Item 203 - Letter from Henry Sidgwick to F.W.H. Myers

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Thinks that it would be difficult to find a replacement for Myers in the Moral Science Tripos [in which Myers examined]. Advises him to write to Sidgwick or some other member of the Moral Science Board as soon as he has made a decision. [Note in Myers' hand: 'I thought of going to Australia with the dying Ch[ ] Taylor']. Declares that he is curious to see [Alexander?] Macmillan. [Part of letter cut out and some words obscured at this point.] [Note in Myers' hand: Ludibria Lunae] In relation to Courthope, thinks that he should not have recommended Myers to read it. Claims that he did not write consciously as an advocate, and that the subject of the satire irritated him.

As regards [Roden] Noel, asserts that he wrote 'with a positively painful effort to be rigidly impartial'. Discusses his attitude to writing reviews: he never reviews anything 'which has not really interested [him], and which [he does] not think other people ought to read', while at the same time he 'feel[s] more in [his] element' when calculating appropriate amounts of praise and blame 'than when enthusiasm and sublime flights are wanted'. Suggests that if it be true that Myers cannot write a novel it is because he does not care enough 'about little things, and therefore [does] not observe them enough.' Asks Myers to tell him the author of Monsieur Madame et Bébé [book by Antoine Gustave Droz] when he writes.

Part transcription in Sidgwick, Arthur, and Sidgwick, E. M, 'Henry Sidgwick'. London: Macmillan, 1906, p 213-214.