T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 134
T. E. Lawrence Correspondence
Page 134
two pages of it, by Lowell Thomas. That rather takes the
bloom off. Quote any thousand words you please! From anywhere except the Derna chapter.
(vii) Crotara sounds nice. I fancy it smells of
mango and guava jelly. Probably the oysters are good. Cram-
well is the coldest place in England. I've had typhus too;
and -phoid: and smallpox, blackwater, malts, typho-malaria,
dysentery, and mild cholera. However its the R.A.F. for me,
as a winter sport, for my sins. I like minding, I fancy. At
any rate the R.A.F. is very good. You get no privacy, and little leisure; but the only logical consistent career for a philosophic anarchist is in the ranks of one of the three services.
Every other class incurs responsibility.
(vii) I was reading in Proverbs; and met the text
"Wisdom hath set up her seven pillars". This quaintness pleased
my rococo taste; the touch of stylistic foppishness. I printed
the idea as it swelled through the Cabbala; and as the "pillars"
happened to agree with the characteristics I had seen in seven
great Eastern towns before the War, I gave them the Seven Pillars
as title to a book I had written about them. The War came; and
before joining up I burnt the M.S., judging it immature. The
title has been transferred as a memento.
May your winter be jolly, and profitable.
Yours,
T.E.S.
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