Havergal College - Magazine Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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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

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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

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Havergal College Magazine for their special contribution in the building up of national life, and for their help in arriving at an adequate solution of the prob- lems which confront the awakened peoples. But if women are to take their right place in the new move- ments, it is obvious that they must be educated, and this fact is being recognized in the East as well as in the West. The leaders of the new political movements in China realize that the develop- ment of women ' s education is one of the most urgent necessities for China and, in India, Hindu and Moslem reformers are dis- cussing the question and are themselves founding schools for girls. In these circumstances, the leaders in the East naturally turn to the West for help, and to Western women has come the supremely important question of the kind of training that shall be given to the women of the East. Shall they receive a merely Western edu- cation, and thus bring to their nation an ideal of human life which is not interwoven with the old national ideals, or shall they remain true to the best which their nation has always desired for its women and yet add to the old ideal the new social and intellectual freedom and the spiritual forces which Christianity and Christian education can give ? With the entrance of Western science and Western civilisation the old faiths are rapidly losing their hold. Shall the women of the East receive an education which will bring to them material benefits but which will offer them nothing to sat- isfy their deep religious instincts, and which will give them neither spiritual ideals nor moral power with which to cope with the strangely difficult conditions of their lives ? The opportunity now before English women and others of giving help to the women and girls of the East can hardly be over- estimated. ' Not only are Western teachers needed to serve on the staffs of schools, both for kindergarten and form work, but they are even more urgently required for training Indian and Chinese teachers who shall be able to educate the millions of Indian and Chinese girls — teachers who will be enthusiastic over their work and who will not merely try to cram the children with facts out of Western text-books. The influence which Christian teachers might have at this moment in moulding the destinies of the Eastern nations is, without exa ggeration, incalculable. Moreover, English women who give their interest and thoughts to the needs of India, China and Japan are not thereby neglecting home problems. The social perplexities of England will not be truly solved so long as an attempt is made to deal with them in isolation. Social prob- lems today are closely bound together throughout the world ; they are part of one great movement which is confined by no geographi- cal boundaries. If Christian ideals do not raise the moral and spiritual standards of the East there will come flooding back upon 22