________________
95
SKETCHES its changing environment. He had high regard for the Greeks. He thought that they had far greater capacities than any average man of the modern times. To substantiate his argument he added:
“We have achieved more because today the sum total of our knowledge and equipment is much greater than what the Greeks had at their disposal. Just as Einstein has reached higher than
Newton because he could stand on Newton's shoulders."39
During their conversations, Russell's bold and novel opinions about a few eminent personalities like Tolstoy, Freud and Shaw are revealed.
He told Roy very courageously that the Russian saint Tolstoy was a very vain man and more than that he was not cultured. Russell 'felt that vanity and self-love unconsciously impelled Tolstoy
"...to fabricate a philosophy which encouraged him to feel superior to things he didn't know or couldn't understand ..... He
rationalized even his lack of comprehension into a merit.'40
Freud was a great man but Russell did not agree with his theory that all the impulses of life are derived from sex. Russell felt that love of knowledge is not a sublimation of sex-energy though artistic creations are. Russell argued that human being's desire to know more and more was due to the sublimation of their love of power rather than sex.
Bernard Shaw, Russell judged, was matchless. He was one of those genuinely humble men in the world whom fame and influence could not spoil. Reading of his works remained refreshing because of his truthfulness, fearlessness and fondness of cynical satire.
Galsworthy was a fine artist according to Russell. But he was not so important a figure in the world of action as Wells, though Wells wasn't a great artist
This apart, Bertrand Russell did not agree with Rolland's thesis that a great artist can't possibly be a bad man. He cited the instance of Dostoievsky who was a great artist but who used to cringe before the authorities during his exile in Siberia. Russell said that he 'was a notorious sneak, in fact"41
About his own writing process, Russell informed Dilip Roy that he often had to seek seclusion in country retreats to enable himself to write. He had generally not much time to correct because he had to write at a stretch and then to send it at once to the press. He confessed that he learnt the economy of words and restraint from his boyhood when he used to play with different ideas to see in how few words he could express them.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
