Letters and Essays - Simone Weil

COPYRIGHT, IpJI,BY G. P.PUTNAM'S SONS

Capricorn Books Edition, 1959.

Library of Congress Catalogue

CardNumber59-14857

Contents

BIOGRAPHICAL

NOTE

Vll

INTRODUCTION BY

LESLIE A. FIEDLER 3

LETTERS

LETTER

I HESITATIONS

CONCERNING BAPTISM

₄₃

LETTER

II

SAME

SUBJECT

₅₂

LETTER

III

ABOUT HER DEPARTURE

₅₈

LETTER

IV SPIRITUAL

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

61

LETTER

V

HER INTELLECTUAL VOCATION

₈₄

LETTER

VI LAST

THOUGHTS

88

ESSAYS

REFLECTIONS

ON THE

RIGHT USE OF

SCHOOL

STUDIES

WITH

A

VIEW TO THE

LOVE OF

GOD

₁₀₅

THE

LOVE OF GOD

AND

AFFLICTION 11₇

FORMS

OF

THE

IMPLICIT

LOVE

OF

GOD

₁₃₇

THE

LOVE

OF

OUR

NEIGHBOR

₁₃₉

LOVE

OF

THE

ORDER

OF

THE

WORLD

₁₅₈

THE LOVE

OF RELIGIOUS PRACTICES 181

FRIENDSHIP 2OO

IMPLICIT

AND

EXPLICIT

LOVE

2O8

CONCERNING

THE OUR

FATHER

216

'Biographical

7\7ote*

SIMONE

WEIL

was born

inParis

_{on February}

3, 1909.

The

houseof herbirth in the_{Boulevard de Strasbourg}has since been _pulled

down

to

make room

for the rue de Metz.

Thanks

to herbrother Andre,

who

was

her elder

_by

three years, she

was

exceptionally advanced in her

knowledge

of literature

and

science.

At

six she _{could quote passages of} Racine

_by

heart,

and

although herstudies

were

constantly interruptedasaresultof theFirst

World

War,

sheobtained her baccalaureat eslettreswith distinction in_{June, 1924,}at the age offifteen.

The

_{president of the}board of examiners,

who

was

_{a specialist in} the literature _{of the early}

Middle

Ages, gave her 19 out of 20 afterheroral test.

During

her year of philosophy she

worked

under

La

Senne; then she had Alaint as her masterfor

two

_years at the College

Henri

IV

when

she _prepared for the competi-tiveentrance examinationof theEcole

Normale.

Alain,

who

*_This

note,provided bythe Frenchpublishers,replaces the Introduc-tion and notes_by the Reverend J. M. Perrin, which are withdrawn at their request.

t_Pseudonymofthewell-known French_philosopherandessayist,Emile AugusteChartier (1868-).

BIOGRAPHICAL

NOTE

recognizedthatshehadphilosophicalgenius

and

saw

inher "a

_power

_{of thought}

which

was

rare," followed her

de-velopment

with attentive

and

kindly interest, noting,

how-ever, that she

had

to be

on

her _{guard against too} close

reasoning expressed in almost impenetrable language

and

that, inthe end, "shehad been_willingtoturn

from

the_deep abstract subtleties

which were

a

_game

forher

and

to train herself in direct_analysis."

Sheentered theEcole

Normale

_Superieurein_1928,leftas a_qualifiedteacher_{of philosophy}in ₁₉₃1,and

was

_appointed

to the _secondary school for _girls at

Le

_{Puy. There,}

from

December,

1931 until the spring of 1932 she gave public proof of her

uncompromising

opposition

toward

official compulsion of

any

sorthelpingand encouragingthe

unem-ployed

workmen

of the

town by

her

marked sympathy and

by

taking direct action against themunicipal authorities.

She

had friends in the

_group

of the Revolution Prole-tarienne,andin 1932 she

began

tocontribute tothisreview.

She

was

thus _{given an opportunity of expressing} in clear

and

accurate terms and with a real

_knowledge

of

human

problems her

main

ideas

and

herfeelingaboutthe condition oftheworkers.

Appointed

to aschool at

Auxerre

in_{October, 1932,}

and

in ₁₉₃₃ tooneat _Roanne, shethen decided totake _{a year's} leave so that shecould_{experiencefully}the

_working

_people's life to

which

she had _alreadytried to accustom herself

_by

working

inthefields_{of the Jura during}the

summer

months.

Having

takena_jobinthe_{Renault works,}she hireda

room

in a_{neighboring house}

and

_{strove, in spite} of the headaches

and

delicatehealth she

had

_{always had} to contend _{with, to}

BIOGRAPHICAL

NOTE

avoid anythingthatcould

make

herlotdifferinthe_slightest degree

from

thatof her

companions

inthe

_workshop.

When

herleave

came

toan

end

in _{1935, she again}took a teaching post, this time at the girls' secondary school at Bourges.

She

leftinthe

summer

of 1936 to

go

to Barcelona inthe_beginningof_August,

She

wanted

to

be

able to_judge for herself _{of the struggle}

between

the

"Reds" and

the "Francoites."

During

the _following

October

she returned to France

after_{having shared}thesuff_{erings of theRepublican}

_Army

forseveral

weeks

on

theCatalonianfront

and

_having

experi-encedinthe_{very depths}of_{her being}the utter_calamityof war.

Another

_{period of}leave, this time

on

accountof illness, prevented her

from

taking

up

before 1937 an appointment

at the _secondary school for _girls at Saint _Quentin.

Once

more,in_{January, 1938,}her_{health obliged}her_{to stop}

work-inguntilthetime

when

the

Second

World

War

broke out.

On

June

13, 1940, she decidedto leave Paris

and

settled atMarseillesin

October

ofthe

same

_year,with her_family,

In _{June, 1941, a friend} introduced her to the

Reverend

FatherPerrin,

who

was

then atthe

Dominican Convent

in Marseilles

and who,

two

_years later,

was

to bearrested

by

the _{Gestapo. Father} Perrin introduced her to

Gustave

Thibon

with

whom

_{she stayed for a} while in Ardeche.

There, once

more

_impelled

_by

her longing tosharein alife ofdirectcontactwiththesoil,she

_engaged

in

manual work,

either inthefields_duringthe harvest, orinthe_vineyardsat thetimeof_{the grape-gathering.}

She

didnot

on

thataccount give

up

any

of herstudies _{of philosophy,}

whether

Greek

or

BIOGRAPHICAL

NOTE

Hindu, and

went

_{on widening}

her

_knowledge

of Sanskrit.

