December 27 + 

“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 twenty-three, 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 cothurni, 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. + 