Lyndhurst, New Forest
1909
Aug 19-23
(No 5)
Rudyard Kipling.
  He asked me if Dr. William James was still investigating
mutual telepathy & similar things to which I answered "yes!"
"He makes a mistake in so doing" Kipling said. "Occultism,
of whatever kind, should be left to Orientals. The white man
had better let it alone. Wherever he dabbles in it he gets
beyond his depth & into trouble"
  When I said "I hear that nervous troubles are becoming
fashionable in England" he instantly replied, with a hearty
laugh,"Yes! But they will do us no great harm. From
what I know of my countryman I should say they are in
no great danger from anything of that kind. Indeed a
little of it may be rather good for them".
  Mr Kipling believes in a protective tariff for England. "Our
farmers cannot hope to prosper until they get it".
  We discussed Patterson's book, the Man Eaters of Tsavo
and I asked him if he did not consider it a good
piece of literary work as well as an interesting story, to
which he simply answered "Yes"! He spoke in terms of
strong praise of Hudson's "Idle Days of Patagonia"
and with some interest of Sven Hedin's books on
exploration in Central Asia.
  He thinks that the abundance of birds, both large & 
small, in England is due chiefly to protection, direct
& indirect. "The farmer's boy, loafing about with a gun,
whom one sees everywhere in Vermont, is nowhere to be
found in England." Here "there are innumerable small
enclosures and gardens where a gun is never fired by
anyone. They are all bird sanctuaries".
  Now that Kipling has left us I am surprised to
find how uninteresting all the other men seem by comparison
Verily I shall not soon, if ever, "look upon his like again."