fine chance to testify to the sense of unity which
13ought to bind all humanbeings. I've seen Lady Low since I saw you: I
14grow near her & nearer her in feeling. She & Lilly Batthyiny are the
15two best friends I have now, & you introduced me to both of them.
16
17 I am feeling anxious about America. Not just now but bye & bye there
18will be a great war between her & England.
19
20 I saw my brother Will on Sunday so I have had quite an exciting week
21seeing two people. He spoke with great admiration of you & said he
22would like to see you if you came to Town again.
23
24 There has been no steamer from Africa for the last 11 days, & I feel
25anxious when such a long time passes without any news from my husband.
26
27 Good bye.
28 Olive
29

1 Alexi
2 31 The Park
3 Hampstead
4 Saturday
5
6 Dear EC
7
8 You will see from the above where I am staying in our dear friends
9house while they are away. Its so beautiful & peaceful here, like
10Heaven! Don't forget I'm here if you come to town. Lloyd came to see
11me the other evening, & he's going to bring his woman friend to see me
12& play Beethoven to me one evening. I never forget how beautifully you
13& Kate Salt played together at Millthorpe. Give my love to Kate, &
14tell her where I am in case she comes to Town & come & see me.
15
16 I've written a little thing on Conscription which is coming out in the
17Labour Leader I think. I see Portugal is joining in, & America will
18join in presently. I'm getting stiffened out with this war. I knew it
19would be Hell when it started. But I really didn't think it was going
20to be like this. The beloved Lilly has let me use her bedroom, & your
21picture hangs at the head of the bed. I'm going to lunch with dear
22Lady Low tomorrow. Don't you think there's a little likeness between
23her & Lilly? They might be sisters. I like them better than any new
24people I've met since I came to England.
25
26 Much love
27from Olive
28
29 Its rather terrible the way they bully these poor conscientious
30objectors. As soon as I'm better I'm going to go & watch the cases. I
31suppose you are busy in your part of the world. Remember you we are
32fighting for Freedom, & small peoples, & against militaryism & this is
33what we ?we got.
34

1 Alexi
2 Hampstead
3 March 16th 1916
4
5 Dear Edward
6
7 It was nice to get your letter. Oh it is so good being here. I wrote
8another little thing called "Give unto Caesar" - which is coming out
9in the Peace & War. I am going to try & go on with the little book I
10began writing in Wales but I have not been able to touch since.
11
12 Have you heard that poor Edith Ellis is so ill; a nervous & mental
13breakdown. I got a very sad letter from Havelock. I have always feared
14this for her. It is the worst of all the troubles that can come in
15life.
16
17 I will send you a copy of Peace & War if you don't take it. Its only a
18tiny thing I've written a few lines. I should be so happy if I could
19get my little book finished. There are things you feel you must say.
20
21 Yes Lilly Batthyany is a beloved soul & I am so fond of her son Jack
22who is spending a few days here. He's going to a farm in Hampshire.
23
24 The worst of publishing things in these little socialist & other
25papers is that the people you want to see them don't see them it's
26only the already converted, & papers like the Nation & the Statesman
27are afraid to take them!
28
29 Good bye dear Edward.
30
31 How finely Liebknicht & some of the Germans are standing out. There's
32a little handful of us in all nations.
33
34 Olive
35

1 1
2 8 Far away, where the tempest plays,
3 6 Over the dreary seas,
4 7 Sail on still with a steady will,
5 6 On-ward before the breeze.
6
7 2
8 9 On, onwards yet, still our hearts forget
9 7 The loves that we leave behind,
10 11 Till the memories dear ^that^ thrill in our ear
11 7 Flew past like the whistling wind.
12
13 3
14 7 Let them come, sweet thoughts of home
15 7 And voices we loved of old;
16 7 What care we that sail a sea
17 7 And bound for a land of gold!
18
19 4
20 10 Treasures there are that are lovelier far
21 8 Than the flash of a maiden's eye;
22 8 Jewels bright in the purple light
23 8 That crimsons the evening sky.
24
25 5
26 9 Crowns that gleam like a fairy dream,
27 6 Treasures of price untold -
28 9 And we are bound of that charméd ground
29 7 8 We sail for the land of gold.
30
31 I have written it out for you but it seems to be a funny irregular
32meter that no one could sing. I'm not sure at all that it is as it was
33in the book where I read it, I was such a little child & I may have
34made additions of my own. I'm so fond of it. Be sure you notice the
35accent over the "charmed"
36
37 O.S
38
39
40
41

1 Edinburgh Royal Infirmary 25-11-80
2
3 N.B. This paper to be filled in (in the Candidate's own handwriting)
4and sent to the Lady Superintendent of Nurses, Edinburgh Royal
5Infirmary.
6
7 Questions to be answered by Candidate
8
9 1. Name in full and present address of Candidate.
10^Olive Emelie Albertina Schreiner
11Lily Kloof, Cradock, Cape of Good Hope.^
12
13 2. Are you a single woman or widow *The marriage certificate will be
14required.
15 ^Single^
16
17 3. Your present occupation of employment, also, if a widow, the former
18occupation of your husband
19 ^Governess.^
20
21 4. Age last birthday, and date and place of birth.
22 ^25. Born at Wittersberg, South Africa, March 24th. 1855.^
23
24 5. Height?
25 ^Five feet.^
26 Weight?
27 ^There are no scales here. Weight, probably about 110.^
28
29 6. Where educated?
30 ^At home.^
31
32 7. Of what religious denomination? Name and address of Clergyman or
33Minister who knows you.
34 ^Free thinker. Father, Lutheran. Rev. W. Caldecott, East London, South
35Africa.^
36
37 8. Can you read and write well?
38 ^Yes.^
39
40 9. Are you strong and healthy? and have you always been so.
41 ^Yes. Was delicate at one time, but have wholly recovered.^
42
43 10. If a widow, have you children? How many? Their ages. How are they
44provided for?
45
46 11. Where (if any) was your last situation? How long were you in it.
47 ^Ratelhoek. Dis. Tarkastad. Three years.^
48
49 12. What is the name and occupation of your father, or, if not living,
50your mother.
51 ^Father - Lutheran Missionary - dead. Mother, living on her income.
52Grahamstown, South Africa.^
53
54 13. The names in full, and address of two persons to be referred to?
55State how long each has known you. If previously employed, one of
56these must be the last employer.
57 ^Dr. ?H. Pearson, Seymour, South Africa. Has known me 5 years
58 Christoffel Christian Fouche, Esq., Lily Kloof, Cradock, South Africa.
59has known me 8 years.^
60
61 14. Name and address of your Medical attendant.
62 ^I have none.^
63
64 15. Have you read, and do you clearly understand the regulations.
65 ^yes^
66
67 I declare the above statement to be correct.
68 Date ^Lily Kloof, Nov. 25th. 1880.^
69 Signed ^Olive Emilie ^^Albertina^^ Schreiner^ Candidate.
70
71
72

