
After a splendid time in Ceylon & India I have got back here again. Saw much of the interior
life of the people, religious customs, &c—spent one night, or a good part of one, in a
Hindu Temple during a festival—saw a little of the peasantry & their ways, and made
several friends among the natives. Altogether it is very interesting—the old occult knowledge
(some of a very remarkable character) lingering on among certain sections; then the
tremendous Westernising movement among other sections, towards education science, & commercialism,
and away from caste & religion; caste itself, such an intricate & stupendous affair, impossible
to get to know more than the fringe of it; the evident rapprochement between The East & The West,
and yet the deep & vital differences between them, in temperament & almost everything—altogether
it has given me a lot to think about!
I got a pamphlet from Dr Johnston of Bolton about his visit
to you—wh. I enjoyed—also a capital photograph. His account in the pamphlet and in a recent
letter about your health, dear Walt, is not very good—this long confinement to the house, together
with gastric troubles, must weary you at times—It does make such a difference when one can get
out—and yet there doesn't seem much difference in you, exc: quite outwardly.
Some of us (Bessie & Isabella Ford; R.D. Roberts of Cambridge; William, Arthur
& Ethel Thompson; and myself) are sending on to you our usual birthday
remembrance—with our love and unchanged affection (I think I may say). The letter of credit, enclosed,
is for £40. I don't quite know what "identification" they require; but I don't think you will have any
difficulty about the matter.
William Thompson is lately married & is working a little at bookbinding for a trade. Arthur & Ethel are his brother & sister, whom I know next to nothing of. The two Miss Fords have been down with influenza, but are mending again I believe. Herbert Gilchrist I hear is on Long Island. Affte rememberances to him & Harry Stafford when you see them. I send you a bit of sweet briar wh. grows by the door of this little house. Our garden goes on much the same, and all seems homelike & pleasant after my long absence—the bees humming in the sun as if the world had only just begun! I hope you will have a pleasant birthday gathering, dear Walt—
With much love Edward CarpenterI heard from Traubel—to whom greetings.