Letters to Two Friends by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Author:Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: life, christ, consciousness, catholicism, unbelief, noogenesis, religion, conscious evolution, omega point, teilhard de chardin, noosphere, charity

Maison Chabanel, i Shih Hu Hutung, 5 Ville Interieure, Peking 9, June 5,1938

Since my last letter, things have been going smooth and just a bit monotonous for me. After the rush of the first days [after his return from Burma], I have come back to the normal routine: laboratory work morning and afternoon, social life between 5 and 7 p.m., and from time to time a small party (very little cocktails . . . ). Peking is pretty much "deflated"; and yet there is still a nice circle of good friends, surviving in the midst of the Japanese atmosphere.

Scientifically, I am busy enough, with two paleontological memoirs. In addition I have just finished a "mixed paper" on

Burma which I will send to H as soon as I know where to

address it safely. Impossible to make excavations this year in Choukoutien, because the place lies just between the Japanese soldiers and the Chinese Reds. Should I not have the chance to work in the field this winter, I would find the time long and dull in the laboratory! And yet, my presence is rather useful there for keeping the Cenozoic Lab alive as long as the Sino-Nippon "incident" is not settled. I am still needed in China, and I feel that I need it still more. That does not make my position easier, on this ground also, so far as the balance is concerned between Peking and Paris. From Paris, I have just heard that I have been definitely elected to the Laboratoire des Hautes Etudes, and with a somewhat flattering and touching eagerness — three institutions wanting to shelter my laboratoire (of course I will

LETTERS II, 1938-1950 121

join Boule at the Institut de Pal6ontologie Humaine). My plan is, as I have told you, to go to Europe in October, via America, and to stay in Paris up to next June; then I will come back to China, for several months — and so on. So many unexpected things may happen, in the meantime.

In the meantime, too, I am slowly but steadily preparing my essay on Man, which I will probably start writing this summer. I feel more and more attracted and absorbed by this part of my activity. And it seems that this last winter has brought me a new harvest of clarity and certitude: I have an impression to perceive more and more distinctly the few central points which, if better understood and conquered, would change the face of our fascinating world. I believe that the next winter in Paris will have a decisive influence on the final maturation and the possible spreading of whatever may be good in my "gospel." . . . Here, in my pious Pekinese house, I feel much more comfortable than in the fall, partly due to a new direction, partly because I make more and more interesting connections with several of the young people here. Something is growing, most evidently, in the spiritual atmosphere of the world — and something is dying, accordingly.

Physically, I feel perfectly all right.

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