At

the

same

time her_{mystical tendencies}

and

_her

preoccu-pation with the notion of

God

became more

pronounced, leadinghertowrite thepages

on

the

Our

Father

and on

the

Love

of

God

which

are tobe readfarther on.

On

_{returning to Marseilles for the} winter she continued her talks

and

discussions with Father Perrin and at his re-quest she

expounded

herthoughts

on

Plato

and

the Pythag-oreans to the circle that used to

meet

in the _crypt of the

Dominican Convent

there.

When

Father Perrin

was

chosenas_Superior at Moritpel-lier, in

March,

1942, he did not lose contact with

Simone

Weil.

_They

went

on

_{meeting, writing}letters,and exchang-ing their views right

up

to the time

when

Simone

left

France.

It

was

_probably

on

_May

_{15, 1942, that she}

wrote

the_long letter,

which

she callsher _{"spiritual autobiography,"} to Fa-therPerrin, then

_away

on

a_journey.

Her

boatleft_{the port}

on

_May

17. Shespent three

weeks

at Casablanca,ina

_camp

where

travelers in transit

from

Franceto

America

were

con-fined.

Here

she _prepared a certain

number

of additional papers.

These

she senttoFatherPerrinasa spirituallegacy,

and on

_May

26, in alast letter of farewell, she

_completed

and added

to thatof

_May

_15.

Soon

after _reaching

New

York

at the

end

_{of June, 1942,}

she received a call to serve

under

the

French

_provisional

government and

left for

England on

November

10.

In

London

she

was

commissioned to

make

a_study of of-ficial_{documents;she outlined plans}

and wrote

a_long

BIOGRAPHICAL

KOTE

united,ofthe State

and

theindividual.*She

wanted

toshare the hardship of those shehadleftinFrance

and

carriedthis to sucha_pointthat, _although overtired and run

down,

she refused the extra nourishment ordered

_by

the doctors

and

keptstrictly to the rations to

which

hercompatriots inthe occupied zone

were

limited atthattime.

The

stateof her health

became

so

much

worse

that, inthe

second _{fortnight of April, 1943, she}

was

admitted to the Middlesex_Hospital,

whence

she

was

transferredin the

mid-dleof

_August

to asanatoriumat

Ashford

inKent.

The

lastsentence she

wrote

inthe

notebook found

after

herdeath was:

"The

most

_{important part of} education to teach the

_meaning

of to

know

_(inthe scientificsense)."

The

whole

of

Simone

Weil

is contained in these

few

words.

A

_day

or

two

later,

on August

29, 1943, she diedat

Ash-ford.

The

_{correspondencehere published} and the_essays

which

follow

were

all sentor_given tothe

Reverend

FatherPerrin

by

Simone

Weil,atthetime

when

she

was

stillableto

com-municate withhim.

In giving this collection of letters and _essays the title of

WAITING

FOR

_GOD,

_{the publisher has sought} to _{suggest a} favorite_thoughtof

Simone Weil which

_{she expressed}inthe

Greek words

v _{UTUO^VT]: waiting}in_patience.

*_{Published as VEnracineinent (Gallimard,} Paris, 1949)- E"g- trans.:

The NeedforRoots (G.P. Putnam'sSons,

New

York, 1952). xi

introduction

SINCE HER

_DEATH,

Simone

Weil

has

come

to

seem

more

and

more

a _{special exemplar of sanctity for} our time the

Out-sider as Saint in _{an age of} alienation, our kind of saint. In eight scantyears, this

young

Frenchwoman,

whom

scarcely

anyone

had heard of before her sacrificial death in exile at

the age of 34, has

come

to possessthe imagination of

many

in the

Western

world. Catholic and Protestant, Christian

and

_{Jew, agnostic} and devout,

we

have all turned to her with the

_profound

conviction that the

_meaning

of her ex-perience is our meaning, that she is really ours.

Few

ofus, to be sure,

would

find _nothing to dissent

from

in her re-ligious thought; fewer still

would

be _{capable of emulating} the terrible _{purity of her} life;

none

could measure himself,

without shame, _againstthe absolute ethos

toward which

she aspired.

And

yet she does not

seem

strange to us, as other mystics and witnesses of

God

have

seemed

strange; for

though

on onesideher life touchestheremote _{mysteries of} the Divine Encounter,

on

the otherit is rooted in a

world

with

which

we

are familiar.

She

_{speaks of}the_problemsof belief inthe _vocabularyof 3

WAITING

FOR

GOD

the unbeliever, of thedoctrinesofthe

Church

inthe

words

oftheunchurched.

The

askesis,the"darknight of thesoul,"

through

which

she passed to certitude,isthe

modern

intel-lectual's familiar _pattern of attraction

toward and

disil-lusionment

with

Marxism, the discipline of

contemporary

politics.

The

day-to-daystruggles of tradeunionism,

unem-ployment, the Civil

War

in Spain, the role of the Soviet Union, anarchism,

and

pacifism these arethe determinants of herideas, theunforeseen roads that ledherto sanctity.

Though

she passedfinally

beyond

politics,her thoughtbears tothe

end

the

mark

of her_earlyinterests,asthe teachingof St.Paulisinfluenced

_by

hisRabbinical_schooling,orthatof St._Augustine

_by

his_{training in}rhetoric.

Beforeher death, scarcely

any

of

Simone

Weil'sreligious writings

had been

published.

To

those in

France

who

thoughtofherstill,interms of herearlypolitical essays,as

a

somewhat

unorthodox

Marxist

_moving

toward

anarchism, the

_posthumous

Christian

books must

have

come

asashock. Surely,

no

"friendof

God"

inallListory,

had

moved more

unwillingly

toward

themystic encounter.

There

is in her

earlier

work

no

sense ofa _groping

toward

the divine,

no

promise ofholiness,

no

_pursuitofa purity

beyond

this

world

only a conventionally left-wing concern

with

the prob-lems ofindustrialization,renderedina toneat

once

extraor-dinarily inflexible

and

wonderfullysensitive.

The

particularnote ofconviction in

Simone

Weil's

testi-mony

arises

from

the feeling thatherrole as a_mystic

was

so unintended,

one

for

which

she

had

notin

any

sense pre-pared.

