So distressed was I by this conflict between reason and
emotion that I telephoned to a Socratic friend of mine who is .a member of the Peace Pledge Union. I told him of my emotions and he was much amused. He said that his own response to the stories of the Rio Plate and of the ' Cossack' had been the same as my own. His first emotion was one of crude delight that the Nazis should have suffered so brave and skilful a discomfiture. Yet, since his mind was better trained and his emotions better controlled than mine, he had quickly recovered from these crude emotional gambols and reason had regained her sway. What I ought to do was to study myself a little more carefully and to realise the differ- ence between those responses which came from my " lower levels " and those which came from my " higher levels." This all sounded very comforting and tidy, and I replaced the receiver gratefully. But the problem returned to me. " Lower levels " be damned. And yet I felt somehow that I should not have been quite so pleased.
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