21 DECEMBER 1945, Page 10

Is this influence likely to continue? If I am correct

in suggesting that during our synthetic periods we are obtuse to French habits of thought, whereas during our analytical periods we absorb this " poisonous honey " with delight, then the long period of French influence is drawing to its end. If it be true that we are about to enter upon a dogmatic age, then, as some of our younger writers are already suggesting, we shall only be embarrassed by French standards of intellectual sincerity. Or will French literature itself, as Monsieur Sartre would desire, become dogmatic or engagee? I believe myself that the two literatures should be complementary, we supply- ing them with imagination and they us with clarity. Athene, how- ever, is not a goddess whom we now venerate: "Les Scythes ont catiquis le monde.'