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349
The Journal of a Disappointed Man
·
W. N. P. Barbellion
204
Another
feature
is
my
insatiable
curiosity.
My
purpose
is
to
move
about
in
this
ramshackle,
old
curiosity
shop
of
a
world
sampling
existence.
I
would
try
everything,
meddle
lightly
with
everything.
Religions
and
philosophies
I
devour
with
a
relish,
Pragmatism
and
Bishop
Berkeley
and
Bergson
have
been
my
favourite
bagatelles
in
turn.
My
consciousness
is
a
ragbag
of
things:
all
quips,
quirks,
and
quillets,
all
excellent
passes
of
pate,
all
the
"obsolete
curiosities
of
an
antiquated
cabinet"
take
my
eye
for
a
moment
ere
I
pass
on.
In
Sir
Thomas
Browne's
Pseudodoxia,
I
am
interested
to
find
"why
Jews
do
not
stink,
what
is
the
superstition
of
sneezing
after
saluting,
wherefore
negroes
are
black,"
and
so
forth.
There
is
a
poetic
appropriateness
that
in
A.D.
1915
I
should
be
occupied
mainly
in
the
study
of
Lice.
I
like
the
insolence
of
it.
They
tell
me
that
if
the
Germans
won
it
would
put
back
the
clock
of
civilisation
for
a
century.
But
what
is
a
meagre
100
years?
Consider
the
date
of
the
first
Egyptian
dynasty!
We
are
now
only
in
A.D.
1915--surely
we
could
afford
to
chuck
away
a
century
or
two?
Why
not
evacuate
the
whole
globe
and
give
the
ball
to
the
Boches
to
play
with--just
as
an
experiment
to
see
what
they
can
make
of
it.
After
all
there
is
no
desperate
hurry.
Have
we
a
train
to
catch?
Before
I
could
be
serious
enough
to
fight,
I
should
want
God
first
to
dictate
to
me
his
programme
of
the
future
of
mankind.
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