An

undertone of incredulity persists beneath her astonishing honesty: quite suddenly

God

had

taken her,

INTRODUCTION

radical, agnostic,

contemptuous

ofreligiouslifeandpractice asshehad observedit! She clung alwaystoher sense of be-ing an Outsider

among

the _{religious, to a feeling that} her improbable approach had givenhera specialvocation,asan "apostle to the Gentiles," planted at "the intersection of Christianityand everythingthatisnot

Christianity."She re-fused to_become, inthe_{typical compensatory} excessofthe convert,

more

of the

Church

than those born into it; she

would

noteven be_baptized,

and

it isher_unique

position, at

onceinand out ofinstitutionalized Catholicism, that deter-mines her_{special role and meaning.}

To

those

who

considerthemselves

on

thesafe side of be-lief,sheteachestheuncomfortabletruththatthe onbeliefof

many

atheistsiscloser toatrue love of

God

andatrue sense ofhisnature, thanthekind _{of easy}faith_{which, never} hav-ing experienced

God,

hangs a label _bearing his

name on

some

childish_{fantasy or projection of the ego.} Like Kierke-gaard, shepreachedtheparadoxofits_beingeasierfora

non-Christian to

become

a Christian, than for a "Christian" to

become

one.

To

those

who

_{believe in a single Revelation,}

and

_enjoythe

warm

sensation_{of being saved}ina

_cozy

circle

of friends, she

_expounded

the doctrine of a _{gospel spread}

in

_many

_{"languages," of}a divine

Word

shared

_among

rival

myths, in each of

which

certain important truths, implicit elsewhere, are

made

_explicit.

For

those to

whom

_religion

means

_{comfort and peace} of mind, _{she brings the} terrible

reminderthatChrist_promisednot_{peace but}the_sword,

and

that his

own

last

words were

a _cry of absolute _despair, the "/i, Eli, lama sabachthani!"

which

is _{the true glory of} Christianity.

WAITING

FOR COD

But

she _always considered that her chief mission

was

to thosestill

_"submerged

inmaterialism/' thatis,to

most

of us in a chaotic and disenchanted world.

To

the unbeliever

who

has rather

_smugly

_{despised the churchgoer} for seeking an_{easy consolation, she} revealsthesecret of his

own

cow-ardice, _{suggesting that} his _agnosticism

_may

itself be only an_opiate,a

_dodge

to_{avoid facing the}terrorof

God's

_reality

and the awful burden of hislove.

She refused to cut herself off

from

_anyone,

_by

refusing to identify herself _{completely with}

_anyone

or

any

cause.

She _{rejected the temptation} to

withdraw

into a _congenial group, onceassociated with which, she could be

disowned

by

alloutside ofit. Sherather took

_upon

herself the task of

sustainingall possible beliefs in their infinite contradictions

and

on

theirendless levelsof relevance; the_smugnessof the false elect, the _{materialism of the shallowly} rebellious, self-deceitand _{hypocrisy, parochialism} and atheism

from

each she extractedits_{partial truth,}and enduredthe_{largerportion} oferror. She chosetosubmitto akind_{of perpetual}invisible crucifixion; herfinal _{relationship to}all those she

would

not

disown became

thatof the crucified to the cross.

The

French

editors of

Simone

Weil's works, Gustave

Thibon, a _{lay theologian}

who

was

also her friend, and Fa-ther Perrin, the nearest _thing to a confessor she ever had, have both spoken of Sirnone Weil's refusal to _{be baptized}

as a

mere

_stage in her _development, a nonessential flaw in her thinking,which, hadshe_only lived_longer,

would

prob-ably have beenremedied.

M.

Thibon and

FatherPerrinare, of course, Catholics,

and

_speak as _they

must

out of their great love for Mile Weil, and theirunderstandable

INTRODUCTION

tion that such holinesscould _{not permanently have stayed} outside of the

Church;

but

from Simone

Weil's

own

_point of view, her outsideness

was

the _very essence of her

posi-tion. This is

made

_{especially clear in} the present volume. "I feel," she

wrote

once, "thatit is_necessary to_me,

pre-scribed for_me, to bealone, an outsider and alienated

from

every

human

context whatsoever."

And

on

another

occa-sion, she _{jotted in} her journal the self-reminder, "Preserve

your

solitude!"

What

motivatedher

was no

selfish desireto

withdraw from

the _{ordinary concourse} of

men,

but

pre-cisely the opposite impulse. She

knew

that

one

remains alienated

from

a_{particularallegiance,}not

_by

_vainly attempt-ing to

deny

all _beliefs,but_precisely

_by

_sharing

them

all.

To

have

become

rooted in the context of a_{particular religion,}

Simone

Weil

felt,

would

on

theone hand,_{have exposed her} to

what

shecalls_{"the patriotism of theChurch," with}a con-sequent blindness to the faults of her

own

group

and

the

virtuesof others,

and

would,

on

the other hand, have sep-arated her

from

the

common

condition here below,

which

findsus all_{"outsiders,uprooted,} inexile."

The

most

terrible

of crimes is tocollaborate inthe _uprooting of others in an already alienatedworld; butthe _greatest ofvirtues isto up-root oneself for the sakeof one's_{neighbors and}of

God.

"It is_necessary to_uprootoneself.

Cut

down

thetree and

make

a cross

and

_carry itforever after."

Especially atthe

moment when

themajorityof

mankind

is

_"submerged

in materialism,"

Simone Weil

feltshe could not detachherself

from them

_by

_{undergoingbaptism.}

To

be able to love

them

as _{they were,} in all _{their blindness,} she

would

haveto

know

them

as_{they were; and}to

know

them, 7

WAITING

FOR

GOD

she

would

haveto

_go

_among

them

_disguisedinthe_garments oftheir

own

disbelief. In so far as _Christianity had

become

an exclusive sect, it

would

haveto be

remade

into a "total Incarnationoffaith,"haveto

become

_{truly "catholic,"} cath-olic

_enough

toinclude the

_myths

of the _dark-skinned peo-ples

from

a

world untouched

by

the

Churches

of the

_West,

aswell as the _insights of _{post-Enlightenment liberals,}

who

could see in _{organized religion only oppression}

and

bitter-ness and_pride.

". . . in our _{present situation,"} she wrote, "universality

. . . has tobe

fully explicit."

And

that explicit universality, she felt,

must

find a_mouthpiece in a

new

kind ofsaint, for "today it is not_nearly

_enough

merely to beasaint, but

we

must

havethesaintliness

demanded by

_{the present}

_moment,

a

new

saintliness, itself also without _precedent."

The new

kind of saint

must

_{possess a special "genius," capable of}

blending Christianity and Stoicism, the love of

God

and "filial _{piety for the}

city of the world"; a passive sort of

"genius" that

would

enable

him

to act as a "neutral

me-dium," like _{water, "indifferent} to all ideas _without excep-tion, evenatheism and materialism . . ."

