The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1) — John Shaqi
The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1)Various
General
The Little Review, March 1915 (Vol. 2, No. 1)
Various
Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- Periodicals
There were well-known and influential women who stayed away from the
lecture because they were afraid—afraid of the truth. Because in their
blindness they could not see behind the cheap sensationalism of certain
newspapers and understand the spiritual purity for which Mrs. Ellis has
always stood. Yet their absence showed them not so much cowards as women
incapable of reaching the great white lights of life.
Then there were women who came to the lecture expecting to be shocked;
and they went away disappointed. There were women who came laughing and
gossiping; and they went away still laughing and wondering what all the
fuss was about anyway. They could not see anything extraordinary; it was
all rather commonplace and not altogether new.
And a few came quietly, knowing that they were to contact a great
earnest and wonderful personality; who above all her broad wisdom stands
for the highest ideals that humanity knows—a little woman with a big
mind. These went away thoughtfully, and were satisfied, for they
understood.
They felt as well as did Mrs. Ellis herself what could and what could
not be said on a public platform to a gathering of more than a thousand
prejudiced and in some cases antagonistic listeners. They had in their
minds, as of course she had also, knowledge of the many scientific
volumes that her husband has written. Those familiar with Havelock Ellis
were better prepared to listen than the others. They were grounded in
the facts and science of sex which has never been disclosed as he has
done it, and those who have read his pages know that in them he is the
complete scientist, weighing, comparing, crediting, and discrediting the
facts that have come to him. In no way are his sex studies
propagandic—they are a tremendous reservoir of static power. It has been
for his wife and co-worker, she of independent mind and high purpose, to
take all this vast collection of scientific information in her small
hands, crush out the sordidness, the misery, the heart-sickening
perversions and distortions of human lives and holding up the bright
ideals, fling them out to her listeners in phrases burning with hope for
both men and women and faith that true love will make everything whole.
She did not pose as a righter of personal grievances or a solver of
private woes. The individual was lost in the group; details were
submerged in generalities; isolated examples made way for guiding
principles. When Mrs. Ellis said “We must improve our knowledge if we
would improve our morals” and that there can be no guide to right living
except that which comes from within, she gave us the key to happiness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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