1 Hanover
2 Dec 19 / 05
3
4 Dear Mr Merriman
5
6 I was very glad to see from the papers some time ago that though South
7Africa was near meeting with serious loss through a cart accident, we
8came off all right. I hope you felt no ill effect at all.
9
10 //Have you read "the Souls of Black Folk" yet? I am very anxious to
11know what you think of it. My copy is wandering about some where in
12Cape Town, Mrs Purcell had it & I asked her to send it on to Dr Beck.
13I wonder if it will appeal to any one just as it does to me!
14
15 //I have just finished reading Bryces "Studies in History &
16Jurisprudence" There is not much that is new in them & nothing that is
17mentally stimulating (the power to stimulate always seems to me the
18peculiar mark of genius) but I was much interested in his comparison
19of the differences between the Australian & Canadian powers of ^federal^
20Government. I had no idea before how very far the Canadian was behind
21the Australian, though I knew it was so.
22
23 A friend of mine, a Englishman of science but who has spent much of
24his time in the United States & in Canada, always tells me that it is
25a revelation to pass over the border from Am the United States to
26Canada The instantaneous difference is in the sense of freedom &
27independence ^& instinctive^ & high vitality, is, he says something
28almost inconceivable. Yet the people on both sides of the border are
29generally of the same race & often even blood relations! His verdict
30is the more interesting because he is strongly English in feeling I am
31absolutely convinced that that "Colony" which first starts on an
32absolutely free life of its own subservient even in name to none, will
33astonish the world by a mental & social afflorescence, which would
34never have been possible if it had remained in a state of even titular
35subservience. I need not tell you how splendid I thought your reply to
36those Imperialist questions.
37
38 The difference between a free confederacy of independent ^& equal^
39states is as different from Empire as health is from disease as life
40is from death - If ^they could only see it.^
41
42 My friends the Lawrences are now in Cape Town & will be there till the
433rd of January. I hope much they will meet you. He has a singularly
44sweet sympathetic spirit, & she a singularly strong & clear intellect.
45Their visit here was to me like rain on parched ground. My husband & I
46leave this week Saturday for Cape Town & shall stay there over Xmas &
47New Year so I shall see them again. I am very anxious to hear their
48view of Transvaal things, Chinese especially.
49
50 All good wishes to yourself & Mrs Merriman for the New Year & Xmas.
51
52 Yours sincerely
53 Olive Schreiner
54