illogically, that this "Journal through Palestine and parts of Arabia "has been as it were extra work; at any rate, it has at times made me feel a little aggrieved. Strachan doesn't care for it, either. I told him that Mr. Starkie had said nothing to me about it, nor yet of Blake's proposed "History" in connection with which Brooke's journey appeared to have been taken. He said that he had known of it through Clarkson, but had thought that the MS. had been destroyed, he did not quite know why.
'We should have liked not to have suppressed or added a single word of it, for obvious reasons; but this was really quite impossible. At times we came upon whole pages of, what I dare say were abbreviations, but which were to us absolutely meaningless signs: then there were long extemporary prayers, coupled with the most childish virulent attacks on different scientific men of the day and Christians whose conceptions of Christianity were different to Brooke's own. Now all this was neither beautiful nor to the point, and, besides, we felt sure that he himself would never have wished them to see the light, at any rate, in their present form. Accordingly we eliminated certain passages that seemed to us to offend: and were, I think, justified in so doing; for to whom could they do good? Certainly not to the future investigator of the origins of Christianity: certainly not to the people who would read this book: certainly not to the memory of Brooke. None the less, I for my part felt that it was very delicate work touching anything, and so (apparently) did Strachan. However, it's done now, and the best we could do it: so what's the good of troubling?
'It is astonishing how carelessly he put his materials
together, considering that the object in view was one
apparently so dear to him. I had to copy it nearly all
out. The only interesting part was where he debated
upon the sincerity of Mahomet. This we left intact
in the form of an excursus.'
The next day has:
'Went to Maitland Street this afternoon, after a good boring at Mrs. Cunningham's. Upon my soul
