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The Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Volume II

March 29, 1922

page 202

To Richard Murry

Yes, I too was very interested in S.'s review, though I didn't agree with it all. For instance his quotation from Tolstoi, “There are no heroes, only people.” I believe there are heroes. And after all it was Tolstoi who made the remark who was—surely—a large part of a hero himself. And I don't believe in the limitations of man; I believe in “the heights.” I can't help it; I'm forced to. It seems to me that very feeling of inevitability that there is in a great work of art—is a proof—a profession of faith on the part of the artist that this life is not all. (Of course, I'm not talking of personal immortality as we were taught to imagine it.) If I were to agree with S., I'd have to believe that the mind is supreme. But I don't—not by a long long chalk. The mind is only the fine instrument, it's only the slave of the soul. I do agree that with a great many artists one never sees the master, we only know the slave. And the slave is so brilliant that he can almost make you forget the absence of the other. But one is only really living when one acknowledges both—or so it seems to me—and great art is achieved when the relation between these two is perfected. But it's all very difficult.

About religion. Did you mean the ‘study of life’ or Christ's religion, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest?” The queer thing is one does not seem to contradict the other—one follows on the other to me. If I lose myself in the study of life and give up self then I am at rest. But the more I study the religion of Christ the more I marvel at it. It seems almost impertinent to say that. But you understand…

I wish you read German. Goethe's Conversations with Eckermann is one of those books which become part of one's life and what's more, enrich one's life for ever. Our edition is in two volumes. We lie in bed each reading one—it would make a funny drawing.