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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes, August 19, 1903

Dinard

August 19th

Dear Mildred.

I have just been reading a most interesting pamphlet written by an R. C. Doctor of Theology on lying [sic]. It caused quite a flutter in the Reviews, and I shall send it to you. I think the Roman Catholics are nearer it than the Protestants. Anyway their theologists do not shirk any questions, but try to bring everyone with the reach of a moderate intelligence, thereby doubtless laying themselves open to the charge of casuistry, while Protestants, though they set up as being able to solve all the ethical problems, deliberately shirk them and take the opportunity of attacking the Catholics when they lay themselves open. I have more sympathy with the Catholics. I remember your telling me about your parson and he must be charming. It is long since I have talked to a nice parson. I did not go to Farm St. Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, a Jesuit church in the Mayfair district of London. See also letters of September 16, 1904, and October 10, 1904. That reminds me, get Samuel Butler’s “Way of all Flesh” Samuel Butler (1835–1902) completed his semi-autobiographical novel, The Way of All Flesh, in 1884 but left it unpublished in order to protect his family. The novel, which attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy and the dissolution of religious values, was published posthumously in 1903.—it is the nicest novel I have read by much—for delightful bitter sarcasm he is unexcelled. And he is not cheap. In your last letter but one you told me that you wanted me to call on a friend Possibly Alberta Sturges Montagu. of yours in London, but omitted to mention her name. I wish you would tell me. I met a perfectly charming girl whose mother was American and married an Englishman by the name of Beresford-Hope. Philip Beresford-Hope married Evelyn Frost in 1893. Evelyn Frost died in 1900, leaving three daughters. Royall Tyler may be referring to Muriel Mildred Elizabeth Hope (d. 1961), who married in 1906. See Richard W. Davis, “’We Are All Americans Now!’ Anglo-American Marriages in the Later Nineteenth Century,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 135, no. 2 (June 1991): 167. She is 19 and is in the think of Izaak, Izaak Walton (15931683), the English author of the The Compleat Angler. See also letters of March 6, 1904; November 1, 1904; and February 16, 1905. Omar, Omar al-Khayyám (1048–1142), a Persian astronomer, philosopher, mathematician, and poet. He is best known for the rubaiyaas (quatrains) in his Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which were popularized by the embellished translations of Edward FitzGerald. Voltaire,François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778), better known by his pen name Voltaire, a French writer, historian, and philosopher. and all the rest of our friends, and all the while doing the London season with the smart set. I would not have believed had I not seen. I am glad you like the Calverley.Charles Stuart Calverley (1831–1884), an English poet. See letter of May 6, 1903. I sent it to you because when I told you about him you thought he would be written out. When are you coming again? I shall be desperate if you don’t next summer. There is a very nice American girl staying with us now—she is a sort of cousin of M? Theresa. M. Theresa has not been identified.

Yours

Royall Tyler