1 Friday night
2
3 I feel so tired to night. Have been crying I thought I'd forgotten how
4to cry.
5
6 Good night my comfort
7
8 Olive
9
10 I shall come to New Life. It would be nice if Page could come.
11
12 O.S
13
14

1 De Aar
2 June 30th 1912
3
4 Dear old Boy
5
6 Thanks for your letter. Of course each person's "diary works" (I mean
7simple, spontaneous, straight forward records of what one sees, feels,
8& does & thinks) will differ with the individuality of the person. The
9charm is that it is an expression of their individuality. A guide book
10has no charm because it expresses no individuality it is just a
11collection of facts. If Barrow writes a book the thing his
12individuality notes are names of mountains & rivers, language, words,
13also gypsies, tramps thieves & scenery to a small extent, with a word
14picture of his mind thought & feeling. When Darwin writes he notes all
15plants, animals, scientific speculation turn up in his mind at every
16moment, nature impresses him with great cosmic feelings: his books are
17greater than Barrow's because a greater soul - but Barrow's also have
18their value & charm.
19
20 You could write a book most engaging & splendid if you wrote more as
21you write letters & more spontaneously. Any one of your letters to me
22where you've told me just a little about your travels in Spain say, is
23worth the whole of your book. The letters live, the book seems
24artificial. You express in the book what you've really seen & thought
25but in a stiff artificial manner. There is not enough of yourself in
26all of your later writing. If I were very ill & you knew that my life
27depended on q my being amused & interest, & to help me you wrote an
28account of your a fortnight spent in Paris, just who you saw where you
29went & felt interest, what you felt about your food & your room: & how
30the pictures impressed you, it would no doubt splendid. Your short
31hurried letters ^even^ are 100 times more interesting than your books.
32
33 I could write the most marvelous books in that way, compared to which
34all my other books are nothing. I do see the actual world about me so
35intensely the men & women I meet print themselves on me, agonize me if
36they are antipathetic, give me bliss if there are beautiful.
37
38 The sc atmospheric effects of every day I note intensely the changes
39in the sky the weather the scene: all nature is immensely important.
40My feeling to this awful sandy desert, the strange passionate love I
41feel for the pepper-trees I have planted, & especially one rose bush
42that I nurture & care for before my door. My difficulty is that I dare
43not write the truth! I would be so afraid of paining human beings.
44Character! character! character! is what cuts deep into me. The
45character people I meet on the train, of the people living in de Aar,
46of my different servants - I could write books about them alone - &
47most easily. But dare I, with my terror of inflicting pain? - I can't,
48that's why I can't write my life! My
49
50 You
51
52 You who are not so terribly moved by all persons you come into contact
53with - could write much more easily just what you feel & think about
54the things you see. Of course you do lack descriptive power with
55regard to material things. I doubt whether in a few lines you could
56make me see an old ruin on a hill as Barrow does so that I actually
57see it. He was of course born the artist. - that is what the matter
58with him - unlovable, in many respects an ignorant & narrow man - he
59was an artist! The few right words in which to pain a thing he saw
60always came to him, because he saw so clearly & intensely. Life was
61always shaping itself into pictures to him. But you could write most
62valuable books if they were more like your letters. There are such
63wonderful little touches - so often in your conversation - now & then
64in your letters, in which you throw a whole world into a short
65critical or descriptive sentence - t as where you once said of Karl
66Pearson's wife when you first met her that she seemed a good sort of
67woman, "but the kind of person who would finish off a man!" C I can't
68write more now.
69
70 Cron is still away at the Victoria Falls. He returns the middle of
71this week. The weather is a little better, the sunshine through my
72window is dancing on the sheet as I write.
73
74 Things in South Africa grow darker & darker. Sauer & Burton the two
75only liberal men on the native question have been turned out of their
76offices in the ministry, & the most bigoted, narrow native hater in
77South Africa Hertzog put in as minister of native affairs. There are
78terrible things coming soon
79
80^in this poor accursed land. We have also passed a bill for forced
81conscription.
82
83Olive^
84
85

1 Bole Hill
2 Wirksworth
3 Wednesday
4
5 Thank you for the Law Breaker. Can I keep that article of yours till
6you come because I want us to talk over it? I will send it if you want
7it, but you must bring it with you when you come. I want you when you
8come here to go for some very long walks alone. I think it will rest
9you so. I am so thankful you can stay a fortnight.
10
11 Speaking of the effect sexual feeling has on the mind, it is very
12clearly proved in the case of women. I must make more inquiries among
13other women, my friends who will have noticed & been able to analyze
14their feelings. With myself while I am unwell every month my feelings
15are particularly sensitive & strong. A little word that would not pain
16me at another time causes me acute agony. I can not help feeling, & a
17little word of tenderness is so precious to me (Especially the man who
18loves you ought to be tender with you then). The time of greatest &
19most wonderful mental activity is just after, & perhaps the last two
20days of the time ^too^. My mind is a I was unwell last week; & though
21now my chest is so unreadable troublesome I can be on the sofa half
22asleep, & the thoughts are all continually to crowding in on me
23unreadable. Last night it suddenly flashed into me, the unreadable ^solution^
24of all my difficulties with "From man to man". It has been brooding in
25the back ground of my mind these many days, & now it has suddenly come.
26 I shall have no more difficulty with it, it is as clear as day light.
27I have got what I wanted. It is so splendid, I mean this feeling is, I
28get so excited I don't know what to do.
29
30 But to go back to the sexual feeling. Of course one may easily
31exaggerate what I have been talking about, but there is no doubt there
32is some truth in it. Eleanor Marx the only woman I have spoken to on
33the subject feels much the same. My acquisitive power, my power of
34learning, is not at all weaker just at the time, but my feelings are
35so strong. Ask Louie how she feels. I am going to ask Mrs Walter &
36some of my intimate friends. This subject in interesting, because as
37far as the power of the purely physical-sexual extends, so far must
38the power of ?bra the mental-sexual extend. If the physical
39feelings extend their power over a certain portion of the soul, then
40the relationship between man & woman will be able to work upon the
41same portion. Do you carefully observe (I mean un consciously, I
42always look at it myself unconsciously ^don't you?^) the ?rebel
43interaction of your manly upon your mental nature.
44
45 I should like to know the man's side of the question too. I should
46think the relationship must be always ^almost^ as close. Look at the
47effect of celibacy on monks & hermits, &c.
48
49 Yes, you must never look any one in the face, ah? I wouldn't
50understand it ^at first^. I think what I called that glorious look in
51eye in your eyes was just the once or twice when you looked really
52into mine. They were godlike. What is rather funny is that some years
53ago I never looked at anyone in the eyes; I couldn't. I had a cousin
54who used to hate me & wasn't kind to me, & she used to say that I
55never looked at anyone, & that that was why she couldn't bear me. I
56wonder if you will change like I have, & look people full in the face
57like I do now. And I used to be so reserved, & secretive without any
58reason for it; I'm not like that now.
59
60 If I talked to any one I used to turn my face half away from them. I
61couldn't help it. I'm glad you turn away your face from people &
62
63^look down I don't think you will always.
64
65I should like to send you some day some letters of my mother's to read.
66 My grandfather's name was Lyndall. I think I told you about him
67though I've written to my mother to ask her about the Olivers. I
68should like to have your blood in me, shouldn't you like to have mine.
69
70I liked Under the Greenwood Tree. Tell me all you can about Hardy.
71
72Good bye, my boy-brother.
73
74Olive^
75
76^Is the London Review published in India?^
77

