SITE
For me
this site fulfils a modest dream. Many times in recent years I have wished
to see gathered together in one place all my best work. Unashamedly, this
is partly for my own pleasure. But I felt it could also be useful for
others to be able to access easily these writings in one place. Writers
always wish to circumvent the odious power of editors, as they always feel
they are a better judge of their own work than anyone else. I have
therefore placed much unpublished material on this site, in the hope that
my judgement of its value proves correct.
An
historian’s task is not merely to gather and deliver accurate information,
but also to attempt to digest and evaluate the facts for the reader.
Indeed, this is probably the most difficult and important task history
presents to us, and without which it is a very dull and incomplete affair.
Interpretation necessarily involves opinions, ideas, speculation and
repeated probings at the network of human feelings and motivations which
always underpins the events and figures themselves. It is for others to
judge whether my feeble attempts in that direction have proved worthwhile
or valuable. But nothing is cast in stone, and new ideas, new data and
fresh stimulus always shed new light on old material and then generate
further bursts of writing in our attempt to polish, correct and revise
previous thoughts. It is an enduring process.
Homeopathic
history is a very rich seam, which I have worked at very happily now for
10 years. It is my hope that some of the material gathered here is of use
to others in this field and that it is of interest to anyone involved in
homeopathy itself. The material reflects my own abiding interests in
Samuel Hahnemann the man, and in the many figures of British homeopathy. I
have also added to the site the second indulgence of placing some of my
own artwork, and gradually I hope to increase the range and amount of
material displayed. Some of my favourite poetry and pictures by others:
material by W B Yeats, Dylan Thomas, John Constable, Joseph Wright and
Eugene Galien-Laloue, for example, and also some horoscopes and Buddhist
essays will also be added in the near future. And also eventually many
hotlinks to other sites.
Thanks
Few of us
achieve very much entirely on our own. We always enjoy the help of
someone. There are many people who have helped me in my research and it
would be selfish and uncharitable of me not to identify and acknowledge
that help. I am very grateful for all the help given to me, in the early
days of my research, by Liz Danciger, Geoffrey Brown, Jerome Whitney,
Edwin Tomkins, Kay Samuel, Misha Norland, John Pert, Ralph Twentyman and
John Wilcox. They undoubtedly laid the foundations for all my later work,
and helped me to gain a much clearer picture of modern British homeopathy
since about 1930. I then had a lot of help from Ian Townsend in
Derbyshire, the BHA in London, Mary Gooch in Glasgow, and Ian Railton in
Doncaster, which filled in most of the gaps. Phil Nicholls has given me
ten years worth of help and encouragement.
Since
about 1994 I have received continuous help, stimulus and encouragement
from Toni Godden and Student Homeopath in London, which I am very pleased
to acknowledge, and where much of my early scribbling appeared; likewise
from Robin Logan as Editor of The Homeopath, for whom I have great respect
and affection — as a homeopath, as an editor and as a human being. In
more recent times I appreciate the help and advice of Julian Winston,
Edouard Broussalian, Maria Vera and Michael Tomlinson and all those
involved with lyghtforce and Homeopathy Online. For support, and the
incredible facility of this website I cannot thank Homéopathe
International and Sylvain Cazalet enough. But the ideas and the
perspectives are mine and any ‘cargo of errors’ they might contain.
Peter Morrell
April 2000