PARERGA
‘All the great mystics have been energetic and influential, and
their business capacity is specially noted in a curiously large
number of cases.’
INGE, _Bampton Lectures_, Preface vii.
One outcome of Miss Beale’s time of personal spiritual distress, one
which bore directly on what she considered as St. Hilda’s work, was an
arrangement made for the first time in 1884 for devotional meetings
for teachers at the end of the summer term. After 1885, when a second
gathering took place, they were held alternately with the biennial Guild
meetings. Like much of Miss Beale’s work, these Quiet Days, as they were
called, resulted rather from a definite idea than from a formal plan.
Their arrangement and character appear to have been due to the occurrence
of certain conditions and circumstances while Miss Beale was forming a
decision to help others who might be suffering as she herself had done.
Plans for this help began to pass through her mind as early as the summer
of 1882, while she was herself, as she would have expressed it, ‘in the
fire.’ In July 1882 she wrote to a friend:—
‘_July 25, 1882._
‘What occurred to me was this—that something of a more definite
Retreat might be held for teachers during the vacation. Mr.
Wilkinson had at Christmas some Quiet Days which were very
valuable and helpful. Still these were not quite like a regular
Retreat:—because very few who went were able to be really quiet
in London lodgings, and so could not get the absolute silence
and repose which make a Retreat valuable.... Most of the
regular Retreats are too general to give teachers the _special_
help, and many are so distinctly High Church, that one could
not venture to recommend young teachers to go.... I _can’t_
accept the decision “nothing can be done”; theories of distress
which reach me as the old light seems to go out, and the dark
waves close in, are too distressing. We cannot administer “a
universal pill”; but we can to some extent support and comfort
those who are passing through the darkness; one can out of
one’s own experience tell them that the stars will shine out
once more; one can teach some few simple lessons of faith and
patience and hope; one can show that there are _a priori_ and
_a posteriori_ grounds for the faith we hold,—though mysteries
unfathomable remain in every department of thought; and in such
a meeting, personal help and advice might be given to meet
special individual difficulties. It is here that the Christian
Evidence Society fails. Teachers have not time for _much_
reading and there are masses of books, many of them containing
very little matter and plenty of words and arguments, which are
useless for our special difficulties. Of course Retreats are
not simply for such intellectual treatment of doubts, and one
would look for a quickening of faith by the special services
and united prayers. So I thought it might seem good to hold
some sort of Retreat in Oxford next year.’
It was not till the beginning of 1883 while attending a Retreat in
Warrington Crescent—a time to which she often recurred as of much help
and strengthening—that Miss Beale was able definitely to consider what
might be done. There were friends to whom she could turn, who took
trouble to help her by thinking over the matter from her point of view.
Among these may specially be mentioned the late Archbishop of Canterbury
and Mrs. Benson, the late Bishop of St. Andrews, and Canon Body. To Mrs.
Benson she wrote:—
‘_Epiphany, 1883._
‘Whilst others were rejoicing at the recent appointment I
have been conscious of a mixed feeling, for the Archbishop of
Canterbury will not be able to do what the Bishop of Truro had
half promised, in the way of helping by some kind of Retreat,
teachers who have difficulties of belief. Mr. Wilkinson has
also been unable to give us the Quiet Days for which we had
hoped. So some Head Mistresses, who were in Retreat, and felt
the great need, asked for special prayers for teachers in
Colleges and High Schools, and that some way might be found to
help them. Mr. Body responded very heartily to our request, and
desired us to make it the subject of our special petition each
week during the year. Afterwards in conversation, he spoke of
the valuable help you had been able to give, and this has set
me thinking whether we could not ask you to make your knowledge
and experience more widely useful.
‘Our main difficulty would be to meet the doubts of those who
have them, without suggesting doubts to those who have not been
called to encounter this trial.
‘It has occurred to me, that perhaps there might be something
on the model of the Guild for the Sick, combining the principle
of the “Instruction by Correspondence” classes.
‘ ... Perhaps you may think me intruding—my acquaintance with
you is so slight—and unpractical, but the need is great and
immediate, and I think you will feel this too. I have gained
such painful experience, both from within and without, of the
misery of those who have once seen and then lost the sight
of the invisible; those who have left, especially those who
become teachers, often turn to me for help, which I feel so
incompetent to give, and which I have not time to do properly.
One is writing to me now, who is in a school in which there are
sixteen teachers, ten of whom have given up all outward sign of
the religious life. I long to be able to refer those who need
guidance to some who are able to help them. Every other trial
can be borne, but this is utter misery.
‘ ... It is not enough to preach sermons, and print books, as
well might we furnish a treatise on Arithmetic to a child whose
sum is wrong; we must find out and show why it is wrong. The
Church did not make its way by such means at first, at least
not without daily discussions “in the school of one Tyrannus.”
Of course I do not overlook that some of the difficulties of
belief are moral, but these could be met by the means I suggest.
‘I think it is _very_ important that members should be able to
enquire anonymously; come “by night” as it were, and should be
assured that no one would try to find out the name.’
To Canon Body, who had sent her a letter full of sympathy and interest,
she wrote:—
‘I am so glad you wrote thus freely, for it has made me
understand better how much you can feel for those in this
deepest sorrow, and yet have a sure and certain hope that they
will rise out of that Hades. It is, as you say, most cheering
to find movements of the same kind in different places. If
there is a spiritual tide, the waters can only be lifted by
extra mundane force.’