1 Friday
2
3 I thought I shouldn't to write to you today, but I find a kind of need.
4
5 Did you ever read that passage in Shelly's letters where he talks
6about genius (I think he repeats it from another book.) that Genius
7does not invent, it perceives. I think that ^this^ is so won-derfully
8true & more true the more one looks at it. It agrees with the true
9fact that you noticed the other day, that men of genius are always
10childlike. A child sees everything, looks straight at it, examines it
11without any preconceived idea; most people after they are about eleven
12or twelve quiet lose this power, they see everything through a few
13pre-conceived ideas which hang like a veil between them & the outer
14world.
15
16 By the bye (this doesn't bear directly on that) did you ever do what I
17was fond of doing when I was a child, I used to call it "Looking at
18things really"? Look at your hand, for instance, make an effort of
19mind, & dis-associate from it every preconceived idea, for instance
20that it is your hand, that it is part of a human body, &c &c. Look at
21it simply as an object which strikes the eye; you will be surprised
22who how new, & strange, & funny it looks, as though you had never seen
23it before. It requires some effort of mind of course, & one can't do
24it if one is hurried & talking, it takes some time. I used to do it
25often in church to pass away the time. It can be done with the other
26senses too, of course. I have often done it with speaking. Listen to
27people talking as though you didn't understand what the words meant, &
28didn't or that the sound came from human voices. Listen to it just as
29a noise striking the ear. It is utterly different from what one
30fancies. This isn't very interesting though.
31
32 I have been reading my Emerson just now. You will do me great service
33if you help me to read French, it will open a whole new field of books
34to me.
35
36 Tomorrow at twelve I must walk down to Wirksworth to meet Mrs Walter
37at 1.We shall talk a great deal about Hinton. I mean to try & explain
38Hinton to her & make her ^understand him^. I don't think she sees him
39rightly. I will tell you what she says & ^what^ I say about it. How
40beautiful about your visit to Shields.
41

1 My Harry
2
3 I am going to go tomorrow to the Academy for a couple of hours. On Sat
4morning I leave for Harrow. Address will just be
5 Convent
6 Harrow-on-the-Hill
7 Nr. London.
8
9 I don't quite know what's the matter with me, I'm so much knocked down.
10 Will my book ever ever ever be done? One thing every word of it is
11truth to me, & more & more so as the book goes not. It could not be
12otherwise that is all that can be said for it. One thing I am glad of
13is that it becomes less & less what you call "art" as it goes on. My
14first crude conceptions are always what you call "art", as they become
15more & more living & real they become what I call higher art, but what
16you call no "art" at all. I quite understand what you mean but I
17cannot think that your use of the word "art" in that sense is right i.e.
18not misleading & therefore untrue. If I understand what you mean
19Wilhelm Meister is not art, ^one of^ Balzac's conser novels is.
20Wilhelm Meister is one of the most immortal deathless ?action production
21of the greatest of the world's artists, the result of twenty years
22labour, worth any six of Balzacs. novels, great & glorious as Balzac
23is; yet if you were writing a review of it you would, ridiculous as it
24would seem, be obliged to call it "not art".
25
26 You say, "I will call art, only that artistic creation in which I can
27clearly see the artist manufacturing the parts & piecing them together;
28 what ever where I cannot see that, though the thing be organic, true
29inevitable like a work of God's, I will not call it art. I must see
30the will shaping it: (of course there always has been a will shaping
31it whether it is visible or not) or I will not call it art.
32
33 ^This of course is not in justification of my method, but touches what
34seems to me a weakness or shallowness in your mode of criticism. It is
35very valuable that the two kinds of art should be distinguished but
36not that the one should be called art & the other not art. Of the two
37it would be better to call the one artificial art & the other real art
38- but that would not be just. I should rather call the one organic,
39the other inorganic, of the one you think of as a thing made, the
40other as a thing that grew.^
41

1 Havelock
2
3 I've just come back from seeing M. Harkness. Oh, the joy to get back &
4here again. I could have cried for joy when I got out here at the
5station & walked up the hill. I don't know how it is I have been able
6to live among the rush so long; a little more & I should have broken
7forever. Oh this blessed, blessed solitude ^& stillness.^
8
9 My darling boy, I wish I could help you. If I had not my work I could
10be like I was. What you, & my brother & Mrs Walters & Mrs Brown sy &
11Dr Donkin ^& K Pearson, & my Mother,^ say, "You are changed, you are
12changed," means simply that I am not living in the world that
13surrounds me but in my work. You can't understand & there is no use in
14my saying anything on the matter ever to you. K Pearson has written me
15such a pained letter, because I said I didn't want to answer his
16letters. Sometime I feel inclined to swear a big oath, & throw all my
17M.SS in the fire, & say "Here I am, I shall live as I have lived the
18last three years, never in my work, never conscious of myself, but
19through & in the people I love." My heart is sore sorrowful about it.
20And what after all is my work worth that I should sacrifice every
21thing to it, that I should torture myself like this.
22
23 I won't say any more on this subject again to you or any no one. Good
24bye, my own darling. I wish I were dead. But tomorrow I will forget
25all of you, even my brother, & work. I wish I could help you my
26darling.
27
28 Oh am I right in trying to get back into my old state & work. Deep in
29my heart I feel that I am, but doubts will come sometimes & I hate
30myself so I wish I was dead. I wish so you would come & see me here.
31This is such a beautiful place. I wish you would come some day about 3
32o'clock. You have been more help to me than you can ever know my
33Havelock.
34
35 Olive
36
37 ^My darling Havelock I do love you. Can't you believe it?^
38
39 ^This letter isn't nice but I'm so worn. This morning my brother writes
40that as he knows I won't take the trouble to answer him he sends a
41card with his address on which I can return to let him know I've got
42his letter. I'm writing to Miss Haddon to tell her I can't come she
43would only say I was changed.^
44

1 The Convent
2 Harrow
3 Monday night
4
5 I am looking out for a word from you. I've been out to the post today
6& feel better. I mean to set my teeth & work tomorrow. I must at least
7finish Jan van der Linden's wife if I don't finish anything else. I am
8going into Town as soon as I am able to see if I can find cheap
9lodgings anywhere. I mean to try round Manchester Square.
10
11 If I finish Jan & get £5 for it I'll come in. I love the story. I
12haven't written it the least bit for money other wise I couldn't sell
13it. Has Chapman paid you yet? I am quite sure he never will.
14
15 I have just heard of a new villany of Aveling. He did poor Mrs
16?Guiggenberger out of £10 or so, & she is very poor. He & my Chapman
17are just of the same kind. I think there are many capitalist sweaters
18who are not so bad because they do it unconsciously.
19
20 Good night my comrade
21 Olive
22

