Havergal College - Magazine Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 22 text:

Havergal College Magazine mind, is all in contrasts and unexpectedness. The contrasts are of a quality so subtle and complex that they meet every shade of thought, every mood, as the mind in the course of the day or night merges from one phase to another. It would seem as if at last the complexity of our being had found a fit mate in this wonderful, ever-changing city. The charm of the unexpectedness lies in the character of sur- prise, of beauty following directly upon ugliness, so that we are being given constantly the impression of a first sensation, and no other impression can be stronger. There where you expect continu- ous beauty, in Oxford, in Perugia, or in Venice, there is no disharmony. You pass from one more lovely aspect to another until in the end the senses arc dulled, the emotions lessened; for, to even the most intense of natures, that which is taken for granted makes for insensibility, just as an over-long programme re nders ns deaf to the beauty of the last piece played, or too-prolonged a drama makes the joy of great acting less felt. And therein lies the secret of London ' s power over our souls. The constant passing from beauty to ugliness, and back again to beauty, gives a grip and intensity in the appreciation of that beauty such as we can get nowhere else. Our pulses vibrate to it as they cannot to more harmonious scenes; we vibrate to contrasts as we cannot to melody. Have not musicians felt the power of discords ? We strive so to blot out the ugliness when we suddenly merge on beauty, we so intensely long to prolong the joy into the future of ugliness which must accompany us home, that every bit of our being rises up to proclaim the glory and greatness of what we have just seen; and so, for example, the majestic pile of Westminster ' s buildings as seen from St. James ' Park, or the perfect architec- tural line of Chelsea Hospital, become indelibly printed on our inner vision as we step again into the glare of Regent Street or into the squalor of Pimlico and the King ' s Road. The fascination of contrasts holds us even more strongly when we go away from London. Our mood is such that even Kensington Gardens cannot afford us enough peace. The smell of London has got on our brain ; our nerves are steeped in the petrol of her motor omnibuses, and it is then we must for a time depart and wander in the real country lanes and sweet-scented meadows. Nothing can compare with the beauty of England ' s country: the little villages nestling in a valley or by the hillside, with their thatched black-and-white cottages, and near by a softly running brook or stream, and all around large vistas of green fields edged with the stately elm or the spreading oak. And in our wanderings we might chance on a little grove of silver birch trees murmuring 20

Page 21 text:

Havergal College Magazine April 5 — Opening of Palestine Exhibition. Botany Stall hon- oured by Havergal. April 7 — Several of the boarders attend the symphony concert at the Walker. Delightful music. April 9 — Gymnastic Display — great success. April 11 — Packing and holidays — ten days. Oh, joy! April 22 — Back to work again. Don ' t look so sad — there ' s a good time coining! THE FASCINATION OF LONDON Those of us who love London, love it with an ever-increasing passion, and come further and further under its spell. Its fascination lies party in the stream of intense movement — swift, merciless, charged with thought, rushing towards action, whether mental or physical ; and partly in the sensation of vast- ness, not vastness of space, but vastness in understanding, which none but a congested spot can give, paradoxical as this may sound. For, if we come to think of it, can anything be more stagnat- ing to thought than vast unlimited space, whether of land or ocean ? And does not thought need the impetus of activity in order to create and produce ? The mind, left to itself, gets atrophied and dulled. Peace, whether of land or of nations, induces stagnation ; great epochs of art and literature have followed on times of stress and war, and most men of genius have worked in towns or cities. The roar of cannon or the roar of London ' s streets quickens and stimulates the intellect as nothing else can do. We all know the sensation of vegetating which comes on us after a sojourn in the country — or, still worse, in a small town — or the torpor which covers us as we sit on an ocean liner, gazing at the vastness of a never-ending sheet of water. Unlimited physical space, however beautiful, cannot induce mental width of vision, on the contrary; but great congested cities, like London or Paris, with their never-ceasing movement and over- crowded thoroughfares, give to most of us a sensation of vitality, of aliveness and joy such as the country cannot produce, however much we may love and appreciate the beauties of nature. But were London devoid of natural beauty, were the hand of man as wilfully destructive of all that is lovely as that which cre- ated the horror of the Albert Memorial, then we could not find in England ' s great metropolis that inspiration and fascination which I am striving to analyse. London has a supreme beauty and dignity which no other European city possesses in the same degree. The beauty, to my 19

Page 23 text:

Havergal College Magazine in the wind, or on a little wood of larches with their delicate out- line standing out against the blue-grey sky. At our feet might be golden daffodils dancing in the sun, or bluebells mingling with the young spring green; and, at peace with ourselves, joy and de- light in our weary town-laden hearts, we would turn back walking through lanes where white and purple violets hid in the hedges and young birds twittered in their nests. We would stop and listen to the song of thrush or blackbird, or to the murmur of the wind in the trees; we would lie on the earth and fill our being with the damp, sweet smell, and the threefold joy of sight and sound and smell would be such as the 1 dweller in cities alone could appreciate to the full. But when, our mood having changed, Ave move away and return to the roar of London ' s traffic, the joy of contrast is so strong that, though our senses may be still vibrating to the memory of some sweet spot or delicious scent, we rejoice again in the grandeur and dignity of London ' s beauty, and in the inspiration its beauty holds for us. But perhaps it is at night that we most feel the fascination of London (all is wonderful at night for those who can feel the magic and mystery of the dark), or in the half-dim light as we wander by the Thames when the mist clothes the riverside with a charm hard to define, but which never fails to meet our mood. It transforms everything around so that our imagination has free play and fairyland is before us. Wonderful tints of blue and gold dwell in the sky, and below at our feet flows the silvery Thames. All swiftly flowing rivers have 1 a fascination, but there is something about the Thames which moves us very deeply. Perhaps this is due to the literary and historical associations which it evokes, or to the fact that it flows through some of the most loved scenery in England, widening and widening till it ends in infinity soon after passing through the heart of London City. One of the most beautiful poems in the English language has a refrain which I should like to quote in conclusion to these few remarks on London ' s charm: Sweete Themmes mime softly, till I end my song. -L. M. ' Grove. THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN THE EAST. Among the vast changes which are taking place in the world to-day, few movements are more significant than that which is bringing freedom to the women and girls of the East. Tn India, China and Japan the influence of Western civilization has already put women into a new position, and the need is being recognized 21