The New York herald., 1922-06-11

chapter containing extracts
from the diaries of Puritan children.
Their naive record of faults conn
mitted and good deeds done shows
how their young souls were Taught TO
De responsible for their actions. how
their young conscience was trained
tp give account of. itself. Same of
the entries might be 'nnocert ad-
missions made by young co.nnuni-
eants in the confessional. To-day
the confessional is usurped, at least
In the scientifically enlightened',
world, by the psychoanalyst. Both
institutions require two individuals.
Diaries simplify the process They
show one individual soul ir COM
munion with itself.
The age that coined he phrase of
the strenuous life and is speeding
toward unknown heights of mechan-
lcal achievement is not given to
meditation, but the nee, for it was
never greater. Nor is the desire for
IT dead. The average individual may
have little leisure to sound the depths
OF his inner consciousness. yet dia-
ries are still written AMI eiys. proof
that there are souls he.e AMI there
who do not go to father CO ,eessor
OF to psychoanalyst - be relieved
OF their seruples or receive advice.
but face the problem of probing into
their. own moral and spiritt.a, life
themselves The diaries of Marie
Bashkirtsehf, Marie Leneru and
others reveal souls that analyze. ac-
cuse and perhaps absolve ther1eelyes
without aid of priest or psyeteana-
lyst. They are souls before The tri-
bunal of their conscience: why balk
at this word, even if it stands for an
antiquated concept since Nietzsche
and others?
The diaries of these two women
have much in common Both have
the note of sincerity. "A ar,.i bon
mentir ct poser?" said the Russian
girl. Her French successor-for Ma
rie Leneru as diarist follows close
upon Marie Basnlxirtseff chrorclogi-
cally and otherwise-is at the age of
2 much worried by her tendency
toward prevarication: "Je deguise
souvent la verite, par exemple pour
donner plus d'interet a une h.stoire
que je raconte.' Little in1ocenti
She did not know what parents and
teachers know: that the Disgusting
OF truth TO make a story more inter-
esting is common at her age II is
this kind of prevarication which
makes the diaries of more snphisti-
Gated types, like that of .he Austrian.
recently published with Z preface by
Freud, of such doubtful value. But
there is reason to believe that Marie
Leneru outgrew this inc1inati On, for
her story is too simple, too devoid of
those interesting features which
imagination-healthy or diseased
Is likely to supply.
II.
Both girls were born artists and
conscious of their superiority to
others. Marie Bashkirts self had cho-
sen music as her medium of express
sion and turned to painting Only af-
ter she had lost her voice. Marie
Leneru was already at 10 determined
to write. She sees in a parer the
picture of some poor people being
dispossessed from their hut, al Il she
decides TO make a story D it
"puisque jai la mamie den faire."
Both girls were worshipers of beau
ty. Marie Leneru writes: Fame
does not embellish woman and / do
not want to sacrifice 1t. Yet
1 would always prefer to be inimita-
Bile by my manner of wearing a
gown by Chever than by all TIE tai
ent and the homeliness of the Eliots
and De Staels." She does not dwell
upon her beauty as does Marie Bash
kirtseff, who saw herself with the
eyes of a painter. But she likes to
Surround herself with mirrors. be-
cause her image in the glass is the
only thing to hang her name on, and
she feels before it something like