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

1 This trial affair is so terrible; they are all so false. What a
2terrible deadly thing that Hinton theory is, like a ?upas tree
3blighting all it comes in contact with because it is false to human
4nature.
5
6 I saw John Falk on Friday. I am going to get Mrs Weldon to stay here
7till the trial & I am going to to sit with her at hi it.
8
9 Do you know I can't help hating Mrs Howard Hinton. She is the only one
10I can't feel sorry for. Poor Howard looked so beautiful when he went
11into the prisoner's dock. They say he will likely only get a few days
12-& then
13
14^I can't think about anything else.
15
16 Olive^
17

1 Paris
2
3 You quite intentionally misunderstand me in every thing, or, sometimes
4I think are we grown so wide apart that no understanding is possible
5between us. As the strongest personal feelings my nature has known are
6gloriously "funny" & "absurd" to you, & my ideas, which after all are
7my real life dearer much to me than any person or than my self simply
8bore you, so even such a common place remark as that in my letter to
9my brother you willfully misunderstand or can't understand. No human
10creature's ^feel feelings^ could possibly be further ^removed^ with
11respect to my artistic work - not of course the scientific - than mine
12from George Elliots. Her great desire was to teach, mine to express my
13self for my self & to my self alone The thought that hundreds of
14thousands will read my work does offend me & hinder me, not because I
15wish to teach them, but because terrible as it is to show them my work
16at all, the thought of throwing it to them to be trodden under foot is
17double desecrating of it. I'm almost beginning to hate my Prelude now
18because three or four people have looked at it. & if many more do I
19shall throw it into the fire. If you sermonized me on the wickedness
20of not caring & sharing my work with other people, you would be much
21nearer the truth.
22
23 The best stories & dreams I have had nothing would induce me to write
24at all because I couldn't bear one person to read them. As for its
25being a new development its a feeling that's rather growing weaker,
26because as a child if Will or anyone got hold of a scrap I'd written I
27tore up the whole thing at once. It was like a knife in my heart
28to-day when I saw an African Farm stuck up in a window. I get to loath
29it when I think of how many people have read it. Do you think I could
30write Bertie's death scene, do you think I could show all the inmost
31working of Rebekah's heart if, I realized that anyone would ever read it.
32
33 If God were to put me alone on a star & say I & the star should be
34born up at last & nothing be left, I should make stories all the time
35just the same. Its not that I want my story to be worthy of the people,
36 but that I can't bear to desecrate the thing I love by showing it to
37them in a form they can't understand. I can't tell you how sorry I am
38I showed a Ruined Chapel to any one; it's so beautiful to me & no one
39understands it. ^I'm going to print a little allegory in next
40Fortnightly. But I don't want to hear what ^^any^^ one thinks of it. I
41know what I know.^
42
43 //I am wonderfully better since I have made up my mind to come to
44England. It was that, I feel now; that I was really wanting: & the
45strain of resisting it that made me so tired.
46
47 I go to the ?Valls every day. I'm quite "the oldest inhabitant". Nelly
48Pruse is lovely. After Alice Corthorn she's the most "native to me"
49girl I know. She's very like Alice, only she's artistic instead of
50scientific. When I'm in England I'm going to write her to come & stay
51with me, & you'll see how nice she is. I've not quite made up my mind
52about hospital. ^I'll see when I come.^
53
54 //No, I'm not going to buy shoes & stockings. I've plenty with those
55two pairs & I've had mine my old boots resoled. There's not any hurry
56with the other money. A I've plenty now. It rains here every day. I've
57been once to the Louvre but not anywhere else.
58
59 Goodbye.
60 Olive
61
62 I've got a letter ^from Mrs Cobb^
63
64 ^Allice will send you Mrs Robert's letter. I'll leave this open till
65tomorrow so that I can put Mrs Rob Roberts's answer in, as to whether
66he has the rooms or not.^
67

1 30 St Mary Abbott's Terrace
2 Kensington
3 Friday
4
5 Dear old Havelock
6
7 I went to Eastbourne yesterday. It was too sad.
8
9 I came back in the evening. All the ghosts of my dead youth sat about
10me. The grave is on a Hill side from the town.
11
12 I am going down to Margate & Ramsgate tomorrow to try & find a room
13there.
14
15 It seems they are going to begin attacking the Germans in South Africa,
16 the farmers who have never done anything to us, who were so kind to
17our prisoners when they escaped to Germany. There seems to me to be no
18gratitude in the world; no remembrance of the past.
19
20 I may yet get my little flat in Chelsea but it can't be for two weeks.
21
22 I hope Edith is better.
23
24 Olive
25
26 ^Do you see the Labour Leader? Its the only paper that is standing out
27The other papers all refused to take Vernon Lee's & Bertrand Russels
28articles.
29
30 Why has one always to stand alone? Why can one never go with the tide
31of the mob?^
32

1 30 St Mary Abbott's Terrace
2 Kensington
3 Monday
4
5 Dear Havelock,
6
7 Arrived at midnight last night after a most awful journey of 15 hour
8from Amsterdam. It was the last trains taking foreigners. Hundreds of
9men women & children in the boat fleeing - people just lay abut on
10the deck in the wet when there was no more room in the cabins & below.
11The sea was wild & the spray poured over the decks. I shall never
12forget it. Then there was a wild fight for ^seats in the^ trains!
13
14 Good bye dear you & Edith I long to see
15 Olive
16
17 Germany is determined to fight. It is she who is the cause of all. In
18Holland they are expecting the Prussians there tomorrow to take the
19Hague & the ports. All the soldiers are mobilized, but of course they
20can do nothing. War is Hell. They will fight in Africa too.
21

1 [page/s missing] harder, or if down below there is the same tenderness
2& idealism below the quiet passive surface.
3
4 One thing is beautiful to me is that though my personal life has
5become crushed & indifferent to me, I have not lost one little grain
6of my faith in the possible beauty & greatness of human nature, the
7divine beauty of perfect love, & of truth. I am so absolute certain
8that the dream the ideal of beauty & goodness is that towards which
9human nature is slowly moving. And life has been very, very, beautiful.
10 Even the power to heal & repress oneself is beautiful if there is
11nothing else. And ones joy in nature & in knowing & trying to
12understand has been glorious; & I have had better & more beautiful
13friends than any one in the world. Tell me a little about yourself:
14not in the "dam'd fine horse" style - really. [page/s missing]
15
16 Olive
17
18
19