Simone

Weil

feltthat she _{could be only} the forerunner

and

foreteller ofsuchasaint; forher, humility forbade her thinking of herself as

one

_{capable of} a

"new

revelation of the universe and

human

_destiny . . . the unveiling of a

largeportion of truth

and

beauty hithertohidden..."

Yet

sheis

precisely thesaint she prophesied!

Despite hermodesty, shespoke sometimes as ifshe

were

aware

that there

was

manifest in the circumstances of her birth (she had been borninto an _{agnosticfamily} ofJewish

INTRODUCTION

descent) a special providence, a clue to a special mission.

While

it

was

_true, she _argued in her letters to Catholic friends,thatthe earlierSaintshad ail lovedthe

Church and

had

been_baptized into it,

on

the other hand, they

had

all

beenborn

and

_brought

_up

inthe_Church,asshe had not."I should _{betray the truth," she protested, "that} is to _say, the aspect of the truth thatI_see,if Ileftthe_point,

where

Ihave

been since

_my

birth, atthe intersection _{of Christianity}

and

everything that is not _{Christianity."}

It

must

_{not be thought}that she

was

even troubled

_by

the question offormally

becoming

a Christian; itvexed her

de-voutCatholic friends and for theirsakes shereturned _again

and

_again to the _problem; but, as for herself, she

was

at peace.

Toward

the

end

of her life, the _mystic vision

came

to her almost_daily, andshe didnothaveto

wonder

(insuch matters, shelikedto_say,

one

doesnot believe or_disbelieve; one

knows

or does not

_know)

if there

were

salvation out-side _{an organized} sect; she

was

a living witness that the visible

Church and

the invisible _congregation of the saints areneverone."Ihaveneverforasecond hadthe_feelingthat

God

wanted

me

in the

Church

I never doubted....

Ibelieve that

now

it can be concluded that

God

does not

want

me

in theChurch."

Itisbecauseshe

was

_{capable ofremaining}

on

the

thresh-old of _{organized religion, "without moving, quite} still...

indefinitely

..."

that

Simone Weil

speaks toallof us with specialauthority,an Outsidertooutsiders,our kind ofsaint,

whom

we

have needed (whether

we

have

known

it_{or not)} "asa_{plague-stricken}

town

needs doctors."

To

what

then doesshe bear witness?

To

the uses of exile

WAITING

FOR

GOD

and

_{suffering, to} the _glory of annihilation

and

_absurdity,

to theunforeseenmiracle of love.

Her

life

and

work

form

a_{single document,} a

document which

we

canstill notread clearly, thoughclearly enough, perhaps, for ourneeds.

On

theone_{hand, the story of}

Simone

Weil'slifeisstill_guarded

by

reticence; and

on

the other hand, her _thought

comes

to usin_{fragmentary form. She completed}

no

_large-scale

_work;

she published in her lifetime

no

intimate _testimony to the secret_religious life that

made

of her last

few

_years a series of _{experiences perhaps unequaled} since St. Theresa and St.

John

of the Cross. If she has left

_any

detailed account of those experiences

we

have not_{yet seen} it.

Since her death, fourvolumesof her

work

have_been

pub-lished in France.

La

Pesanteur et la

Grace

_(Gravity

_and

Grace),is a selection

from

herdiaries, chosen and _topically rearranged

by

Gustave

Thibon;

the effectis that of a

mod-ern

Penseesno

whole

vision, but a related, loosely linked

body

of aphorisms, always illuminating and direct,

some-times extraordinarily acute.

We

do

not

_know,

_{of course,}

what M.

Thibon

has chosen to _omit; and he has not even told us

how

_{large aproportion} of the notebooks he has

in-cludedin hisselection.

U

Enr

a ci77e7M 721

_(The

Need

_{for Roots)} is the longest single piece left

by Simone

Weil.

Begun

at _{the request of} the Free French

Government

in exile, it takes off

from

a consideration of the _religious and _{social principles}

_upon

which

_{a truly Christian}

French

nation _{might be} built

and

touches

_upon

such _subjects as the _{humanizing of factory}

work,

the need for

freedom

of_{purely speculative thought,}

and

_{the necessity forexpunging}

from

our books a false no-10

INTRODUCTION

don

of the heroic

which makes

us all _guilty of the rise of Hitler.Itisa_fascinating

_{though uneven}

_{book,in parts} ridic-ulous, in

_pans

_{profound, but motivated throughout}

_by

the pity andlove

Simone

Weil

felt in _{contemplating} a _society thathad

made

of_{the apparatus of}

_government

_an

oppressive

machine

_by

_{separating the secular}and _religious.

The

thirdbook, of

which

_{the present}

volume

isa transla-tion,isin

_many

_ways

the

most

_{representative}and _appealing ofthethree. Itis _not,of course, a_{whole, but}a chance col-lection, entrusted to Father Perrin _during the time _just before

Simone

Weil's _{departure for} America. It includes

some

_{material, originally} written as _early as _1937,

_though

recastinthe final _{years of her life;but} in the

main

it repre-sents the

typicalconcerns of theend of

Simone

Weil's life, aftershehad reachedahavenof_certainty.

_Among

the

docu-ments

_(which survived a confiscation

_by

the _Gestapo) are six letters, all but one written to Father _Perrin, of

which

letter _IV, the _{"Spiritual Autobiography,"} is of _special

im-portance.

Among

the essays, the meditation

on

the Pater

Noster

_{possessesgreatinterest,} forthis

was

the_singleprayer

by

which Simone Weil

attained almost _{daily the} Divine

Vision of

_God;

and the second section of the _study called

"Forms

of the_Implicit

Love

of

_God,"

I find the

most

mov-ing

and

beautiful piece of writing

Simone Weil

ever did.

Another volume

of her collected _essays

and

_meditations,

under

the title

La

Connaissance_{Surnaturelle (Supernatural}

Knowledge)

has recently appeared in _France,

and

several other volumes

_{made up}

of extracts

from

her notebooks are tobe _{published soon.}

Simone

Weil

_apparentlyleft be-hind her a _large

_body

_{of fragments, drafts,} and unrevised

WAITING

FOR

GOD

sketches,

which

a

world

thatfinds inher

most

casual

words

insights

and

illuminations will not be content to leave in manuscript.

Several of her

_{poems and}

_{prose pieces,} not included in

any

ofthesevolumes, have beenpublishedinvarious

French

magazines (notably in Cahiers de

Sud) and

three or four of her_{political essays have appeared}inthis_country in Poli-tics.