Gradually the plan shaped itself. For a time Miss Beale hoped to be able
to arrange at Oxford a Retreat followed by a conference, with lectures
and discussions on theological subjects. This proved to be impracticable.
Then she sought to carry out the plan at Cheltenham. She was advised
to limit herself to two or three days of quiet study and devotion with
addresses. She would not, however, relinquish the idea of some kind of
conference. The scheme stated in the following extract from a letter was
very much what was actually carried out:—
‘I hope the archbishop will be so good as to ask some one to
give the addresses in the Quiet Days.... I should be there and
a few of my friends, head mistresses, and we should make our
subsequent lessons harmonise with the previous instruction,
so that there should be unity. I do not mean to give lessons
on _methods_ of teaching in the ordinary mechanical sense;
but on our vocation and the moral aspects of our work, and
then I thought we could get some one to give Bible lessons
on the books set by Oxford and Cambridge, some one who knows
the difference between dead and living teaching. We must have
enough to occupy those who come for the whole month, though I
expect only a few of those who come will remain so long. There
will, I find, be a large proportion of earnest teachers who
will be able to help and strengthen the weak.’
The Rev. V. H. Stanton[78] kindly acceded to Miss Beale’s request to give
the addresses at the three Quiet Days which opened the conference in
1884. In the following year Canon Mason did this. It is noticeable that
on almost every occasion the conductor of this Retreat for teachers was
drawn from the ranks of Cambridge. The reason for this Miss Beale often
explained, as in the following letter written as late as April 1904:—
‘I have had nearly all the book you sent read to me; there
are some beautiful thoughts, but I don’t feel quite at home
in the general atmosphere. It is difficult to describe, but
I remember when Archbishop Benson was choosing a Conductor
for our Retreat, he said one day, he would rather choose from
the Cambridge school of thought. I asked him what was the
difference between Cambridge and Oxford, and he said, “The
latter began with the thought of sin, the former with the
thought of the Divine Life in man.”
‘Some day when we meet I may be able to make clearer what I
mean.’
Mr. Stanton’s earnest sympathetic addresses were greatly valued by those
who were present in 1884. Not less prized was the generous kindness of
the Lady Principal in the weeks which followed the Retreat. Miss Beale
not only gave frequent addresses on various subjects, continuing in some
the line of thought begun on the Quiet Days, she was also constantly at
the service of any member of the party for discussion or counsel.
‘I expected certainly to see something of you,’ one who had been present
wrote afterwards to her, ‘but that you would constitute yourself the
mother of the party, be with us at meals, and do so very much for our
improvement and entertainment was quite undreamt of. Indeed, we were all
touched by it. I think those quiet days at the beginning gave a special
tone of earnestness to the gathering.’
Mrs. Soulsby wrote of the ‘help and comfort you gave to me and so many
others by arranging that Retreat. I have never been present at anything
so calculated to do steady and lasting good.’
And many spoke of the ‘sense of fellowship’ which had been gained by
meeting so many with like aims and interests; they told how they were
going back to work with ‘new hope for the future,’ or with ‘many new
lights and helpful suggestions to aid’ them. Some said the work of
teaching had been represented to them in a new light, some that the
conference helped them to a new start. One told how she was ‘in danger
of making shipwreck when your wise counsel saved me.’ Another said: ‘One
thing struck me very much, the fellow-feeling and anxiety to help that
teachers who have been at Cheltenham have for each other.’
More than a hundred teachers, many of them belonging to Cheltenham, were
present for the first days of the conference in 1884. Some twenty outside
teachers remained for the whole month. The time was long enough to foster
real intimacy. A great deal of time and thought had been devoted to
arrangements beforehand, in order that all might get the utmost benefit
from the time. In this Miss Beale received much willing co-operation from
her own staff, and Miss Caines lent Fauconberg House and her servants.
Miss Beale was specially anxious that during the Quiet Days all should
have the opportunity of keeping well the silence which was observed.
Those who had no rooms of their own had little sitting-rooms assigned
them in the College, the music-rooms being available for this purpose.
That part of the Cheltenham world which still regarded Miss Beale with
suspicion and to whom a Retreat appeared, even as late as 1884, to be a
dangerous High Church innovation, raised a cry of alarm. The music-rooms
had been turned into cells! It is not known what the word implied to
those who made the outcry, and it was soon silenced, but it caused a
little annoyance at the time.
The month passed in teaching and helping, though gladly given out of her
own holidays, was an undoubted physical strain to Miss Beale. She wrote
to Mrs. Benson:—
‘I wish I had never said I would try to write a paper for
Thursday at the Health Exhibition. I do not like to leave even
for a day, as one ought to go on trying to help those who
remain. We do feel so grateful for all the time and thought you
and the Archbishop have been good enough to give us, especially
in the selection of Mr. Stanton. For myself, I should never
have had the courage to go on; (one gets nervous)....’
And she was tired. The last entry in her diary for that month is this:—
‘_August 27._—End of month at Fauconberg. Last address not
good, and result of neglect.’