1 [page/s missing] the company. It's very hard to refuse.
2
3 Johannesburg is now practically depopulated, & the women & children
4are fleeing out of the Free State also into the Colony. But I have not
5the slightest doubt war will spread throughout the whole country.
6
7 You scorn my love for England & English men. Well I have traveled a
8bit about the world I have lived in South Africa, 30 out of forty-odd
9years of my life, & still the noblest dearest & most beloved humans I
10have met remain Englishmen in the main. Not only you & Carpenter & all
11the others I personally love & admire, but such men as dear old
12General Sir William Butler, who threw up his post here as general in
13the British army & has gone home because he said the war would be a
14gross immorality, are to me as fine representatives of the race human
15as any I am likely to see, according to my view. And this is not
16taking into view the great army of the dead from Shakespeare & Milton
17to Shelly, Darwin, George Elliot & Browning. An Englishman is like a
18Jew he seems to be either Christ or Judas; but on the whole much as I
19love all races of men I have yet been thrown into contact with I think
20we do pretty well. Not better than other races, but [page/s missing]
21
22 if a cultured person, with any knowledge of human nature!!
23
24 An old Boer woman I once knew after half an hour running down the
25English for their pride & selfishness & cruelty, said "And yet, when
26you do get an Englishman good he's the ?best on earth."
27
28 However I have written a whole long article almost a book on the
29Englishman in Africa which will explain my views. Public affairs are
30so bad one can't write of them any more. Dear old Herbert Spencer has
31spoken & Morley & other but they have
32
33^waited till it was too late. Six months ago it would have saved the
34situation.
35
36 Olive^
37

1 Victoria Falls Hotel
2 Zambesi
3 S.A.
4 Thursday
5
6 Dear Havelock boy,
7
8 We leave tomorrow this most lovely & beautiful & wonderful of earthly
9sights. No pictures, nothing that has ever been said of it gives the
10faintest conception of what this is. The vast "Spirit of the Waters."
11
12 A mile & a quarter of water leaping down into the almighty chasm with
13the roar of thunder that sounds for eighteen miles, & which as it
14falls leaps up again into the into clouds of white & rainbow tinted
15mists 4000 feet high. The colours, the colours, the wild spirits of
16the mist it is that that overpowers one & fills one with joy. One
17cries but only from happiness. We were nearly all drowned on Tues-day,
18the motor boat we were on broke down & we were drifting down onto the
19falls. We were only saved by a canoe coming past & going for help to
20the landing & calling six more canoes which took us all out & towed
21the boat to land. The pluck of all the women & girls except one
22miserable old Christian was wonderful. I must tell you all about it
23some day. The curious thing is that having been so near death in its
24arms instead of making me feel horror of it, seems to draw me so much
25nearer it - my falls that I was nearly part of!! I have never loved
26any natural phenomena so.
27
28 Olive
29
30 You've no idea what a wild splendid country we pass through coming
31here
32

1 We are nearing Madeira. I have not been sea sick at all. But my heart
2is troublesome. Have not lain down since I left England. Will write
3from Africa.
4

1 Hotel Roth is the large square house close to the lake with the
2brown along the top. I have pricked a hole with m a needle just were
3my window is. You will see it if you hold it up to the light. ^I always
4walk up & down on the path you on the edge of the lake, going up from
5Hotel Roth.^
6
7 ^The house Byron lived in is in the one just behind Hotel Roth. Now
8it’s all write with snow. X this spot is the scene of Rousseau’s
9novel.^
10
11

1 The house I am in is more to the right. This is a good view of Cape
2Town. The house I am in is over the hill where the photo was taken & I
3have this view before me all day.
4
5 Olive
6
7

