A Schoolmaster's Diary: Being Extracts from the Journal of Patrick Traherne, M.A., Sometime Assistant Master at Radchester and Marlton.Traherne, Patrick
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A Schoolmaster's Diary: Being Extracts from the Journal of Patrick Traherne, M.A., Sometime Assistant Master at Radchester and Marlton.
Traherne, Patrick
Traherne, Patrick, 1885-1917
I have three times been up to the War Office to try to get out to the
Front, but it is no good thinking of it till I am sane again. The last
War Office official whom I saw sent me to the greatest brain specialist
in London, and I now go up every week to be quietened down. He won't
let me write more than is essential for my well-being, he tries to
put me into an easy state of mind where I cease from troubling about
anything. The idea is to get the nervous tissues to work evenly, not
to get frayed and harassed by the millions of perplexing doubts and
obsessions which flit across my mind. I am doing my best to act on his
advice. It is all a question of whether my will is strong enough to
impose a brake upon my mind, which is always showing signs of breaking
loose from the necessary restraint that sanity demands. He tells me to
enjoy life, not to take myself so seriously, to let things slide and
adjust themselves.
In my frenzy to get things done, I overreach myself. I attack the
deadly dullness of the countryside, I attack the abuses in a school
curriculum. I even oppose the current morality of the age and instead
of doing good I do active harm. I don't stop to think how my opinions
will be construed.
I wish some of those who look on me as a dangerous innovator could
see me in form. I am sure that no one could take exception to my
statements there. My whole gospel is all of a piece. "Lukewarmness" is
the unforgivable sin: one must be an active agent and ally oneself on
the side of God or mammon. There is no halting between two opinions:
if we accept (as we must) one or the other so must we fight for that
side tooth and nail. The Holy Ghost, the Divine Spark, conscience, call
it what you will that inspires men on to courageous, unselfish, heroic
acts and thoughts, dies unless it is nurtured and carefully looked
after. That is the lesson I impress on my boys in all the lessons where
I get a chance of talking. On Sunday and Monday mornings I comment on
all the books I have read during the week, drawing some lesson of life
for their guidance. He only is the true teacher who is not afraid to
teach, to explain the difficulties of life, his own shortcomings and
attempts to find the light. One must be honest to deal fairly with boys.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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