Sydney, September 5th, 1916.
We wish for your presence every day while we are working at the reconstruction of the Catholic Ritual. Your splendid gift of language, your wondeful power of putting things poetically, would be invaluable to us. This thing ought to be well done - the Ritual of His Church, the only one combining the power of the ancient Church with a true Theosophical expression of the real relation between God and man; all the greatest poets of the age ought to be at work on it, not a couple of obscure though earnest gentlemen who have no special capacity for expression, whose productions are mildly commonplace! The consolation is that our effort is merely provisional; it may fill the gap for the moment, and may presently be replaced by something more worthy. Yet who now living but you, can write this permanent Ritual? For it must conform exactly to the old thought-form, and yet contain no word that is untrue, no thought derogatory to the Love of God and the dignity of man who is a part of Him. Well, we will do our best, but we fully recognize that the contract is beyond our capacity.