23 December 1912 – 29 December 1912

"It is a pleasure to note the success attending the career of Mr. W.N.P. Barbellion now engaged in scientific work on the staff of the Natural History Museum ..." etc., etc. This is a cutting from the local paper--one of many that from time to time I once delightedly pasted in the pages of the Journal. Not so now. ... At 23, I am a different being. Surrounded by all the stimulating environment of scientific research, I am cold and disdainful. I keep up the old appearances but underneath it is quite different. I am a hypocrite. I have to wear the mask and cothornoi, finding the part daily more difficult to bear. I am living on my immense initial momentum--while the machinery gradually slows up. My career! Gadzooks.