Young to Morriss, January 15, 1928

J. Frank Young to Henrietta Morriss January 15, 1928.

Mahwah, N.J

Jan 15, 1928

Dear Henrietta, 

    Again I must write one of those letters "about nothing." Your phrase, while I do not consider it complimentary, has in it a great element of truth which I cannot deny.  Most of the intellectual pursuits & hobbies are concerned with this "nothing" of yours.  Not all of them, but most.  We may like as an example the study of law.  We study principle, ie, things that are nothing.  You cannot see, hear, touch or taste a principle of law.  It exists only in the mind.  Men devised these principles for their own welfare. They are like the equator- an imaginary line- dividing the world for the convenience of men.  Most of the philosophers are based on the mind of man.  That is, the ultimate thing to be determine in philosophy is the nature of man. ie, his mind.  This mind is another "nothing".  It has no real, actual, existence.  It is, on the schoolastics say, spiritual.  Other things included in this "nothing" category are love, worship, beauty (when I say that beauty is only spiritual I get in trouble with the [Hedoniste?]) What you say then when you accuse of writing about nothing is to state I keep on topics which are not the subjects of sensation.  Imaginative topics.  And as I have outlined, I have no dearth of material. 

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   I have written, I am not ashamed to confess, fervent, sentimental, emotional letters.  They were not literature, but they were honest.  I fear I could not do the same today. 

 "When first I loved, I have my very soul utterly [unexcused?] to Love's control, but love deceived me, wrenched my youth away and made the gold of life forever gray.  Long I lived lonely, yet I tried in vain with any other joy to stifle pain; there is no other joy, I learned to know, and so returned to Love, as long ago.  Yet I, this little while ere I go hence Love very lightly now, in self- defense"

                                      (India Love Lyrics)

But I was willing to try, only to be restrained.  You fear sentimentality, you do not dislike it.  It may be effectual and yet be false.  You refuse to write it because you are not sure of its truth.  Yet when another is willing to write it you refuse because it be false.  To you words speak louder than action.  You are willing to say by actions what by words you will not express, [illegible 3] then it cannot be said that you did not keep your word.  You dislike to speak the truth today for what is truth today may not be truth tomorrow. 

     Excuse this folly.  It is a vain endeavor to express my attitude this evening.  The attitude of one who wants he charms of one who is thirty miles away and who resents the absence.

 I am, of course, your,

                                                                                Frank. 

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"The time I've lost in wooing,

In watching and pursuing

The light that lies 

in woman's eyes,

Have been my heart's undoing.

Tho' Wisdom oft has sought me 

I scorned the love she brought me, 

My only looks

were woman's looks,

And folly's all they've taught me. 

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"Poor wisdoms chance

Against a glance 

Is now as weak as ever"

                                 -Thomas More