1 To Prof Ray Lanchester from OS
2 Royal Spa Hotel
3 Shanklin
4 31 Jan Feb/86
5
6 ...You say: "It appears to me quite a truth proposition that marriage
7is not the natural tendency of man, or rather not a necessary
8characteristic of the race". That depends entirely on the definition
9one gives to the word marriage, which has half a dozen possible
10meanings. If one uses it in the conventional sense as a legal or
11religious contract wh. once entered upon cannot be broken at the will
12of the parties & wh. public opinion enforces, I consider it as much
13doomed as a ship with a hard hole knocked in itsthe bottom of it; it
14certainly is not characteristic of the race. But some species of
15relationship, other than that of existing forms of prostitution, must
16always exist between men & women if the race is to continue & whether
17monogamy, polgamy & polysandry it seems equally right to call it
18marriage & a necessity of the race. My own view & one wh. I have
19arrived at without any bias in its favour is that monogamy not only is
20that wh. most ideally satisfies one, but that it is the point towards
21wh. we are slowly surely though slowly tending. It seems, from a study
22of the wants of human nature, mental & physical, that it is the mode
23of relation capable of yielding the largest amount of satisfaction
24with the smallest amount of pain to both man & woman & offspring. At
25present of course it hardly ever exists, we have ?evil relationships
26on the part of the man & thewoman, & where it does exist I thinkit is
27certainly vitiated, I think, by the fact that it is not made an end in
28itself but subservient to material & other ulterior motives, that its
29benificence cannot be judged of. You seem to regard the relation of
30one with one as a purely artificial condition, possible only if the
31nature of woman has not free play, & if through material necessity she
32is driven to depend on man. I believe that the want for this
33relationship lies it the very foundation of woman's nature (& I think
34also in man's?), that if tomorrow she was free to develop her own
35powers in whatever direction nature impelled her & even monetarily
36independent of men, then I believe permanent & perfect marriage would
37come into existence generally such as you rightly describe as
38sometimes existing now "in wh. that man should obtain the very
39sweetest kind of service & attention viz. that wh. is bound up with
40genuine sexual love. It may not be very intelligent help or it may be
41itself of a very high intelligence - that does not much matter - the
42great point being that it is happily & gladly rendered & that there is
43a feeling that what is given by the woman in her care to the man is
44returned by him in his larger but not less genuine care of the woman."
45I have quoted the whole of this passage because it expresses so
46accurately the ideal of marriage wh. seems to me so seldom attainable
47now because women are not free, because that sweet & happily given
48service with the pleasure element being delight in bearing pain for
49him cannot be there if the man is not the one a woman chooses, but
50simply the one who offers her the best means of livelihood. It is
51"woman's ?irony?" that she has to sell herself, whether into the
52bitter loveless childless deformed untender state of prostitution or
53into loveless marriage. It is her right that she should be able to
54give herself freely to the man she loves, service for whom &
55dependence upon whom in her times of weakness would be sweet &
56precious to her instead of bitter. There are some factors you seem
57entirely to lose sight of in this man & woman question. There is in
58man human nature a desire to give & service service & to become one in
59interest with others existing apart from any pecuniary advantages;
60this fact has to be recognised & counted with by the student of human
61nature exactly as the condition of something or any other material
62phenomena & is to be taken ^into^ account by the study of the external
63world, or the conclusions become false. You seem to lose sight of this
64fact also. There is in woman a peculiar feeling (accounted for in its
65origin by physiological conditions I think) given not to men in
66general but to the particular man she loves, a feeling that she
67desires to look up to & lean on him & that she almost desires to
68suffer for him; & that suffering endured for him or through him is not
69the same as any other suffering. It is a fact wh. appears to run flat
70in the face of many of the received "women's rights" doctrines, but
71they will simply have to make room for it. To me it appears a
72singularly beneficent instinct considering the amount of suffering
73woman has to go through if the race is to continue. I think one sees
74the why of its development when one regards the mental as simply a
75solution to the physiological condition. There is no doubt it is
76intimately connected with sex feeling & that the fact that it is often
77strongly shown by little girls to their big brothers only shows that
78quite unconsciously sex instinct must be there. I remember when I was
79a little child being whipped till I could hardly stand by a big
80brother twelve years older than myself whom I worshipped, because I
81didn't open a door quickly. If anyone else had done it I would never
82have forgiven them to my dying day. But I hadn't the least feeling of
83resentment or injustice. I only crept away & felt as if my heart was
84broken. When I remember what a wild indomitable child I was & how
85fiercely I resented injustice, it stands out to me as a most
86remarkable case of instinct over-riding everything. I remember
87distinctly that I did not feel the least trace of unlove, only for
88weeks when I looked at his hands I used to quiver. I couldn't bear to
89think it was they that hurt me. This feeling I believe is lay dormant
90in woman, it always exists when she loves a man, but not of course
91when she is simply bought by him. The anguish wh. man can inflict on
92woman through taking advantage of this instinct is ^simply^ incalculable,
93 & the feeling appears to increase in intensity as woman advances in
94intellectual power, but I have no doubt that on the whole its action
95is benificent.
96
97 I doubt whether many men realise at all how great a fact in the life
98of woman is played by the longing to find in man an object of worship,
99a thing which she can look up to & trust. The Christian religion lived
100so long as& died so hard because it held out to woman an ideal man &
101said to him live for him, sacrifice yourself for him, he is noble. In
102the woman who has parted with Xy the strength has lain in the giving
103up this ideal & there is something pathetic in the stirring of passion
104with wh. such women turn to the world of men about them to try &
105refind it there. It is interesting as showing how distinctly any given
106religion is simply the outcome of a want in human nature. You may say
107that this desire is simply lunacy & idiocy. Be it so. But it is there
108& a fact wh. those who deal with social phenomena have to take into
109account. Do you really believe that when at the present day a man gets
110that loving tender service from a woman that he buys it from her? Do
111you know that if he was stricken down with disease & became dependent
112upon her support as a little child, then the full force of her love
113would leap out to him for the first time. A man may labour all his
114life & spend all his money on women, a wife or otherwise, & in the end
115he may never have had an act of true devotion from a woman, never have
116possessed one woman. No, by 'God', you can't buy us; if we give
117ourselves to you with the money it is still only a gift - you can buy
118nothing but the shells.
119
120 If you want to be tender & helpful to us & to feel your power, you
121will always have room enough for that side of your nature in our
122physical weakness & in the marvellous control our love gives you over
123us. I often wish I were a man just that I might be tender to women. A
124man can do so much more for a woman than she can do for him. It must
125be so glorious to have the same unlimited power & use it magnanimously.
126 A woman has a high sense of that sometimes & its so glorious splendid.
127
128 You say something wh. coming from an ordinary philistine I should take
129as a matter of course, but wh. coming from yourself is painful to me.
130You say that woman must be kept from the knowledge of the true facts
131of life. Why? In order that she may keep faith & hope & gentleness!
132Are you not using here the very argument that Xy & superstition have
133used in all ages to keep out knowledge? We don't question that it is
134the fact but it is better not to know it; it will destroy something
135beautiful? Surely we have passed beyond that stage in wh. men desire
136to put up a little screen in some corner of the earth & say 'At least
137here the sunlight of fact shall not come & scorch up our flowers - &
138then the screen gets knocked over at last, as it always must, & then
139are found to be nothing but toad stools behind it, the only things
140that can grow without light! If faith & hope & gentleness depended on
141ignorance then the sooner they went the better, but they do not depend
142on it. I remember the burst of infinite delight with wh. one day when
143I was thinking of some insects I had been watching it flashed upon me
144that life might originate within the parent form. I rushed into the
145house to proclaim my glorious discovery & was of course instantly
146annihilated, but I believe it was a glorious discovery.
147
148 Viewed from the intellectual side the sexual facts wh. underlie life
149from the most complex, the most delicately coordinated & therefore the
150most unreadable of the phenomena presented to our intelligence, viewed
151from the emotional they are the most beautiful; their power of
152expressing affection, of binding human beings together, of creating
153life puts them into the category of those things of wh. one does not
154easily speak, not because they are painful but because they are sacred.
155 The man who finds no food in sex matter for anything but a joke, &
156the ascetic who turns up his eyes at them are ?merely to be pitied.
157Perhaps you will say it is not the knowledge of physical truth you
158would keep from women but social facts. Here I cannot again agree with
159you. The knowledge of the saddest social facts, that there ^are^ women
160who never see a look of respect & tenderness in a man's eyes, who are
161of no 'use' among their 'close associates', whose natures are deformed
162by the over action of one part & the atrophy of another, that then one
163man, sometimes the noblest of the race, in whom inherited instinct
164acts so strongly that it always tends to obtain a ?sway incompatible
165with the full expression of those highest intelligent powers wh.
166constitute the developed custom, & in whom therefore there is always a
167conflict - or a submission followed by suffering, & desponding that is
168sometimes always ^almost^ despair. This is the saddest of social facts
169but the true knowledge of it does not make any woman's heart less
170?forth. It does not make her love man less or desire his love less, I
171think it makes her gentler all round
172
173 Olive Schreiner
174
175
176
177

1 From Mrs W. P. Schreiner
2
3 CA 51 K CAPETOWNPO 12 LG/11.
4
5 CRONWRIGHT SCHREINER STANDARD BANK CLEMENTS LANE LN.
6
7 OLIVE DIED PEACEFULLY TENTH SCHREINER.
8
9
10
11

1 De Aar
2 May 14th 1909
3
4 My dear Mrs Goosen
5
6 My friend Mrs Haldane Murray has just written to tell me how hard you
7are working for us at Cathcart. This is just to hold out a hand of
8friendship to you. I know how difficult it often is to start a new
9thing in an up-country, but once started, & when our women really
10understand the the great good, not only to themselves, but to men &
11all the nation, the freedom of women will bring, I believe our South
12African women will be even more earnest & successful than others.
13
14 I am sending you a little paper by my husband who is strongly in
15favour of women's getting the vote.
16
17 Yours very sincerely & wishing you all success
18 Olive Schreiner
19
20

1 Hanover
2 Jan 9th 1901
3
4 Lord Kitchener
5
6 Dear Sir,
7
8 I trust you will pardon the liberty I am taking in asking whether, if
9you should come to this part of the country you would give me the
10favour of unreadable ^half^ an hour's interview with you. If you do not
11come to Hanover & would allow me to come to Noupoort or de Aar to meet
12you, I would be glad to do so.
13
14 The smallest wild duck knows more about the ins-&-outs of its own
15little mountain tarn, than the largest swan from the great lakes who
16has but newly arrived there can always do. Therefore it is not
17absolutely irrational that I should wish to put a few points before
18you.
19
20 If you would kindly allow your secretary to write & tell me whether
21you would be willing to see me, I should be very much obliged.
22
23 Yours faithfully
24 Olive Schreiner
25
26
27

