It is, certainly, unfortunate that Benson & Sydney Grew didn't have the chance to meet. I remember Sydney Grew's insistence on the greatness of A.C.Benson's Diaries & the shamefulness of their languishingly non-published state on the old BBC Boards. Here, a member (self-deleted) Crabs-over-the-Ocean alluded to this neglect:
And A. C. Benson's vast diary is not read at all because after eighty-eight years it still awaits publication. (April 28, 2010)
So that makes two admirers. Sydney Grew & Crabs-over-the-Ocean. Sadly, I believe Sydney Grew was absent when Crabs-over-the-Ocean was present. Such bad luck!
On September 14, 2009 Sydney Grew kindly transcribed a poem of Benson's, 'Twenty Years Ago' for other members' enjoyment.
On July 31, 2009, a lengthy text of A.C.Benson's, from 1902, admonished us, concludingly - via Sydney Grew - that
it used to be asserted that athletics were valuable from a moral point of view, and kept physical temptations at bay. I do not think that this can be maintained, and I am sure that the personal popularity which the athlete enjoys, the almost adoration with which he is often regarded, is of itself a great danger if a boy is prone to sensual faults. Perhaps I am wrong, but I recall the opening paragraphs of a book charmingly titled 'From a College Window' making an appearance here, too
.
I have lately come to perceive that the one thing which gives value to any piece of art, whether it be book, or picture, or music, is that subtle and evasive thing which is called personality. No amount of labour, of zest, even of accomplishment, can make up for the absence of this quality. It must be an almost wholly instinctive thing, I believe. Of course, the mere presence of personality in a work of art is not sufficient, because the personality revealed may be lacking in charm; and charm, again, is an instinctive thing. No artist can set out to capture charm; he will toil all the night and take nothing; but what every artist can and must aim at, is to have a perfectly sincere point of view. He must take his chance as to whether his point of view is an attractive one; but sincerity is the one indispensable thing. It is useless to take opinions on trust, to retail them, to adopt them; they must be formed, created, truly felt. The work of a sincere artist is almost certain to have some value; the work of an insincere artist is of its very nature worthless."Personality" & "charm" (or lack of). How interesting that all is.
But Sydney Grew is not here, & no doubt the Benson who is makes no reference to the Benson the one time member so oft invoked.