But

the _{only really consequential study,} aside

from

those inthe three books, is her _splendid,

_though

_absurdly

and

_{deliberately partial, interpretation} of the Iliad,

which

has been _excellently translated _{into English}

_by

_Mary

Mc-Carthy and

published in pamphlet

form

under the title of

The

Iliad:or,the

Poem

of Force.

These

arethe chief sources_{of her thought; and}the intro-ductions to the volumes edited

_{by M. Thibon}

and

Father Perrin provide, along withbrieferpersonaltributesprinted atthetimeofher death, thebasicinformation

we

have about herlife.In a

_profound

sense, herlifeisherchief

work, and

without

some

notion of _{her biography} it is _{impossible to}

know

her total_meaning.

On

the otherhand, her

books

are extensionsofherlife;theyarenotliterature,not eveninthe sense _{that the writings} of _{a theologically oriented} author

like _Kierkegaard are literature.

_They

are confessions

and

testimonies _{sometimes agonized} cries or dazzled

exclama-tionsmotivated

_by

the desire to _{say just}

how

it

was

with her, regardless of all questions of

form

or beauty of style.

They

have, however, a

charm

of directness, an appealing purity of tone that

makes

itpossible toread

them (Simone

Weil

would

have hated to

_acknowledge

it!₎ for the sheer pleasure of

watching

a subtle

mind

capture in

words

the

INTRODUCTION

most

elusive _{of paradoxes, or of contemplating an} absolute love

strivingto

communicate

itselfinspiteof the clumsiness

of_language.

HER

LIFE

We

do

not

_know,

_{as yet, a great deal} about the actual facts of

Simone

Weil's life.

_Any

_attempt at _biographical reconstruction runs

_up

_{against the reticence} and reserve of her_parents,

who

arestill _living,

and

even

more

_critically, it

encounters her

own

desire to be

_anonymous

to

_deny

pre-ciselythose elementsinherexperience,

which

tothe biogra-pherare

most

interesting. She

was born

in 1909, into a fam-ilyapparentlysociallysecure (her father

was

adoctor)

and

"completely agnostic."

Though

her ancestors had been Jewish, the faith had _{quite disappeared} in her immediate family,and

where

itflourishedstill

_among

remoter_relatives, ithad

become

_{somethingcold,}

oppressive,

and

meaninglessly legalistic to a degree that

made

Simone

Weil

all of herlife incapable of judging fairly the merits of Judaism. She ap-peared to have

no

sense of alienation

from

the general

community

connected with her Jewishness (though in

appearancesheseemstohavefitted_exactlya_popular

stereo-type of the Jewish face), but

grew

up

with a feeling of belongingquite firmlyto a

world

whose

values

were

simply "French," that is _{to say, a} combination of

Greek

and

sec-ularized Christian elements.

Even

as a child, she seems to have _{troubled her parents,} to

whom

_{being comfortable}

was

an

end

of life,

and

who

refused to orcould not understand her mission.

_They

frus-trated again and _again, with _{the greatest of}

warmth

and

WAITING

FOR

GOD

good

will, her attempts toimmolate herself for thelove of

God.

Her

father

and

mother

came

_{to represent, in}analmost archetypal struggle with her, the

whole

solid _bourgeois

world, to

whom

ahair shirtis ascandal, and _{sufferingonly} a blight tobeeliminated

_by

science_{and proper}familial care.

Yet

sheloved_{her parents}as_dearlyas _{they loved}her,

_though

she

was from

childhood_{quiteincapable of overt}

demonstra-tions ofaffection.

At

_{the age of} five,she refused to eat sugar, as_long as the soldiers at the front

were

not able to _get it.

The

war

had

broughtthe sense of

human

miseryintoher protected milieu for the first time, and her _{typical pattern of response}

was

alreadyset: to

_deny

herself

what

the

most

unfortunate

were

unable to _enjoy.

There

is in herreaction, of course,

some-thing of the hopelessguilt ofone born into a favored posi-tion in a

society with sharp class distinctions.

Throughout

her_career, there

was

tobe atouchof theabsurdinhereffort to identify herself _utterly with the

most

_{exploited groups} in_society

_(whose

own

_major

desire

was

to rise

_up

into the class

from which

she

was

_trying to _{abdicate), and being} continually"rescued"

from

the suffering shesought

by

par-ents

and

friends.

A

littlelater in_{her childhood, she declared} thatshe

would no

_longer

wear

socks,while the childrenof

workers

had to

_go

without them. This _{particular gesture,} she

was

laterto admitin a _{typically scrupulous} bit of

self-analysis,

might

have been

prompted

as

much

_by

_{an urge} to teaseher

mother

as

_by

anunselfish desire toshare thelotof the poor.

At

_{fourteen, she passedthrough}the darkest_spiritualcrisis of herlife, _{feeling herself pushed} to the _{very verge} of

sui-INTRODUCTION

cide

_by

anacute sense ofher_{absolute unworthiness,}

and

_by

the_onslaughtof_{migraine headaches}ofan unbearable inten-sity.

The

headaches neverlefther afterward,noteveninher

moments

_{of extremest joy; her very experiences of} Divine

Love would come

toher strained_throughthat _omnipresent pain

which

attackedher, asshelikedto_{say, "at}the intersec-tion of

_body

andsoul."She

came

latertothink ofthat

tor-ment, intensified

_by

_{the physical hardships to}

which

she compulsively exposed herself, as _{a special}

gift;but in early adolescence, it

was

to _{her only} a visible

and outward

_sign

of herinner_misery ather

own

total lack oftalent.

The

root of her troublesseemsto havebeen her relation-shipwith herbrother,amathematicalprodigy, beside

whose

brilliance she felt herself _{stumbling and stupid.}

Her

later

academic successes

and

the almost _{universal respect} ac-corded her _{real intelligence}

seem

never to have convinced her thatshe had

_any

intellectual talent.

The

_{chance phrase} of a visitor to her mother, overheard

when

she

was

_quite

young,

had broughtthe

whole problem

to a head.

Simone

Weil

never _{forgot the} words.

"One

is _genius itself," the

woman

hadsaid,pointingtotheboy; andthen, indicating

Si-mone,

"the other _beauty!" It is hard to _say

whether

she

was

more

_profoundly disturbed

_by

the _imputation of a beauty she did not possess, or

by

the implicit denial of genius.

Certainly, forever afterward, she did her best to destroy

what

in her

was

"beautiful" and _{superficially charming,} to turn herselfinto the antimask _{of the appealing}

_young

_girl.