Yet Miss Beale probably felt such a strain far less than any other
head-mistress would have done, so absorbingly interesting to her was this
kind of work. She always looked back with great pleasure on that time.
She treasured the letters she received afterwards from those who had been
present, dated from it lasting friendships made with some who had come
from other schools, and felt it had drawn her nearer to some of her own
teachers.
Miss Beale’s outside interests were concerned, as was natural, chiefly
with education. With every educational movement made during the last
fifty years in the direction of progress she became to some extent
associated. She presided at the first meeting of head-mistresses held
in 1874 at Myra Lodge, when the Association for Head-mistresses was
founded with Miss Buss as president. ‘I see,’ said Miss Beale of this
meeting in 1906, ‘it is recorded that I presided. My recollections
are only of lying in great pain on the sofa and taking only a feeble
part in the discussion. I little thought that I should be allowed to
address a conference which more than thirty years after numbers over two
hundred and thirty members.... At our first meeting certain principles
were asserted which tended to settle some difficult questions.’ Miss
Beale here doubtless refers to the very first resolution passed by this
aristocratic body, which was to the effect that no school can work
satisfactorily unless the head-mistress be entirely responsible for its
internal management. Miss Ridley, in writing of Miss Buss,[79] (to ‘whose
insight and foresight,’ said Miss Beale, ‘the founding of the Association
was entirely due,’) has shown that the passing of this resolution was in
itself almost a _raison d’être_ for the Association. For the rightful
position of a head-mistress was not recognised without some difficulty
and controversy. The governing bodies of girls’ schools could not at
first be selected on the ground of interest and experience in educational
matters. Another resolution passed on that occasion was to the effect
that an examination to test the power of teachers is desirable.
On the death of Miss Buss, in 1895, Miss Beale became president until
1897, when her term of office expired. She never sought re-election, her
increasing deafness making it difficult for her to conduct meetings. She
thought a great deal of the importance of the Association and of the
discussions which took place at its meetings, and strove in every way to
render them not only earnest but fair-minded. ‘I hope,’ she said on one
occasion, ‘that our assemblies will not become such as the discussions
in Parliament, merely formal, every one having taken a side before and
being unmoved by anything said.’ Miss Beale several times read papers to
the Association, and in later years the deferential welcome she received
from its members was very noticeable. Her last address, given on the
request of the Association in June 1906, only a few months before her
death, may be regarded as her farewell to the educational world.
When the Association for Assistant Mistresses was formed, Miss Beale
regarded it at first with some anxiety. She feared the clash of interests
and promotion of suspicion between a head and her staff. Later, when she
understood the work of the Association, she received it into favour, and
on one occasion addressed a meeting of the western branch at St. Hilda’s.
Members of the Association were welcomed, and sometimes spent the morning
at College when they came over for branch meetings. Miss Beale, too,
was always willing to let those of her staff who belonged to the A.A.M.
Committee go up to London to attend meetings in term time, and was
pleased when it fell to Miss Lumby, as President of the Association, to
give evidence together with Mrs. Withiel, before the Bryce Commission in
1895.
The Teachers’ Guild, founded by Miss Buss in 1883, met with warm support
from the head-mistresses of the Association. A branch was started at
Cheltenham in the following year, and a paper by Miss Beale read, she
herself being indisposed at the time. She used her influence with her own
teachers to join the Guild, and frequently addressed the branch meetings
on such subjects as the Value of Examinations. In the Froebel Society she
was also much interested and subscribed to it regularly. When the Church
Schools’ Company was founded in 1883, Miss Beale became at once a member
of the Council. She was proud that the College supplied head-mistresses
to both the Graham Street and Baker Street Schools.
The hopefulness no increase of years or disappointment could abate, the
open mind ever quick to receive what was good and original from those
younger and less experienced than herself, were seen in the way Miss
Beale greeted the work of the Child-Study Association.
With her consent Miss Louch, then a member of the College staff,
proceeded to America in 1894 to attend a course of lectures by Dr.
Stanley Hall on child-study. On her return the Association was formed in
Edinburgh, and in the same year a branch was started in Cheltenham, with
Miss Beale as local president. Before her death she was president of the
whole Association, and presided over the conference held in Cheltenham
in 1906, the year of her death. When the _Paidologist_, the organ of the
Child-Study Association, was started, Miss Beale contributed largely
to the guarantee fund, and for five years was a member of the Magazine
Committee. She promoted the work of the Association by trying to get the
College staff, boarding-house mistresses, and parents of pupils to join
and assist in it.
Miss Beale was among those consulted by Miss Mason when, in 1888, she
definitely sought to give the Parents’ Educational Union, which had had
a successful year’s work in Bradford, a national name and character. The
work of the society appealed greatly to Miss Beale, and the Cheltenham
branch was one of the earliest founded. Her name appears among those of
the vice-presidents in 1892.
