The Church Times, 114 (30 Aug 1935) 206
Sir, – Canon Iddings Bell, in his article in your last issue, made several mistakes of approach. 1 He made two generalizations not really necessary to his main point, and therefore distracting. There is as little use in saying that the English are complacent as there is in the equally common remark that the French have bad manners. 2 If you live long enough in France, you cease to consider French manners bad; and if you live long enough in England, the assertion that the English are complacent ceases to have any meaning. Different nations have different manners and different complacencies. Second, the assertion that the English people is becoming “devitalized” is open to question and to interpretation. Visitors to France now get a similar impression of that country; and it is open to question whether the devitalization of England and France is not preferable to the galvanization of Germany. 3
I think, however, that Canon Iddings Bell had a serious point to make, which deserved serious consideration; and I regret that your leading article chose for comment what was unimportant in his essay – and adopted, if I may say so, a manner which was almost calculated to substantiate his charge of complacency. 4 Canon Bell expressed his doubts as to whether Catholicism was gaining ground in this country; he is a regular visitor who makes a special study of religious conditions here; and I submit that his apprehensions deserve better than to be ignored. To me, at least, his warning seems salutary and by no means over-stated. You suggest that he does not understand the English. Very likely, but that does not disqualify him when he criticizes the condition of the Church in England. Ne nous félicitons pas. 5 I could not say more without claiming several columns.
t. s. eliot
