_ WE'VE taken up Gertrude Stein -- our Little
Group of Serious Thinkers, you know --
and she's wonderful; simply WONDERFUL.
She Suggests the Inexpressible, you know.
Of course, she is a Pioneer. And with all
Pioneers -- don't you think -- the Reach is greater
than the Grasp.
Not that you can tell what she means.
But in the New Art, one doesn't have to mean
things, does one? One strikes the chords, and the
chords vibrate.
Aren't Vibrations just too perfectly lovely for
anything?
The loveliest man talked to us the other night
about World Movements and Cosmic Vibrations.
You see, every time the Cosmos vibrates it means
a new World Movement.
And the Souls that are in Tune with the Cosmos
are benefitted by these World Movements. The
other souls will get harm out of them.
Frightfully interesting, isn't it? -- the Cosmos, I mean.
I have given so much thought to it! It has be-
come almost an obsession to me.
Only the other evening I was thinking about it.
And without realizing that I spoke aloud I said,
"I simply could NOT DO WITHOUT the Cosmos!"
Mamma -- poor Mamma! -- she is so terribly
unadvanced you know! -- Mama said: "Hermione,
I do not know what the Cosmos is. But this I
do know -- not another Sex Discussion or East
Indian Swami will ever come into THIS house!"
"Mamma," I said to her, "I will NOT give up the
Cosmos. It means everything to me; simply EVERYTHING!"
I am always firm with Mamma; it is kinder, in
the long run, to be quite positive. But what I
suffer at home from objections to the advanced
movements nobody knows!
Nobody but the Leaders of Thought can dream
what Martyrdom is!
Sacrifice! Sacrifice! That is the keynote of the
Liberal Life!
Nearly every night before I go to bed I ask myself:
"Have I shown the Sacrificial Spirit to day?
Or have I FAILED?" _