To pass beyond the limits of the work in which, from the fact of her
position, the Lady Principal of Cheltenham was called upon to take
a part, it may be noticed that she was always much interested in
Sunday-school teaching, and wrote many articles upon it. Several of these
have been printed. Her interest was caused largely by the numbers of old
pupils who took up this work, and who came to her for advice about it,
as well as to the congenial nature of religious instruction. Dissatisfied
with the methods or want of method prevailing in many Sunday-schools,
she had a high ideal of the work for the sake both of teacher and
children, and was always ready with sympathy and suggestion. To an old
pupil engaged on a paper intended to point out some existing ills in
Sunday-schools she wrote in 1880:—
‘I should say begin with all the good done—the necessity for
them at the time, etc. Then speak of the evils, and with
each sort suggest a remedy, and admit that the evils are not
universal. Try to put it in rather a different shape, and I
think it would do good in overthrowing some self-complacency.
Especially is it an evil when quite raw girls—some ignorant
girls such as we have at College—pretend to teach. Children
accustomed to proper teaching of course fidget. I should have
been a little rebel myself, if I had had to hear the wretched
stuff that some children do at Sunday School. But it does, when
done properly, draw classes together.’
Institutions and societies designed to help the poor of Cheltenham
came of course before Miss Beale’s notice. She never, however, allowed
herself to be drawn from the pressing requirements of her own work, so
as to become acquainted with the details of that which, to some extent,
grows up round every church. She was, indeed, on principle, chary in her
support of this, maintaining that in a town there was generally great
waste of funds and labours, owing to the lack of combination. She wrote
as early as 1881 in reference to Cheltenham:—
‘I am so anxious that we should all work in the direction
pointed out by our Rural Dean, get all Church people to work
together as one, for works which cannot or ought not to be
merely parochial, and in all charitable work, wherever it
is possible, to get all, whether Church or not, to join in
opposing all forms of evil.... I think we should take works
in order of importance. I may be wrong, but I have regretted
the erection of Church steeples when there was other work that
seemed to me of more importance [left unsupported]. I think
the increase of offertories in churches, good as it is in many
ways, has tended to hinder united work in the town. I do not
know whether there ever could be a sort of Council for the
administration of at least part of the funds so collected;
but it does seem as if the present plan gave too much to some
districts and too little to others, and left some institutions
which have a claim upon all, with scarcely any support, because
what is everybody’s business is nobody’s.... The laity have
very little influence in the distribution of money collected
in churches, which tends always to become a larger proportion
of what is given away, so that much of the power to organise
united work must rest with the clergy. And _living_ forces,
which are enormously more important than money, are wasted by
“congregationalism.” Could there not be some larger association
of Church workers from which some sort of administrative
council might select persons suitable for any special work?
Could not work sometimes be done collectively, instead of each
clergyman doing it separately for his own congregation? I do
hope that more and more, in one work after another, we may
unite our forces, and if once people can be induced to look
into the evils which exist at their very doors, they will be
moved to work with one heart and mind to remove what is a
disgrace to our town.’
Among the institutions of Cheltenham, for which Miss Beale specially
claimed the need of united action, was the Working Men’s College.
She herself on one occasion read a paper there, her subject being
‘Self-support and Self-government from the point of view, not of the
individual, but of the College.’ The paper, simple and direct, shows how
Miss Beale could throw herself into the minds of those she addressed,
appealing to all that was best in them, while at the same time putting
her own thoughts into them. It embodies her favourite theories of the
danger of helping people through gifts:—
‘I do not think there are many belonging to this College
who could not pay a few shillings annually. Self-denial adds
value to energy.... Everybody does not agree with me. Some
think you will misunderstand,—think we do not want help. I do
not think you will, to judge by my own feelings. I like to be
independent. You look at the Ladies’ College and say, “You have
got all you want.” But time was when we were very poor, so poor
that our Council said, ... we will have but another year’s
trial and then shut up. We never said we would beg people to
help us: we would make it self-supporting, or it should die....
I feel certain if you working-men were to say, We will take
the management ourselves, and it shall be a success, that it
would be, and I think that if other people manage and pay for
it, that some of the strongest and most independent would stand
aloof.... I am quite sure that our College would not have been
what it is if we had had money to fall back upon. I might
myself have left the helm and gone to sit quietly in the cabin
while the vessel drifted on to the rocks.’
Among Miss Beale’s papers there exists a very simple address entitled,
‘Is Death the End?’ She intended to read it at a little mission-room,
maintained in a very poor street by her friends, Mr. and Mrs. James Owen.
The subject was one which had taken strong hold of her fancy at the time.
Some one had discovered a dragon-fly emerging from its chrysalis on a
water-lily in the little pond which then existed in the Fauconberg House
garden adjoining the College grounds. It was taken to Miss Beale, who
saw enacted before her own eyes a living parable of resurrection-life.
Her childlike delight in this came out in almost every Scripture lesson
she gave that summer. The pond was watched for chrysalids; they were
taken into the classrooms for the children to see the creatures creep
out of their tombs, lie soft and sleepy for a little, then sail away
on new-found wings. This true story of the dragon-fly and all it could
teach of life, through death, Miss Beale longed to tell to Mrs. Owen’s
poor friends. She wrote it carefully, and had little illustrations made;
but the lecture was never given. ‘Mrs. Owen would not let me,’ she said
sadly, ‘but I think I could have interested them in the dragon-fly.’ But
Mrs. Owen was probably right, since the audience for whom the paper was
intended was such as Miss Beale knew only in the pages of Browning’s
_Christmas Eve_.
