EASTERN IDEALS OF WOMEN : A NOTE ON DR. COOMARASWAMY'S PAPER.

The article presents the author's views on the ideals of Eastern women. There are a considerable number of Western men in whom there is a survival of the Eastern view about women, although they take very good care not to carry the Oriental notion of impersonality and sacrifice into their conception of what is seemly in men. This ideal is not imposed upon women by men, but is the national and eternal ideal of both sexes, It is less obviously ridiculous for an Oriental to assert that women like seclusion, ignorance, and subjection, because when any living creature is accustomed from birth to certain conditions, that creature suffers when transplanted to other conditions. The author firmly believes that he has seen so many women gain joy and hope by the opening of doors: seen dull eyes brighten and sad lips smile to hear words spoken which at last express their inmost and hitherto unfriended thoughts and aspirations and sorrows, The depression of life and energy, of will and genius, that comes from slavery is spiritual murder, and the kind of slavery which is involved in the subjection of one sex to the other is the most penetrating conceivable; for it permeates flesh and spirit. It is life-long, it corrupts the ethical standard of both slave and slave-owner, so that no one yet knows what women can do nor to what heights men can rise.