The

faceinher _photographs is absolutein its refusal to be charming, anexaggeration,almosta caricatureof the

WAITING

FOR GOD

lectual_{Jewess. In}asentenceor two, FatherPerrin recreates herforusin_{her typical}costume: the oversize

brown

beret, the shapeless cape, the large, floppy shoes,

and

_emerging

from

this_disguise,the_{clumsy, imperiousgestures.}

We

_hear, too, theunmusical voice that _completes the ensemble,

mo-notonous, almost merciless in its insistence.

_Only

in her writing, is

Simone

Weil

_betrayed into _charm; in her life, she

made

a_{principle of avoiding} it.

"A

beautiful

woman,"

she writes, _"looking at her _image in the mirror

_may

_very well believe the_image is herself.

An

_ugly

woman

knows

it isnot."

But though

her _{very appearance} declares _{her physical} humility,

we

are likely to be misled about

Simone

Weil's attitude

toward

her

own

_{intelligence.} Father Perrin tells us that henever

saw

_{her yield} a _pointin an

_argument

with

anybody,

but

on

theother hand, he is _aware, as

we

should

be, too, of her

immense

humbleness in the realm of ideas.

Never

was

she able to believe that _{she truly possessed the} quality she

saw

so spectacularly in her

own

brother, the kind _{of "genius"} that

was

_{honestly to}be enviedin sofar as it_{promised not merely} "exteriorsuccess"butalso access to the_very

_"kingdom

oftruth."

She did not

commit

suicide, but _{she passed}

_beyond

the temptation without

abandoning

her abysmal sense of her

own

_{stupidity. Instead, she learned painfully the uses of}

stupidity.

To

lookatamathematical

problem

one has

inex-cusablymissed, she writes, is tolearnthe true _discipline of humility. In the contemplation of our crimes or our sins, evenofouressential_pronenesstoevil,thereare_temptations to_pride, butin the_{contemplation}of thefailures of our

INTRODUCTION

telligence, thereis_{only degradation}

and

the senseofshame.

To

know

that

one

ismediocreIs"tobe

on

thetrue

_way/'

Besides,

when

one

has

no

flair for

_geometry

_(itis inter-esting that her examples

come

always

from

the field of her brother's _special

_competence)

the

_working

of a

_problem

becomes

not the _{really irrelevant pursuit} of an "answer," but_{a training}in"attention,"

which

isthe essenceof_prayer.

And

thisin_{turn opens} to usthe sourceof a_{higher kind of} genius,

which

has nothing to

do

with natural talent

and

everything to

do

with Grace.

"Only

a kind ofperversity canforce the friends of

God

to _{deprive themselves of} gen-ius,becauseitis

_enough

for

them

to

demand

itof their Fa-ther in the

name

of Christ, to have a superabundance of genius..."

Yet

even thisfinal consideration never

brought

her _{absolute peace.}

She wrote toward

the

end

of her life thatshecouldnever read_{the parable of the}"barren_figtree" withouta_{shudder, seeing}inthe_figurealwaysa_possible por-traitofherself,_{naturallyimpotent,}

and

_yet

_somehow,

inthe inscrutable plan of

_God,

cursed for that_impotence.

However

she

_may

havefailedher

own

_{absolute standards,} she_{always seems}tohave_pleasedherteachers.

At

theEcole

Normale

_Superieure,

where

shestudied

from

1928to 1931, finally attainingher agregee

de

philosophic at the ageof22,

she

was

a student of the _philosopher Alain,

who

_simply

would

not_{believe the report}of her_early death_years

after-ward.

"She

will

come

back

_{surely," he kept repeating.} "It

isn't true!" It _{was, perhaps,}

under

his instruction that the love ofPlato, so importantin herthought,

was

confirmed inheronce

and

forall.

But

at_{that point}of hercareershe

had been

influenced

_by

17

WAITING

FOR

GOD

Marx

as well as the

Greek

_{philosophers;}

and

it

was

as

an

earnest

and committed

radical,

_though

one

who

had

never joined a particularpoliticalparty, that shetook

up

herfirst teaching job at

Le

Puy. It

was

a time for radicals-those utterly bleak years at the pit of a

world-wide

depression.

She

seems,ina

_way

not_untypicalof_{the left-wing} intellec-tual in a small town,to have horrified the

_good

citizens of

Le Puy

by

joining the

workers

in their sports,

marching

with

them

in their_picket lines,_{taking part} withthe

unem-ployed in their _pick

and

shovel

work,

and refusing to eat

more

thantherationsof those

on

relief,distributing her sur-plusfood to the needy.

The

bourgeois

mind

seemsto have

found

it asabsurdforthis

awkward

_girl tobe _playingball

with

workers, asto

be

_{half-starving} herselfbecause_of

prin-cipleshardto understand.

As

forcryingfor a

Revolution!

A

superintendent ofinstruction

was

called into threaten

Simone

Weil

with revocation of her teacher's license, at

which

she declared _proudlythat she

would

considersuch a revocation "the

crown

of her career!"

There

is a note of false bravadoin_{the response, betraying}a desireto

become

a"cause," toattain_{a spectacular}

martyrdom.

Itisa

common

flawin _{the revolutionary} activity of the

young;

but

fortu-nately for

Simone

Weil,thiskind of denouement, of

which

she

would

have been

ashamed

later,

was

deniedher.

She

was

only a

young

girl, harmless,

and

her license

was

not re-voked. Irked at _{the implied} slur, perhaps,

and

certainly dissatisfied in_generalwith halfwayparticipationintheclass struggle ofa teacher-sympathizer, shedecided to

become

a

worker once and

forall,

_by

_{taking a job}attheRenault auto plant.

INTRODUCTION

It is hard to

know how

to _judge the venture.

Undoubt-edly, there is in it

somethinga little ridiculous: the resolve ofthe Vassar _girl of all lands to "share the _experience" of the

_working

_class;

and

theinevitable refusal behindthat re-solve to face

_up

to the fact that the

freedom

to choose a worker's life,

and

the consciousness of that choice,

which

can never be sloughedoff,

make

thedreamed-oftotal

iden-tification _impossible.

And

_yet for the sake of that absurd

vision,

Simone

Weil

suffered

under

conditions exacerbated

by

her _sensibility

and

_physical weakness

_beyond

_anything the_ordinary

worker

had _{to bear; the job} "enteredinto her body," and the ennui and misery ofworking-class life en-tered into her soul,

_making

of hera "slave," in a sense she

could only understandfullylater,

when

herreligious illumi-nation had come.