In the work of the Church abroad, in the needs and claims of heathen
peoples governed by England, in the various problems which arise out of
these vast considerations, Miss Beale was interested only in a secondary
way. That is to say, when they came before her in the work of her own
pupils, when her girls turned to her for sympathy and help, then she
would consider them enough to be able to form some definite opinion, and
to give sound advice. The teachings of Hindoo religions and philosophy,
and the progress of Christianity in India, came before her as matters
of real interest in 1883, when Pundita Ramabai was sent by the Wantage
Sisters to study at the College. Miss Beale received her with the utmost
warmth and friendship. She made every possible arrangement for her health
and protection: she not only put at her disposal every advantage the
College could offer, but gave up a large portion of her own valuable time
in order to help her personally. She welcomed Ramabai’s long letters on
religious questions and difficulties, answering them at equal length.
She obtained introductions and arranged interviews for her with many
whom she thought could help her. Ramabai’s ‘appetite for philosophy’
(to quote Miss Beale), her enthusiasm and unsparing devotion to the
cause of her unhappy sisters in India, touched her deeply, and when
the Home for Widows was established at Poona,[80] Miss Beale became a
large and regular subscriber to it. Among her papers there is one which
was perhaps sent to India, or was perhaps just one of those written
expressions of some thought which had seized and filled her mind. It was
evidently intended to be an appeal against the cruelty which made such
homes for widows necessary:—
‘My heart,’ it runs, ‘is stirred by sorrow and pity for those
suffering widows of India; but there are some whom I pity
more,—those who inflict the sorrows on them, since it is far
better to suffer than to do wrong.... But what grieves me,
too, is the thought of the waste of all that wonderful amount
of energy and life which God has given your country-women in
order to bless others. If the men of India believe in God’s
goodness and wisdom, as I think they must, even though they
may not trust Him, they must think He has not made all those
widows to be a burden and misery to themselves and others, but
to do good work. What mistakes people make when they think that
they are wiser than God.... I look forward to the future and
rejoice and think that as India grows wiser with that wisdom
which trusts the infinitely wise and good God, Whom we worship,
she will send out her clever and good women, who are now
crushed by sorrow and unkindness, into the rich harvest-fields
of the world, will cheer them on in their work for others,
and they will become a blessing; surely that is the only joy
of a woman’s heart.... Not this only, there will be many who
will gladly give up all thought of the happiness of wife or
of mother, in its limited sense, and go forth to live for
others.... I can remember when Old Maid was a term of contempt
in England, but it is not so now; you have seen me and sixty
old maids working together happy and content, and if I could
send out a hundred women where I can now send one, I should not
have too many, so constant are the demands for “old maids,”
as you would call them,—for teachers, nurses, missionaries,
and all sorts of good work.... India will some time feel all
that her wasted women’s life can do. God will put it into the
hearts of men and of the happy women, who are sometimes hard
on the unhappy, to set these women free to do all that is in
their heart, and other good women will teach them to use their
precious gift of liberty as in God’s sight.’
Ramabai undoubtedly made Miss Beale realise the need for definite
Christian teaching in India. Here is an interesting extract from a letter
on this subject:—
‘_1884._
‘Rama Bai is very learned and thoughtful, and says how
powerless most missionaries are, for want of the knowledge of
native philosophy and religion.... I thought that the native
religions were feeding the higher life, but it seems not so
now; but the state is much the same as in Greece and Rome just
before the Christian era. She spoke much as Plato does in
the _Republic_ about the character of the gods in the Indian
poetry, and felt the wonderful power of the perfect Example,
and the inward Grace to follow it.’
On hearing of Miss Beale’s death Ramabai wrote: ‘It is over twenty-one
years since I saw Miss Beale for the last time. But her sacred memory
is quite fresh, and I seem to hear her pray and give Bible instruction.
Her love and influence, her words of encouragement and her prayers on my
behalf, have helped me much in my life and work.’
In South Africa, a school at Bloemfontein, still more one at Grahamstown,
became of interest at Cheltenham through the influence of Miss Strong,
who prepared herself to work in them by some periods of time at the
College. Many teachers at the Diocesan School, Grahamstown, were drawn
from Cheltenham, and its association of old pupils was for a time
affiliated with the Guild. Other old pupils went to India, China, Japan.
As the number of Cheltenham missionaries increased, the importance and
needs of their work became impressed more and more on some members of
the Guild. In 1878 Miss Beale, whose own interest in foreign missions
grew steadily in later years, allowed the formation of a Missionary Study
Circle within the Guild.[81] This is the only special work other than
that of the London Settlement she ever sanctioned, and this one was much
safeguarded. When the _Occasional Leaflet_, the organ of this circle, was
first published, she made it a condition that there should be no begging
for money, nor even a definite urging of the claims of foreign mission
work. She feared girls might be drawn by the attraction of distant and
more heroic-seeming activities to neglect duty at home. And, as the
present editor of the _Leaflet_ has remarked, ‘She hardly realised how
careful societies are in selecting and training would-be missionaries.’
On one occasion Miss Beale, by the request of the late Bishop of
Grahamstown,[82] actually addressed a small missionary meeting. She began
by saying:—
‘I have been asked to speak to you a few words to-day, and
I have consented on condition that I should not advocate a
cause. It is sometimes said, “Will you not collect money or
bring forward such an institution?” and I say “No! my duty is
to give principles, and to leave the definite application.”