1 Cap
2 Eastburgholt
3 Tamboer's Kloof Road
4 Tamboer's Kloof
5 Cape Town
6
7 Wednesday
8
9 Dear Friend
10
11 Please return me that little paper I brought you. I only wished you to
12see that I too have had my dreams of a United South Africa; a South
13Africa Federated into one great collection of Free State: & in which
14we who had suffered so terribly & taught by our suffering would
15withhold freedom & justice from some of our fellow South Africans,
16irrespective of race or colour or creed. In those long months when I
17live in one little empty room with a stretcher & a box as its only
18furniture, & 36 natives set to guard me at my doors & windows night &
19day, when I was only allowed out to fetch my water from the fountain
20at certain hours, & when I used to see not only English women but
21Dutch women walking free, hanging on the arms often, of English
22officers; in all that awful loneliness & darkness the thought that
23came to comfort me was that out of all this, would arise in us who
24suffered a love not only of freedom for ourselves but for all our
25fellows. If we have not learnt that, then indeed we have learnt
26nothing.
27
28 Has it ever struck you, Malan, that the day will come when we shall
29need the love & devotion of the black & coloured man; just as the day
30will come & come soon when England & the "Empire" will need the
31loyalty & love of ^white^ South Africans. To-day is our hour to win
32their love & confidence. My dear friend, draw yourself sometimes apart
33from the noise & greed of the political world about you, & look at
34these matters by the light of that deeper spiritual instinct that is
35within you.
36
37 Your friend
38 Olive Schreiner
39
40

1 Dear Friend
2
3 With great pleasure republish my little letter about Mrs Koopmans As
4to my brother Will, you know I was more opposed to his line of policy,
5even than you were, but when Jameson is the Lieutenant of the leader
6of the South African party, when men like Farrer & Hall & Fitz Patrick
7whose hands drip with the blood of Boer women & children only less
8plentifully than Rhodes, when Jan Smuts gets up & makes a speech
9commending Rhodes, & saying he wishes he were alive to take part in
10the Union of to-day, then I think it is time that all small
11differences as to the exact line of policy were dropped. I cannot
12understand South African men going & kissing the hand of that
13licentious scoundrel King Edward the 7th & going to England to
14?beseech the English people to allow them to have a Union; & then
15talking of "we can't appeal to England" - "England has nothing to do
16with us". It is a sight for Gods & men to laugh at. I only hope they
17will now be loyal to their King & their Empire; for a traitor is the
18lowest thing that creeps on Earth!
19
20 I'd like to have a long talk with you I'm not well enough to write.
21
22 Yours ever
23 Olive Schreiner
24
25

1 Hotel Milner
2Matjiesfontein
3Cape Colony
4
5 Dec 28 / 08
6
7 My dear Friend
8
9 I am sending you a copy of my paper on Closer Union, as you may not
10have had time to read it in the Cape Times.
11
12 It goes to my heart to think that you & I should be wide as the poles
13apart in this matter. The really great South African will not be a man
14who stands for this or that party, or race, or sect, or language - but
15for all. I valued very much a kind little Xmas card I got from Onze
16Jan. Love to your wife & the little ones. I wish you would all come up
17here for a few days during the conventions holiday.
18
19 Aren't you Convention people tired of buttering each other up! When
20people flatter me so much I always suspect them of having some evil
21design! Some day the butter will all melt, & then you will fight like
22the Killing Cats!
23
24 I shall be staying here for two or three months as I got too ill at De
25Aar.
26
27 Yours ever
28 Olive Schreiner
29

1 De Aar
2 Tuesday
3
4 To F S Malan
5
6 My dear Friend
7
8 My heart is sore sorrowful. What are these things which you are doing
9up in the Transvaal? Could any one have dreamed 1899 that in a short
10space of 14 years a Boer Government in South Africa would turn British
11troops on to shoot down not merely men women & children but but
12Labuschagnes & Van der Merwes in their native land in defense of those
13mining magnates property; who have already plunged South Africa into
14bloodshed & made our soil reek with the blood of untold English
15soldiers & heroic Boer women. Don't think I blame you personally. My
16old love for you, & my deep faith in you may perhaps make me unjust in
17believing you can be to blame.
18
19 Unless I had it from your lips I couldn't believe that the prisoner of
20?Koberg has changed so utterly. As And I must say that as far as Sauer
21& Smuts are concerned they really intended what has happened when they
22called British ?hireling troops in to shoot down South Africans. I d
23believe that the truth - though it may never come to light as the real
24truths of the intrigues of the mining Houses against the Transvaal
25will never be known - that money (perhaps not in the form of hard
26cash) did flow like water in protection of the mining magnates
27property - & that the absolute disregard of human life to this end did
28not flow from only from yourselves.
29
30 You have been so near & dear to my spirit in the past, I have fixed
31such great hopes on you that I feel I cannot for this once remain
32silent without opening my heart to you.
33
34 Yours always
35 Olive Schreiner
36
37

1 Dear Friend
2
3 I enclose a cutting from the SA New. (I don't know by whom its
4written) I hear you are on the committee which reports on the matter.
5
6 Surely my dear friend will stand with those who do not wish to see a
7monopoly made complete & crushing. This little ?pavilion is splendidly
8unreadable. I know for I go two or three times a week. You can get
9nothing fit to eat or drink at the other place. To put us entirely in
10the hands of the big companies would be a public injury.
11
12 If I were well enough I would come to see you about it. To sell the
13?pavilion to the Companies would be quite unworthy of our government,
14when even the Jameson rule did not do it. I hope you share my view. If
15not please don't act hastily. Think it over again.
16
17 Yours ever
18 Olive Schreiner
19
20

1 Dear Friend
2
3 Your few words on the woman question last night were of great value to
4me.
5
6 That man said that the great question in South Africa at the moment
7was that the devils & the angels were fighting for the soul of Malan;
8at least on this front the angels have won. May it be so also on that
9larger questions which looms as the great moral problem before all
10South African men & women, & which will determine the future of South
11Africa.
12
13 Yours ever
14 Olive Schreiner
15
16

