Item 95 - Letter from Peter Grant Watson to R. C. Trevelyan

1 letter: typescript with autograph signature.

West Melville, Northam, Devon. - Thanks Bob for his poens [this year's "From the Shiffolds"], particularly the poem to Goldie [Lowes Dickinson]. Likes the 'questioning in them all, and what seems to be the answer in the translation of Menander 550', which is of course 'vague'. Feels himself that it is a mistake to look for 'a goal to be fulfilled in this time-space we live in', and that 'Good and evil are always about balanced', so that it is not possible to 'build the kingdom of Justice and happiness'; is tempted to write an essay on injustice being 'the inevitable fate of man'. Thinks he must come and stay at Peaslake in the spring, and visit Bob and Bessie, so they can discuss all this. He and Katharine are living quietly, and like their home. Is finding things difficult financially since his books are 'held up so long in the publishing process': was meant to have two books out this year, now one will appear in January, and he only has a date of 'the autumn' for the other. Is now trying to write a 'very long and ambitious novel' about the first century, doing lots of 'interesting reading'. Thinks he will take the first six lines of Bob's Menander translation as his epigraph, with the theme being 'Lux, post has tenebras: tunc omnibus omne patebit" [After these shadows, light: then everything will be revealed to all (Latin)]. Finds life very interesting, and hopes that as in the story of Lot there 'may be enough for us to escape the fate of Sodom'; even if not, believes 'Life is always victorious' eventually.