And if the carrying out of the principles deprives of helpers
myself and the work that is nearest to my heart I am content,
and so I am sure the Bishop is.’ She continued, ‘I admit there
is sometimes a call to go abroad for those who want to serve
Christ, and lack resolution to be cut off from home ties. We
cannot so easily forget we are soldiers if we go out to an
enemy’s country. We read in history of brave people who failed
in war because when they had won a battle they could not be
kept together; but disappeared into their own homes, and had to
be got together again on the next emergency. So, I think some
who feel themselves weak do well to join some army bound for
foreign parts. They can’t run away on the first repulse, or
give up when tired;—and the raw recruit comes back a veteran
from his foreign campaign, able to lead the volunteers who
have to be trained at home. Not only does a foreign campaign
help us to break the bondage of self-indulgent habits, but
it unites us too. There is nothing like going away from home
and facing a common foe to unite us to those from whom we
were severed. A neighbour whom we scarcely knew in Cheltenham
is a friend at once in China or Africa. In the presence of
unbelief Christians who are separated feel their differences
in minor matters, matters of taste and feelings rather than
of principle, to be insignificant;—and unite in the great
battle against sin. Whilst, on the other hand, they feel the
immense power, the great need of faith, living and real, to
sustain them when the props of Society, of Church Services,
of sympathetic friends are taken away;—they have to dig down
to the rock.... In any case the battle must not begin without
training and discipline. Useless women, because undisciplined
in thought, in will, in action, what havoc they make! Having
a name to live, yet dead;—these bring in confusion. Those
who have not learned obedience, those who want credit for
themselves, or excitement, never help to win victory.’
There was one matter outside her own proper sphere of activity in which
Miss Beale was never sparing of money or personal trouble. This was
the work to which Mrs. Lancaster had first drawn her in her youth, the
rescue and protection of women. It became, as life went on, specially
linked with the memory of that other friend, of whom she loved to think
as Britomart, rescuing her sister from the fire. When Mrs. Owen died, it
was felt instinctively that her work for others must and should continue.
There seemed no memorial so fit as a Home for Friendless Girls for one
whose chosen task it had been to seek the lost piece of silver. Miss
Beale translated, as it were, all her poetical thoughts, all her most
tender memories into active co-operation, taking the chair at committees,
addressing meetings, making known the needs of the Home, finding workers
for it.
Miss Beale herself had learned much since 1856. As time went on she felt
less inclined to seek remedies for evil than to prevent its beginning;
she looked more to causes than to resulting facts. When in 1885 Mrs.
William Grey made an appeal for help in organising some definite movement
among the mothers of England against the sins which create the necessity
for rescue, Miss Beale responded warmly, urging her to come forward
herself to lead it.
‘LADIES’ COLLEGE, CHELTENHAM, _August 5, 1885_.
‘DEAR MRS. GREY,—Your beautiful letter was sent me by an old
pupil, who with her husband, Mr. Mitchell, is one of the most
earnest workers in the cause. The labours they have gone
through patiently and quietly for years are immense.
‘Well: it seems to me that we ought to have a Union, as large
as the one you established, and which did such wonderful work
before; but this time for—shall I say shepherding those who
have no proper protectors, and my thoughts turn to you to
lead in this also. (1) Because I am sure that the work you
have done has alone made it possible to hope that we may roll
back this flood of corruption instead of being submerged by
it; the improvement in education has shown what women can do,
and won for the time a respect from men, which they had not
before. These large schools have taught them to work together
organically, and the solid studies have strengthened them in
every way. (2) Because you have such faith—I remember how
strong it was when mine failed. (3) Because you would be able
to unite people of various creeds and classes and ranks in this
great national work—people would trust your delicacy and your
judgment, and you would emphasise the patriotic grounds. I
never forget your speech at Bristol, and your words about our
“dear, dear country.” You can _both_ stir the heart, and guide
the judgment. I think that perhaps God has restored your health
that you may lead once more.
‘Dim visions float before my mind of an Union of Women which
should embrace and work with the existing organisations, such
as the Girls’ Friendly, the Metropolitan Association, and the
Christian Young Women,—which should welcome help from all; for
what are sectarian distinctions in the presence of such evils?
“Let every one that nameth the name of Christ” join—and those
too who, not naming His name, live according to His life....
‘Women band themselves together to go out to nurse in the
armies—once that was thought impossible.... _Perhaps_ I am
talking of what is impracticable. It is hard to keep calm
enough to see clearly, when such visions hover before one.
It is so important to keep calm, that one may neither be
paralysed, nor make fantastic strokes instead of striking
truly; and therefore I want you to think and guide.
