In Memoriam


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Portrait of Charlotte Mason
 
"Then to live out all possibilities."

Charlotte M. Mason

Parents' National Educational Union, 26 Victoria Street, London, S.W.1.  1923
Price Two Shillings and Sixpence



List of Contents

Portrait (frontispiece)
The World to Come (a poem by Charlotte Mason) (pg. v.)

Part I - From the Whitsuntide Conference Report, 1922.
Some PNEU Principles by Charlotte Mason (pg. 1)
PNEU A Service to the State by Charlotte Mason (pg. 7)

Part II - From the Memorial Numbers of the Parents' Review.
1. Official Tributes.
     by Sir L. Amherst Selby-Bigge (pg. 16)
     by Sir Michael Sadler C.B. (pg. 17)
     by Sir Clifford Allbutt (pg. 20)
     by The Rev. W. H. Draper (pg. 21)
     by Lady Baden-Powell (pg. 21)
     by General Sir Robert Baden-Powell (pg. 22)
     from The Times (pg. 24)
     from The Times Educational Supplement (pg. 26)
     by H. A. L. Fisher (pg. 27)
     Two Extracts (pg. 27)
2. The Union and Its Founder.
     "Haud Immemor" by The Marchioness of Aberdeen (pg. 29)
     "C.M.M. the Friend" by H. F. (pg. 31)
     "Public Elementary Schools" by Willingham F. Rawnsley (pg. 33)
     "Memories" by I. B. S. Whitaker-Thompson (pg. 38)
     "A Few Recollections" by Helen Webb, M. B. (pg. 40)
     "Our Leader Still" by H. W. Household (pg. 42)
     "A Father's Part in the Home Schoolroom" by J. W. Walker, O.B.E., F.S.A. (pg. 44)
     "The P.U.S. from a Mother's Point of View" by E. M. Capron (pg. 46)
     "A Mother's Tribute" by H. M. Swingler (pg. 48)
     "P.U.S. Secondary Schools" by P. S. Goode, B.A. (pg. 50)
     "P.U.S. Elementary Schools" by G. H. Smith (pg. 53)
     "Some Reminiscences" by F. C. A. Williams (pg. 56)
     "Miss Mason's Message" by E. A. Parrish (pg. 58)
     "The Day's Work" by E. K. (pg. 66)
     "Miss Mason of the House of Education" by R. A. P. (pg. 73)
     "From an Ex-Student" by E. Hughes-Jones (pg. 77)
     "Miss Mason's Love of the Country Drives" by T. H. Barrow (pg. 79)
     "From a Rydal Neighbour" by A. M. Harris (pg. 81)
     "An Impression" by Francis Chesterton (pg. 83)
     "In Memoriam" by D. J. (an ex-student) (pg. 85)

Part III - From the P.U.S.A. Magazine.
The Children's Tribute.
     i - An Old Pupil (pg. 86)
     ii - E. da Fonseca (pg. 88)
     iii - Olive Marchington (pg. 89)
     iv - Ex-Student and Member of P.U.S.A. (pg. 91)
     v - Veronica Whitwell (pg. 93)
     vi - "Childhood Memories of Miss Mason" (pg. 94)
     vii - Michael A. E. Franklin (pg. 95)
     vii - "To Miss Mason" (pg. 99)

