DLA016-0126  Transcription

21st August, 1926.

Dear Miss Royden,

I wish to thank you for both the kind letters which you addressed to me.^[1] It is a very great disappointment that I cannot avail myself of your kind invitation to take part, on October 16th in the intellectual and spiritual festivities on the occasion of the 7th centenary of St. Francis of Assisi, as I am leaving on Tuesday, for Italy and shall not be back in time.

While in Italy I am intending to visit Assisi as it is one of the towns I have not yet seen, and I assure you that I feel it very much that I have to disappoint you.

It is certainly a most interesting subject to deal with, but I think it would be difficult to apply all that we feel of the period and time of St. Francis, and of that life, unless we could mould the rest of the world in reciprocity. I do wish more could be read and lectured on St. Francis of Assisi than is done, so that the world could be lifted from this terrible materialism in which we now live.

A holy man like St. Francis, in spite of Christianity, will I am afraid always remain an individual revelation, appearing like a meteor.

I have been away for a cure in France and have only just returned, which is the cause of my delayed reply to your kind letters.

With my best wishes, | Believe me, | Very sincerely yours,

Editorial Note:

Doctor Agnes Maude Royden, married name Mrs G. W. Hudson Shaw (1876-1956), English suffragist, preacher and author; for biographical notes, see [6809].

SMDL

29/12/2017