She

was

_{always willing}to _{take the step}

_beyond

the

triv-ially silly;

and

the ridiculous pushed far enough, absurdity

compounded, becomes

something else the

Absurd

asa re-ligiouscategory, the

madness

of the

Holy

fool beside

which

the

wisdom

of this

world

is revealed _{as folly.} This _point

Simone Weil came

to understand _{quite clearly.}

Of

the im-plicit forms of the love of

God,

she said, ". . . in a sense

they are absurd, _they are

mad,"

and this she

knew

to be

their special claim.

Even

unhappiness, she learned, inorder to _{be pure}

must

be a littleabsurd.

The

_{very superiority} of Christoverall the_martyrsisthathe is not anythingso

sol-emn

asa

_martyr

atall,buta"slave," acriminal

among

crimi-nals, _"only a little

more

ridiculous.

For

_unhappiness is ridiculous."

WAITING

FOR

GOD

An

attack_{of pleurisyfinallybrought}

Simone

Weil's fac-tory experience to an

end

(there

were

_{always her} parents waiting to rescue her), but having rested fora while, just

long

enough

to regain

some

_slightmeasure _{of strength, she}

set off for _Spain to _support the _Loyalists,

_vowing

all the

whilethat she

would

notever learntouse the

_gun

_{they gave} her.

She

talked _{about Spain with} the_greatestreluctance in later years, despite the fact, or perhaps because it

was

un-doubtedly forher, asfor

_many

in _{her generation, a}critical experience: the efflorescence

and

the destruction of the rev-olutionary dream.

From

within

and

without the Marxist

hope was

defeated in a kind of

model

demonstration, a

paradigm

for believers.

Simone Weil

was

fond of _quoting the

Homeric

_phrase about _"justice, that _fugitive

from

the

camp

of the victors" butin _{those years}it

was

absent

from

the

_camp

of victor _{and vanquished} alike.

Not

even defeat could _{purify the revolution!}

While

_{the struggle} in _{Spain sputtered}

toward

its close,

Simone Weil

endured a _{personal catastrophe} even

more

anticlimactic;she

was

wounded by

accident!

The

fatethat preserved herthroughoutherlife for the antiheroicheroism of her actual death, broughtthis _{episode, too, to a} bathetic conclusion.

Concerned

with the _{possibilities} of

_combining

participation and nonviolence, pondering the eternal, she

forgotthe "real"

world

ofmissteps and boiling oil, and in-eptly

burned

herself, a victim of that clumsiness

which

seems to have been an essential _{aspect of her denial of the} physicalself.

_Badly

hurt_{and poorly cared}for, she

was

res-cued

from

afield _hospital

_by

her_parents once

more

com-ing

between

herand her desiredagony!

INTRODUCTION

The

_{Spanish adventure}

was

herlast _{purelypolitical}

ges-ture; afterward, during the

Second

World

War,

she

was

to

work up

some

_{utterly impractical plan for being} para-chuted into France to _{carry spiritual} solace to the _fighters inthe

_underground

resistance;

and

she

was

evento consider at one _{point going} to the Soviet Union,

where

she could doubtless not have lived in

freedom

for a

month.

_Among

the

Communists

in France she had been

known

as a

Trot-skyite,

and

had once beenthreatenedwithphysical violence for delivering ananti-Stalinist _report ata trade union con-vention.

But

ata

moment when

theRussians

were

_retreating

before the

German

attack,she felt _{obliged to}

"add

a coun-terweight/'inorderto restore that equilibrium

which

could alone

make

life here

below

bearable.

One

can _barely im-agine her in the field with the

Red

Army,

this quixotic, suffering "friend of

God,"

flanked

by

the self-assured killersof "Fascist Beasts/'

and

_carryinginher

hand

the

_gun

that

would

doubtless have

blown

off her _fingers

had

she triedto fire it.

These

later _{projects were,} as their _{very "impossibility"}

attests, different inkind

from

her earlypractical ventures: the picketing with the

_unemployed,

_{the participation} in Spain. She had passed into the realm of the politics of the absurd, ofmetapolitics,having decided that"the revolution

is_{the opiate of the people/'}

and

that thesocial considered in itself is "a trap of traps...an ersatz _divinity... ir-remediably the

domain

of the devil."

The

lure of thesocial she believed to be her_{special temptation. Against} the love ofselfshe

was armored

_by

her_{very temperament.}

"No

one

WAITING

FOR GOD

loves himself," she

wrote

in her _journal.

"Man

wants

to be an _egoist

and

cannot."

But

a _{nostalgia for}collective action

seemed

ever

on

_{the point} of

_overwhelming

her defenses.

Simply

to join together with others in

any group

whatso-ever

would

have beenforher"delicious." "I

know

thatifat

this

moment

Ihadbefore

me

a

_group

of

_twenty

_young

Ger-mans

_singing

Nazi

_songs in chorus," she once said, "a part of

_my

soul

would

_instantly

become

Nazi

"Yet, the

"we"

can lead

_away

from

God,

she

knew,

as _dangerouslyas the "I." "Itis

_wrong

to bean 'I,' butitis

worse

to be a 'we,'

"

she

warned

herself.

"The

_{city gives us the feeling of being} at

home.

_{Cultivate the feeling ofbeing}at

home

in exile.'*

Yet

_charity took _{her continually} backinto the

world

of social action. _"Misery

must

be eliminated inso far as pos-sible

from

life_{in society,}for_miseryisuseful_onlyin _respect to grace,and_societyisnota_{society of the}elect.

There

will

always be

enough

misery for theelect." Ifthereis a certain inconsistencyin herposition, itis easyto forgive.

Even

the

"wrong"

politics of her revolutionary

youth

she

would

not write off as

_wholly

mistaken; she never repented her early radicalism, understanding it as _{a providential discipline,} through

which

she had

been

unconsciouslylearning

how

to emancipate her imagination

from

its embroilment with the social. "Meditation

on

thesocial

mechanism

is_{a purification}

of the first _importance in this _regard.

To

_contemplate the socialisas

_good

a

means

of_{purification as retiring}

from

the world.

That

is

_why

1

was

not

_wrong

in_stayingwith_politics for_{so long."}

It

was

after _{her Spanish experience that}

Simone

Weil

INTRODUCTION

reached the critical _{point of conversion; but the decisive} event in her_spiritual education had _{been, she always felt,} her

work

in_{the factory.}

She

had not

known

what

she

was

seeking at the machine, but she had

found

it _nonetheless:

branded with the red

mark

of the slave, she had

become

incapable ofresisting"the religionof slaves.*7 In one sense,

Simone

Weil

insisted _{afterward, she had not needed to be}

converted;she

had

_{always been implicitly, in} "secret" even

from

her lower self, a Christian; but she had never _knelt, she had never_{prayed, she} had neverentered a_Church,she had never even posedtoherself_{the question of}

God's

exist-ence. "I

_may

_say that never in

_my

life have I _{'sought for}

God/

" she said

toward

the end of her life; but she

had

been

allthetime_waiting,without_{daring to define}

what

she awaited.