‘I am sure we teachers must not let ourselves be diverted
from _our_ proper work, of inspiring and setting others to
work—indirectly, not directly, can we act. I often have to stop
earnest teachers, who would break themselves down, and say—“If
you want a thing done, don’t do it yourself.” But we do need
more and more not to think of the mere giving of knowledge, but
of lifting through education the girls’ characters; giving them
proper ideas of marriage and what it ought to be: we should
abolish all the frivolities of the marriage ceremonial. Would
we had more weddings like that I attended yesterday of one of
our teachers. I had never before been present at one which
had really satisfied me, and there were crowds of poor people
belonging to the “unwashed” amongst whom she had laboured,
who behaved as fashionable congregations do not, and who must
have gone away with a deeper sense of the meaning of a true
marriage. We need, I think, a marriage reform association as
much as a funeral reform. I am afraid my letter is a little
incoherent. I am in bed with headache, after a somewhat
exhausting week. We have had a teachers’ meeting again this
year, beginning with some Quiet Days, and addresses to teachers
by Canon Mason, whom the Archbishop of Canterbury kindly asked.
I think we all thoroughly enjoyed these and our after meetings,
and our country excursions and social gatherings.
‘Miss Helen Gladstone was with us, and Ramabai, with teachers
from all parts.
‘Give my love to dear Miss Shireff. I don’t know what she will
say to my urging work on you.’
Mrs. Grey did not decline the task thus sent back to her, so far as she
was able to do it by writing. She was then living abroad in enfeebled
health, but her passionate words touched many in England, and a movement
which received the name of the Women’s League was set on foot in the
usual routine way with committees and meetings. Miss Beale attended one
or two of these, but does not appear to have been quite happy at them.
She was necessarily hampered by the fact that the name of the College
ought not to be associated with this special work. She felt also that
she had not sufficiently studied the subject, nor knew enough about the
organisation of societies other than educational, to be able to make
suggestions before others of wide experience. On one occasion, when a
difference of opinion arose about admission to the League, she felt she
had not spoken as decisively as she should, and she wrote afterwards to
Mrs. Grey: ‘I enclose the two circulars; but please do not question me.
It seemed impertinent to speak when there were four or five Bishops’
wives present, and I doubt my judgment. I have given all my thought to
other forms of organisation, and I live so much out of the world.’ And to
the lady with whom she had specially differed she wrote thus:—
‘I have been trying to think how it was possible for you to
misunderstand me, as I saw you did on Saturday. I thought you
knew me too well to think I _could_ wish any one to conceal
their colours. I was _very_ tired, and I see I did not make
myself clear. May I try now?
‘There are two parties who call themselves Agnostics: there
are those who reject the Christian moral law, and teach a
truly abominable doctrine; with such one could have absolutely
_nothing_ to do; no league _we_ could ever join could include
these, for they are our enemies.
‘There are others, who hold _all_ that Christ has taught us,
who would fully accept the Christian moral law, as the one and
only rule. I know some of these; their whole heart is with us;
they do the work of Christ, for they go into the wilderness and
find those wounded and stripped by thieves, and bring them to
our inn, and bid us take care of them.
‘I am sure our Lord will one day place such on His right hand,
though they may question, “Lord, when saw we Thee?” I would not
separate from them, lest I should be parted from Him Whose love
is certainly working in them, tho’ their “eyes are holden” that
they know Him not.
‘I know still that we cannot join them, _so_ as to do the
_same_ work, and they know it too. They gather in, they go into
the highways and hedges; they leave the inner work to those who
are actually disciples. One I know has just now got the care of
two neglected portionless girls, and sent them to good Church
schools....
‘I shall be deeply grieved, if in a crisis of such danger, we
show the enemy that we are so divided that we cannot welcome as
allies those who are doing Christ’s work, and acknowledging the
perfection of His teaching, because we cannot understand their
difficulties in accepting the doctrines _we_ hold sacred. We
shall not “water down” our teaching, nor would they wish us to
do so. We shall not give up prayer, because we do not impose
special rules.’
Another letter of this period (March 1886) to Mrs. Grey shows Miss
Beale’s calm judgment as well as her sympathy in the difficult work of
the League:—
‘ ... I am disappointed to find that some, even of mature age,
seem to think it right to shut their eyes.... Of course one
would be glad that such subjects as this should not be brought
up without necessity, and I suppose that many of us have grown
up without a notion that some of the crimes alluded to in
your paper were possible. It does darken the whole world and
sadden the lives of the young to know that such wickedness is
possible; it may destroy their faith in God, to know it before
their moral constitution has attained its full vigour, and
plunge them into pessimism: one cannot help wishing to conceal
these loathsome visions from those we love. I do not go with
Miss Ellice Hopkins in her wish that the young should be very
early warned. It seems to me that there is a parallel between
that and our action in cases of bodily disease: one who looked
on passively is sickened and made ill;—the nurse or surgeon
bent on healing does not suffer.
‘And I do feel that there is a great danger in bringing before
the mind temptations which are connected with the bodily
organisation. A nervous excitement seems to be produced,
something of the nature of hysteria, and there is a sort of
criminal fascination such as those feel who throw themselves
from heights: the judgment seems utterly in abeyance. The same
thought seems expressed in the story of Medusa.
‘For this reason I do feel a little hesitation in giving
countenance to the indefinite extension of Blue-ribbon armies,
necessary and beneficent as they are in cases where there
is strong temptation, or persons are moved to work actively
against intemperance; and I would rather that the campaign
should be one of missionaries, so to speak, of those who have
bound themselves to some active work in the cause. I think
that such great evils might arise from the terrible mistakes
which might be committed by those who undertook the ostracism
without having a fair chance of arriving at a correct judgment.
