Pages

Saturday 11 April 2015

So I lie to myself and to him


Where can I find an image of myself? Ah, in the poor, in my poor neighbour labouring in the grip of an unjust system of capitalism. Let me look at him, let my heart be wrung, let me give myself to his service.

Poor fellow, poor image, he is so badly off. Alas and alas, I do love my neighbour as myself: I am as anxious about his pecuniary welfare as I am about myself. I am so sorry for him, the poor X. He is a man like me. So I lie to myself and to him. For I do not care about him and his poverty: I care about my own unsatisfied soul. But I sidetrack to him, my poor neighbour, to vent on him my self-pity.

D H Lawrence – Study Of Thomas Hardy (1914)

2 comments:

Sackerson said...

Admirer of fascism, DHL.

A K Haart said...

Sackers - he was, there was a lot of it about.

In my mother-in-law's younger days there were still people in Eastwood who had known Lawrence and didn't like him. A fine writer though.