Taken

off

_by

_{her parents}to_{Portugal to recuperate}

from

herburns and _{her chagrin, she}

made

her

_way

to _Solesmes,

where,listening toaGregorian chant at the

moment

when

her migraine

was

at its _{worst, she experienced the}

joy

and

bitterness ofChrist's _passion as a real _{event, though} stillso abstractlythatshe didnotattachtoit

_any

name.

And

_there, too, shehad

met

a

_young

_{English Catholic,}

who

introduced her to the

work

of the British _{metaphysical poets of the} seventeenth century, and so _gave hera

_key

to the _beyond, in _{the place of conventional prayer} to

which

she had not yet beenable toturn.

Like

no

saintbeforeher,

Simone

Weil

distrustedthe con-ventional apparatus of piety

and

_grace;

and

itis _typical of

herrole thatit

was

_{through forms} ofart _{acceptable to the} 23

WAITING FOR GOD

most

_{skeptical anti-Christian (Gregorian chant}

and

meta-physical poetry

two

of the special rediscoveries of

our

irreligious time) that she approached her encounter with

God.

"Ina

moment

of_{intense physical suffering," she} tells

us,

"when

I

was

_{forcing myself} to feel love, but without desiring to give a

name

to thatlove, I felt,without beingin

any

way

prepared forit (forI

had

never read_{the mystical} writers) apresence

more

personal,

more

certain,

more

real

thanthatofa

human

_being,

_though

inaccessibletothe senses

and

the_imagination "

She

had been_{repeating to}herself

a _piece

_by

_George

Herbert,

when

the _{presence came.} "I used tothinkI

was

_{merelyreciting}itas a beautiful

_poem,"

shewrites, "but without

my

knowing

it the recitation

had

the virtue ofa _prayer." It is

worth

_quoting the

_poem

as a whole, for its

_imagery

is vital, as

we

shall see later, to an understanding of

Simone

Weil'sessentialthought.

Love

bade

me

welcome:

_yet

_my

soul

drew

back,

Guiltieoflust

and

sinne.

But

_{quick-ey'd Love, observing}

me

_grow

slack

From

_my

firstentrancein,

Drew

nearer to_{me, sweetlyquestioning,} IfIlack'd

_any

_thing.

A

_guest, Ianswer'd,

_worthy

tobehere:

Love

said,

You

shall behe.

Itheunkinde,_ungratefull?

Ah

_my

deare, Icannot look

on

thee.

Love

took

_my

hand,

and

smiling did reply,

Who

made

the_{eyes but}I? 24

INTRODUCTION

Truth

Lord, butIhave marr'd them: let

my

shame

Go

where

itdoth deserve.

And know

_you

not, sayesLove,

who

boretheblame?

My

deare,thenI will serve.

You

must

sit

_down,

_sayesLove,

and

taste

_my

meat:

So

Ididsit

and

eat.

Even

aftersuch an_experience,this_{astonishingly}stubborn friendof

God

could not_for

more

than_{fiveyearsbring} her-self_{conventionally topray (though} shetellsus thatin ₁₉₃₇ she knelt for the first _{time, at} the shrine _{in Assisi), finally} persuadingherselftosay the PaterNosterdailywithso spe-cial a concentration that _apparently at each _repetition, Christ himself "descended

and

took her." Itis her

remark-able

freedom

from, her actual shamefastness before the

normal

_procedures of Christian _worship that lend _{a special} authority to

Simone

Weil's testimony.

Nothing comes

to

herasaconvention or_{a platitude;} it is asifsheis driven to reinvent_everything

from

_{the beginning.}

Of

her first

mys-tical _{experience she}writes,

"God

had _{mercifullyprevented}

me

from

_{reading the mystics, so} that it

would

be clear to

me

that I had not fabricated an _{absolutely unexpected} en-counter." Surely,

no

_mystic has ever beenso _scrupulously his

own

_skeptical examiner.

Afterward,

Simone Weil found

in St.

_John

of theCross

and

the _{Bhagavad-Gita accounts} of encounters similar to her

_own;

andsheeven decided

_upon

_{rereading her old}

mas-ter Plato in the _light of her

new

_{experience that} he, too,

must

have achieved_{the mystical union.} Beforeher

own

en-counter, she

had

thought that all such _{alleged experiences}

WAITING

FOR GOD

could be only a _{turning of} the natural orientation of the sexual desire

toward

_{an imaginary object labeled}

Goda

degradingself-indulgence, "lower thanadebauch."

To

dis-tinguishher

own

secretlife

from

suchersatzmysticism

be-came

oneof the

main

_{objects of her thought.}

After herfirst _{mystical union, the} inner existence of

Si-mone

Weil

becomes

much

more

_{important than anything}

that_{superficially happens} to her.

Even

the

War

itself, the grossestfact of ourrecent history,shrinksin the

new

per-spective. Nonetheless,

Simone Weil

continued to

immerse

herself in the _{misery of daily} life. Driven

_by

herconstant desirenot_{to separate}herself

from

themisfortune ofothers, she refused to leaveParis untilit

was

declared an

_open

_city, after

which

she

moved

with her_{parents to} Marseilles.

But

there she

was

_Caught

_by

the anti-Jewish laws ofthe

_Vichy

Government

which

made

it_{impossible for}her to teach

_any

longer; and so she

went

to

Gustave Thibon,

a lay theo-logian, in charge of a Catholic agricultural colony in the

South of France.

Under

his _{guidance, she}

worked

in the vineyards with the peasants

(whom

she astonished

and

bored with lectures

on

the _{Upanishads!), sleeping} as _they

slept,

and

eating their

meager

fare until her feeble health

broke

down

once more.

M.

Thibon

at first

_immensely

mis-trustedher motives a radical intellectual _{"returning to the} soil!" then

became

closely attached to her,

and

it

was

to

him

that she entrusted her journals

and

occasional_jottings,

which

he _finally decided _{to publish} afterher death _despite her_{request to the contrary.}

The

chief external influence

on Simone Weil

duringthese last_yearsof her_{spiritual progress}

was

not

M.

Thibon, but