It is so easy to stab to death the character of an innocent
man; the devil may steal as well as buy a man’s shadow; he may
sell as well as buy....
‘So what seems to me best would be to have a small band of wise
and calm leaders; and not to invite a general public to give
any pledge, only trust to the working of such leaven as these
would form.
‘Some of the points to which they direct attention should be
the abolition of the frivolities of the marriage ceremony....
‘As regards material measures, I would still urge the formation
of a body of women-policemen, who could safely do work which
could not be done by men-policemen or clergymen. These should
undertake to watch over registries for women, shops where women
work, to establish labour registers themselves, and take care
that women were not paid starvation wages; to enter (under
protection) suspected houses; to watch railway stations and
ships, etc. etc.
‘So you see, dear Mrs. Grey, tho’ my heart is altogether with
you, my judgment does not quite go with the recommendations. I
do not fear your misunderstanding me, because we are so truly
one, and can only differ about the best modes of work....’
As time went on Miss Beale’s continued sympathy with this particular
work was evidenced in larger subscriptions to the National Vigilance
Association, to which she also left a legacy. The letters of the last
years show her interest in it, and that her horror of a worldly marriage
was as great as ever. She wrote to Miss Ellice Hopkins in 1903:—
‘I meant that marriage without the spiritual ideal was
intolerable, but the body is transfigured; there is a
“metamorphosis,” as the New Testament insists so often; but the
Scripture teaching is so different from the mere sentimental. I
don’t like the tendency of _Lady Rose’s Daughter_. I dislike,
of course, much of Sarah Grand, but the end of the _Heavenly
Twins_ does bring before people the horrors of such a marriage
as the Bishop’s wife promotes. It is a long and ever-renewed
struggle with these wicked laws.... It is sad to see that this
new Education Act is shutting out women, and making the hope
of the suffrage less. Here the Town Council and the County
Council both asked me to nominate a woman—and four of our staff
here have been asked to be managers of schools—but of course
two or three women will be able to do very little.’
Cheltenham pupils who in course of time took up the cause of the poor
and degraded, found the greatest sympathy and help from Miss Beale. She
was always specially ready with sympathy for those who were engaged in
an unpopular struggle for good. Among them may be specially mentioned
Miss Annette Bear, whose labours in 1894 were instrumental in getting
a clause dealing with children employed on the stage added to the Act,
afterwards known as the Children’s Charter, and who after her marriage
worked successfully for the women’s vote in Australia. A short account of
Annette Bear Crawford appeared in the College Magazines for 1899 and 1900.
To an old pupil trying to help her unhappy sisters in Africa she wrote:
‘I must tell you how glad I was to see your name on the Ladies’ National
List, and to hear from yourself on the subject. I am so rejoiced when my
old girls take up this trying question. Only refined and educated women
can handle it successfully.’ She also begged her not to be discouraged
by failure, ‘but remember the real thing to aim at is the Suffrage.
Without the vote you may cut off one evil to find it coming up again in a
worse form, and often, but for the personal discipline, might as well be
knocking your head against a stone wall.’
As time went on this question of the vote for women seemed more and more
important to Miss Beale. She became a Vice-President of the Central
Society for Women’s Suffrage, besides being a regular subscriber.
Naturally, Miss Beale hoped for reform by means of the cultivation of
the mind. Much evil she considered came from want of proper interests and
from deficient knowledge of life, such as even good reading could to some
extent supply. ‘Give them literature lessons,’ she said to an old pupil
who had a large class of intelligent Yorkshire factory girls. A letter to
another worker shows in what way she hoped women school managers might
help to hinder the spread of corruption. It has the additional interest
of suggesting a measure akin to one lately adopted by the educational
authorities in some counties:—
‘_(circa) 1889._
‘Perhaps I ought not to say much; my own vineyard I must keep.
It does seem to me that both men and women who are wanting to
mend things ought to take municipal offices and all sorts of
legal and government work.
‘Schools ought to be able to keep children longer and gradually
reduce school time, and could not one get a law that children
without employment should be at school? They must have in
clerical language a “title” to leave school control by showing
their parents are able to look after them or that they have an
employer. This wholesale feeding does seem a serious matter, as
weakening the sense of parental responsibility. I do hope we
shall not go in for pauperising in Bethnal Green. I feel sure
we shall not under Miss Newman....
‘The monstrous evil is, however, hydra-headed, and one’s
courage sometimes sinks; but there is, no doubt, a much higher
public opinion than there was.’
Miss Beale’s pity for the helpless was not confined to women. She felt
deeply the needs of discharged prisoners, and more than once sent
donations of money to one of her old girls who was in a position to help
them. She also supported Miss Agnes Weston’s work for sailors.
Another class whose needs she fully recognised was that of poor gentle
people. Impoverished Irish ladies, governesses, and others, she was
always anxious to help, and frequently maintained the duty which richer
members of their own class owed to them. Those who asked her aid for
these often found her unexpectedly generous. It has been shown how much
she undertook, both in money payment and trouble, for girls who could not
afford an education befitting their position. Outside this, indeed, her
interests may have been held to have been comparatively few; but when she
did permit herself to study the problems of her day, she made it evident
that the force of mind and will which she concentrated on her own work
could also have effected great results in other fields of labour.