Preface

THE letters of which this volume consists had begun to appear in my brother's lifetime, with his full consent and approval, as a series of articles. He had indeed himself seen and criti cised the earliest of them. The recipient of the letters consulted me as to their publication in book-form, and as my brother left me in his will the whole of his papers and manuscripts, I feel that he intended me to have the full responsibility of using my discretion as to publication. In the present case it is perfectly clear to me that it was his wish and intention that the letters should appear, while I have no doubt that he would have sanctioned their appearance in the form of a book.

Moreover, on reading them, it seemed to me that they illustrate in a very peculiar way some of my brother's most marked characteristics, not only his enthusiasm and swift expressiveness, but vi SPIRITUAL LETTERS TO A CONVERT his eager desire to respond to every call and claim for sympathy and interest, as well as his grace of loyal and continuous kindness. He said once that he could not " prop " — that people came to him and passed on. This may sometimes have been true, but I think it was generally his consultants who passed on, and not himself! I have been allowed to see more than one series of his letters, and there is never any sign of his care and sympathy failing, so long as they were needed and desired.

It is not here my concern to endorse all the opinions my brother expressed; but I was never out of sympathy with him, though I do not think and believe as he did. I do in any case most heartily desire the frankest expressions of faith and belief, and especially when anyone not only holds a creed, but translates it into daily life as eagerly and single-heartedly as my brother did. We ought to do all we can to understand and appreciate another's point of view, and most of all when that corresponds to a faithful and beautiful handling and interpreting of life. That is our best and only chance of arriving at a substantial Christian unity and an active fellow ship in noble aims. And thus I am glad that

PREFACE vii this glimpse should be given of an inner life full both of " fire and music," as my brother's life un doubtedly was, and as these letters most clearly testify.

ARTHUR C. BENSON.

MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, February n, 1915.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

MAY I explain very shortly how this book comes to be published?

About a year ago I was asked by the Editor of the American Rosary Magazine, as an old friend and early convert of Monsignor Benson, to write a paper about him for the Rosary. It was a commission from which I should certainly have shrunk had it not occurred to me that it would be possible — remembering a long-ago permission he had given me — to let Monsignor Benson speak for himself in words far more effective than any of mine, by quoting certain ex tracts from the letters which it had been my privilege to receive from him, as friend and Spiritual Director, since the days when we were both Anglicans.

The proofs of this article, " Monsignor Benson as a Letter- Writer," were approved by him in New York in April 1914; and when I sent him a copy of the magazine, some six weeks later, he wrote (and I hope — I almost dare to be-x SPIRITUAL LETTERS TO A CONVERT lieve — he would say the same of this book to-day):

" I think it is perfectly delightful; a great deal too kind and appreciative, of course: but in excellent taste. I have no criticisms; but only gratitude."

After this, the Editor asked for more such articles; and, in giving his permission (at the end of June 1914) for me to compile several more, Monsignor Benson approved unreservedly of the lines which I had laid down, and on which alone it was possible to proceed. The recipient of the letters must be anonymous, and entirely conceal all clues to identity. Nothing personal or private was to be published, but only such passages as might have been written to any convert, generally speaking. The MS. of each article was to be submitted to him. (These conditions are, of course, perfectly obvious. Over the second, particularly, I have watched with jealous care, especially throughout these articles in their present form. Not one single letter, scarcely a paragraph, but has some omission, necessary, but regrettable.)

Monsignor Benson, however, wrote to say that if I observed the first two conditions I need not trouble to send the MS. to him. Thus he never saw the later articles, which began to appear in

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xi the Rosary Magazine last October. The first, which he approved, has been broken up into the first three articles in the present volume, with the addition to each of many more letters; while, as far as possible, I have endeavoured to retain the original text of the slight thread of commentary which appeared in " Monsignor Benson as a Letter- Writer."

Even so, it may appear incomprehensible to some that any friend of Monsignor Benson's could give the world any private letter of his. The answer is one of his own favourite paradoxes — it was extraordinarily difficult and yet easy. First, it has been an enormous effort to publish these letters at all: because, except for merely descriptive passages, all are personal, and most relate to intimate and private matters of direction. Yet gradually it began to appear actual selfishness not to do so. It has often seemed to me, as I read, for example, such word-pictures as those written at Rome, that others ought to enjoy that which, though written to cheer one solitary convert, might certainly be read with delight by hundreds. Again, to say nothing of the literary value of the descriptive passages referred to, the letters to an Anglican hesitating on the threshold of the Church seem to me to remove mountains from the path of such converts.

xii SPIRITUAL LETTERS TO A CONVERT

So with all the rest. There is yet a third aspect of the matter — vital now, though insignificant a year ago: these letters show Monsignor Benson in a light which is not the same as that thrown on him by his books, or even his sermons. And circumstances having so ordained that as in one way or another — probably through being an exceptionally tiresome " case," continually in need of correction, encouragement, or special direction — I am possessed of a larger share of these delightful letters than falls to the lot of most of his converts, it seems to me that one way of expressing my intense gratitude to their writer is by giving others a chance to benefit by a few of them. At the same time I have con sented to their publication in book form with much hesitation, at the earnest request of the Editor of the Rosary Magazine; for, though many of the letters have already appeared in America, probably scarcely anybody has read them in England.

I may also say that it is now more than seven years since Monsignor Benson first gave me per mission to do, in effect, what I am doing to-day; and this permission was renewed more than once latterly. Had he lived, this book, as I believe, would have appeared with a Preface by himself.

My sincere thanks are due to Mr. A. C. Benson,

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xiii who has not only allowed the publication, which he had the right to forbid, but has also most kindly consented himself to write a Preface.

In editing the letters I have omitted, except where necessary, any sort of comment by myself; and in speaking of their writer I have throughout referred to him as Father Benson, except when it was obviously possible to use the title Monsignor.

It is my most earnest hope that this book, which is not mine, but Monsignor Benson's, will bring to many of his friends a measure of that consolation which, for twelve years, his letters brought to me.

LONDON, January 14, 1915-