rend Father's idea. He has had a great deal of
experience with an Order which began so amateurishly, if I may use
the word, that nobody could have imagined that it would grow to the
size and strength it has reached in ten years. The Bishop of
Alberta revealed much to us of our beginnings during his stay at
the Abbey, and after I had listened to him I felt how presumptuous
it was for me to criticize the central source of the religious life
we are hoping to spread. You see, Rector, I must have criticized it
implicitly in my letters to you, for your objections are simply the
expression of what I did not like to say, but what I managed to
convey through the medium of would-be humorous description. One
hears of the saving grace of humour, but I'm not sure that humour
is a saving grace. I rather wish that I had no sense of humour.
It's a destructive quality. All the great sceptics have been
humourists. Humour is really a device to secure human comfort. Take
me. I am inspired to become a preaching friar. I instantly perceive
the funny side of setting out to be a preaching friar. I tell
myself that other people will perceive the funny side of it, and
that consequently I shall do no good as a preaching friar. Yes,
humour is a moisture which rusts everything except gold. As a
nation the Jews have the greatest sense of humour, and they have
been the greatest disintegrating force in the history of mankind.
The Scotch are reputed to have no sense of humour, and they are
morally the most impressive nation in the world. What humour is
allowed them is known as dry humour. The corroding moisture has
been eliminated. They are still capable of laughter, but never so
as to interfere with their seriousness in the great things of life.
I remember I once heard a tiresome woman, who was striving to be
clever, say that Our Lord could not have had much sense of humour
or He would not have hung so long on the Cross. At the time I was
indignant with the silly blasphemy, but thinking it over since I
believe that she was right, and that, while her only thought had
been to make a remark that would create a sensation in the room,
she had actually hit on the explanation of some of Our Lord's human
actions. And his lack of humour is the more conspicuous because he
was a Jew. I was re