1 Hotel Milner
2 Matjiesfontein
3 Cape Colony
4
5 Jan 6 1909
6
7 My dear F.S. Malan
8
9 Thank-you for your letter. I wanted to sit down & answer it the hour
10it came, but I have not been well enough till now. It comforted my
11heart to hear your words on the native question. Even if you do
12nothing, it is something to know you feel the duty we owe to the
13millions in our power.
14
15 Yes, it is a sad thing that the small body of thoughtful persons in
16South Africa who are really seeking for the best for their country
17without thought of self cannot be thrown more into contact with each
18other, by the exchange of thought & feeling to strengthen & also to
19back one another. I have had several very interesting letters ^since I
20wrote my paper^ from public men & others expressing sympathy with the
21broader view of the native question & our national life; but each
22write in the sad tone of - "I, only I am left." I suppose there are
23hours when we all of us sit with Elija at the door of his cave; but
24would not the answer be even in South Africa today - "Have I not kept
25unto me -" What I feel we really need is some central point about
26which we may rally! That a small strong united, enlightened party,
27never in the majority, but always making its presence felt might do
28great things for South Africa even now.
29
30 Your letter is so full of things I want to write about but it is so
31hard to write & so easy to talk I wish we could rather speak. You say,
32"How is a statesman to represent all, when all divided." (NB. The
33great man or men who are able to lead & help South Africa need not
34necessarily be part politics: they may be newspaper editors or
35anything else, so they lead & enlighten the people. You, as far as I
36can see, which is of course only a little way, were doing far greater
37work when you wrote those wonderful little sub leaders in Ons Land,
38which even Milner said were the most wonderful things in journalism he
39had ever come across, & when you were sitting a prisoner in ?Toku,
40than you have ever done since you became an important member of a
41party ministry.) Of course a great man cannot represent all when all
42are divided. A great man does not represent, unreadable he can leave
43small men to do that; he leads, & teaches, & unites men in ways they
44would not have been led, & taught united without him! All good & true
45men can only represent one thing - their principles of justice & right
46- in a complex land like this these may lead them now to aid one party
47by opposing them & showing them they are wrong & then another.
48Yesterday it was the English South African who had to be helped, by
49resisting him in his course of injustice & oppression towards the
50Republics, tomorrow it may be farming element ie the land money
51capitalists; who have to be resisted in their attempt to make all
52burdens fall on other classes; the next day it may be all white
53classes who are combined by greed & fear to do injustice to the dark:
54- but while he does this he will steadily seek the good of all. He
55will sympathize with all where he can sympathize. He will recognize
56the good. You may say "Yes, & he will die of a broken heart before he
57is fifty." Yes, I think so too. But what does it matter. He'll have to
58die some way any how. There is one rather monotonous story about the
59^all^ world's greatest & best sons - "He was crucified, died & buried -
60& the third day he rose again from the dead! Perhaps he is not
61physically crucified, nor does he physically rise again; but he
62sacrifices again & again those ambitions that are dear to the heart of
63man, & perhaps those friendships & associations that are dearer than
64all, & accepts what seems failure & defeat - but the large human ends
65of humanity & justice for which he lived go on & unreadable triumph
66because he suffered defeat & failure. When dear old Sir William Butler
67left this country he wrote me a heart-broken letter from Madeira; it
68seemed even to him that he had failed utterly, & that all he had done
69was of no use. But even you & I can to-day see that the part he plaid
70in South Africa was a much greater success than that of Milner &
71Rhodes; & in the years to come all men will see it. That's the only
72kind of success one wants for the men one loves & wants to look up it
73to. These are the true leaders of men, not the followers of majorities;
74 or even always the leaders of minorities; the men who at times have
75to stand quite alone - & do.
76
77 You say, my dear friend, that my ideal is that of a philosophic
78thinker, & not of a "statesman". Well, it certainly isn't of a Rhodes
79or a Milner or a Curzon or of some men near home; but as I look upon
80statesmen of that type as as a kind of unreadable parasite developed
81in the blood of humanity & feeding on it, I have no ambition that any
82man I value should attain it to it.
83
84 I do not value the mere philosophic thinker at all. The man I value,
85who alone seems to me really great, is the man who strives to put it
86in to action & incarnate in his life the ideals that have shaped
87themselves in his soul. He will fail often; he will make mistakes; it
88is for no man to blame him or judge him, who has ever in the humblest
89way tried to realize his own ideals in practical daily life. I see
90only too clearly the almost superhuman difficulties which must rise
91before any ^man^ who in South Africa, tries to lead ^practically^ his
92fellows towards broader ideals of humanity & natural life - but I do
93see glorious possibilities - though they may often mean "heaven's
94success bound to Earth's failures." South Africa seems to me to-day to
95call aloud for some man who amid the universal materialism & racial
96narrowness shall raise a nobler standard & try to induce us to follow
97it. I think you are in a peculiarly happy position because being Dutch
98by blood & having suffered & done so much for your own race they will
99be inclined to be influenced by you where they would not be by another,
100 & at the same time I think you are more trusted by the English than
101any man of non English blood. And at this moment there are
102opportunities of influencing the life of millions for good, or for
103evil that only come once, & perhaps not so often in a hundred years.
104
105 The problems of Dutch & English have for me quite vanished away from
106the practical horizon in South Africa now. The problem that is rising
107before us is that of the combination of the capitalist-classes,
108land-owning & mine-owning, against the rest of the community; & ^an^
109ignorant, blind, land-thirsty, gold-thirsty native policy; which will
110plunge South Africa into war & bitterness, compared ^with^ which the
111Boer War was nothing. In the picture of Jameson walking with his arm
112round the neck of his fellow "Conventioner" of Africander blood, I see
113an omen of evil. It is not love that is uniting you all - it is greed.
114Cheap land, cheap labour, cheap mines, exploit the nigger - that is
115the bond that is uniting you! Merriman tells us there are to be no
116more parties; that every principle is to die; well we shall see! This
117is a long & very stupid letter. But you know how hard it is to write
118compared to talking.
119
120 Yours ever
121 Olive Schreiner
122

1 De Aar
2 Saturday
3
4 Dear Friend
5
6 Your speech was splendid. One friend writes me that there was hardly a
7woman belonging to us in the audience whose eyes were dry when you
8spoke of the English suffragettes.
9
10 There is one point I wish to write to you about as soon as I am better
11- it your statement that women do not suffer any injustice under men
12made laws. What of the C.D. Acts? What of the laws which even in this
13land shut us out from almost all professions & ways of earning our
14bread - ie. the law, the civil service &c &c. Only the other day a
15woman wanted to be articled as a clerk (There are endless other
16points) I wish we could talk of over the matter. I don't think you've
17given it full consideration. Have you??
18
19 But you speech was splendid, dear friend. I thank you for having done
20such justice to yourself. When you make such a speech on the native
21question I shall go to my grave more restfully, feeling one more dream
22was ^has been^ realized.
23
24 I suppose it was because you stood forward so as our leader, on the
25path of ^towards^ justice & freedom during the war, that I cannot shake
26myself from the feeling you should always stand so in other matters as
27well. I wish the time would come when you & my brother would work
28together. He has such a high admiration for your character. I was
29speaking to him the other day about some of our public men & their
30absolute want of any aim higher than immediate personal success - when
31he said, "But you don't include Malan - surely you understand that he
32is a man of an altogether different & higher calibre!" But he won't
33live long his heart is very bad, & you I hope have a long, long life
34before you. Therefore it matters so much in what direction your start
35it. My dear old brother is only finding his true direction near the
36end of his life - you must find yours now.
37
38 If one can't fix one's hope of ^for^ great, liberal enlightened lines of
39action up you, then there is no public man in South Africa to whom one
40can look with hope.
41
42 Thank you so much for your speech. Love to your dear wife.
43 Olive Schreiner
44
45 ^I am sending you a copy of "Votes for Women" with a very interesting
46letter by Lord Lytton, which you might find it worth while to read.^
47