Lawrence of Arabia, Zionism and Palestine - The World War I ...

22 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
and is not yet passed in proof. It keeps on falling to
bits: looking butcherly-like, in raw-beef blocks of red.
Very difficult. Kennington struggles hard with the colourprinters:
and I hope not vainly. All over by 15 September,
for that is "binding" day, when sheets are to be
issued.
More when we meet,
Yours,
T. E. S.
My uncle forgot to warn the butler, who therefore
announced that "an airman" was at the door. Strapped
under the seat of his motor-cycle was the bound manuscript
of Seven Pillars, one or two passages in which he
wanted me to check. When, after tea, we were pacing
up and down, round and about the lawns and gardens, I
asked him point blank why he was doing what he was
doing—and not more. He answered that there was only
one thing in the world worth being, and that was a
creative artist. He had tried to be this, and had failed.
He said: "I know I can write a good sentence, a good
paragraph, even a good chapter, but I have proved I
cannot write a good book." Not having yet seen Seven
Pillars I could only quote the praise of Hogarth (which
meant much to Lawrence) and agree that, compared
with the glory of Hamlet or The Divine Comedy, career
was nothing. Still, admitting these to be unattainable,
there were Prime Ministers, Archbishops, Admirals of
the Fleet, Press Barons and philanthropic millionaires,
some of whom sometimes rendered service surely preferable
to this utter renunciation ? He allowed the
principle, but refused the application. Since he could
not be what he would, he would be nothing : the minimum
existence, work without thought; and when he left the
Royal Air Force it would be as night-watchman in a
City warehouse. 1
l This attitude is said psychologically to represent a very rare
manifestation of the Gottmensch Komplex.