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Correspondence from Aleister Crowley to Gerald Yorke
Sybelkstr 68
May 4 [1932].
C∴[are] F∴[rater]
93.
I managed with great difficulty to get the schönhermer to accept a cheque on Barclays dated May 12.
Ham. [Gerald Hamilton] rang up this a.m. and read me over the 'phone a letter from [illegible]—quite obviously genuine—saying that you had approached J.W. for cash on the Sullivan book, annoying him greatly. Called it a gross impertinence.
This after I had told you on the phone not to do so, but to work up slowly.
It seems to me an act of desperate cowardice; a last attempt to dodge your responsibility (However, I suspend final judgment until I have your own story—Though I must say it is suspicious that you didn't ring me up again as you promised, or even let me have as much as a p[ost] c[ard]).
It is silly to talk of objecting to being "blackmailed by circumstances". This happens to everyone all the time and it is only your filthy hothouse training at Eaton that makes you squeal at every breath of fresh air. Any people—Gods or Masters, or Captains of Industry—have a right to find out whether a given man is fit for a [illegible] job. Don't I know it? I've been through worse things than you can ever imagine, and I dare say I deserved it; but at the worst I didn't resort to any cowardly expedients.
Now it's squarely up to you to take a manly attitude at last. Borrow what you can to carry on till August, bring in your wits, and come to learn the austerity of the Adepts.
As long as you try to play both ends against the middle you stay in the Hamilton class.
The Work is All, and the rest Nothing: your efforts to value in percentages are grotesque.
I write with a breaking heart. I cannot express myself as I would.
93 93/93
F∴[raternal]ly
666.
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