Retirement, Honey

Many thanks for your elaborate letter. You have almost converted me. I knew the sinfulness (for me) of taking wild honey. But stupidly and lazily I went on taking it. Your graphic description of the manner in which wild honey is prepared has almost driven me to the abjuring of wild honey. So you see what you would have me to do when, if ever, I am outside Yeravda [prison], I am likely to do almost immediately. But surely there must be places in India where innocent honey is prepared. What about the Himalayan honey which we see in the market?...

P.S. Do I gather from your letter that it is possible to extract honey by scientific means from wild honeycombs without inuring the comb or the bees? If it is not, must wild honey be beyond human reach unless one is prepared to destroy the comb and the bees.

(Recorded under October 23, 1932; ibid., p. 172.)