Part IV - From the Memorial Conference.
"For a great door and effectual is opened unto me." --I Cor. XVI.9.
     "Some Impressions of the House of Education" by Prof. W. G. Burgh (pg. 100)
     "The Nature Walk at the House of Education" by A. C. Drury (pg. 105)
     "The Parents' Union School and Its Founder" by The Hon. Mrs. Franklin (pg. 111)
     "The Beginning of Things" by E. Kitching (pg. 118)
     "Miss Mason's Ideal: Its Breadth and Balance" by H. E. Wix (pg. 143)
     "A Tribute" by H. M. Richards, C.B., Chief H.M.I. (pg. 152)
     "Education is a Life (By C. M. Mason)" read by the Rev. H. Costley-White (Headmaster of Westminster) (pg. 153)
     "Miss Mason's Ideal in School Life" by L. C. Faunce (pg. 165)
     "An Appreciation from a P.N.E.U. Elementary School" by D. S. Golding (pg. 173)
     "A Tribute" by Lady Aberdeen (pg. 180)
     "Sympathy in Teaching" by The Lady Cottesloe (pg. 196)
     "Scale How" by E. A. Parrish (pg. 199)
     "The P.N.E.U. From a Preparatory School Standpoint" by J. W. Clouston (pg. 206)
     "What the Parents' Union School Did For Me" by Michael A. E. Franklin (pg. 213)
     "Henceforward" by R. A. Pennethorne (pg. 217)
     The Memorial Service Impressions I by E. E. M. Peacey (pg. 224)
     The Memorial Service Impressions II by D. S. Golding (pg. 225)
Epitaph. 

_______________________________________________________________

The World to Come (The Disciple)

A child will play all day at what he'll do,--
     "When I am big!
     "Great hunter will I be!
     "That field I'll dig!"
His parents look on smiling while he plays,
And with bewildering changes shapes his days.

And we, poor foolish, when we dream and say
     "Thus shall it be,--
     "Our Father worketh yet,
     "And shall not we?
"Not eager, we, for crowns or crystal seas,
"Or harps or singing or eternal ease;

"We would be doing as our Father doth!--
     "We have no fears;
     "With all our puny might
     "Would roll His spheres!"
Sure, not for this severely will He chide,
Our Father, who for love of us hath died!

"Ye shall go before your brethren and help them,
until the Lord hath given your brethren rest,"

O the dear world, sweet life, congenial joys!
     How give them up?
     Though all be sin-defiled,
     Where find we else
The promise we believe our longings hold,--
What work for us in any other fold?

All bright may glow the joys of other spheres,
     But this, our home!
     And would we barter it
     For any gain,
Poorer, less constant, had we our substance grown;
Jesus, in separate joy, were less our own.

Continuance, sure, belongs to higher life;
     All fickleness,
     All change, with Death must pass,
     And leave us true:
Less a new life than utmost scope in this,
With help laid on us here, ah, hope of bliss!

Jealous we are, with jealousy unreasoning,
     Over their joys;
     For their gain, sadly bear
     Unbidden loss;
With Him;--in Him;--there all the promise ends:
Ourselves, not Christ, do banish our sweet friends.

Sure, the dim kingdom where we seat our Dead
     Is of the world:
     The heaven of Christ is ruled
     By other laws:
Not cumbrous change in circumstance and place,
But the enraptured vision of His face!

Death opes not heaven's gate; for long ago,
     Soon as the King
     Shone in upon the soul
     Did heaven begin:
A blessed state, a lifting up for ever;
Not some far seats when soul and body sever:

Two fuller consummations be there yet
     To this full bliss:--
     Our holy dead have reached
     The second life,--
Where pure eyes see the King in beauty fresh,
And service bears no dragging clog of flesh.

Then to live out all possibilities
     Of love and help,
     Of counsel and support,
     That now but mock
These slow unloving wills: to be unseen
Among our own beloved, a ghostly screen,

And love them with love purely purged from self,
     That, as an air
     Tender, should wrap their lives,
     Nor ever fret
With any waywardness; to lay their cares,
And with pure spirit-promotings, help their prayers,--

What life were this! Nor only for our own
     Would we have help
     Laid on us, but for all
     Whose pain now moves,
Whose thoughts inspire,--all life that any way,
If only in fond dream, on ours doth play.

And not unowned, or self-imposed, our tasks;
     Ever bidden
     By the dear Word of God,
     Willing His will,
In the low rest of meekness, were our ease:
So, working, should we yet from labours cease.

    *    *    *    *     *    *    *    *     *    *    *    *   

Poor, ignorant and foolish, what know we
     If this may be,
     Or other, better life?
     We trust in Thee!
Our Father, wilt not smile on us and say,
"'Tis but my silly children at their play?"

                        Charlotte M. Mason



Click here to go to Part I.