THE ORIGIN OF WOMAN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 112, 7 November 1908, Page 11

THE ORIGIN OF WOMAN.

According to a Hindoo legend, this is the proper origin of woman: Twashtri, the nod Vulcan of the Hindoo mythology cieated the world, but on his commencing to create woman, ho discovered that for man he had exhausted all his creative materials, and that not one solid element liad been left. Tins, of course, greatly i perplexed Twashtri, and caused him to I fall into a profound meditation. When he arose from it he proceeded as follows t — lie took: The roundness of the moon. The undulating curve of the serpsur. Tno graceful twist of the creeping plant. The, light shivering of the grassblade and tho slenderness of the willow. Tho velvet of the flowers. The lightness of the feather. The gentle gaze of the doe. The trolicsomeness of the dancing Bunbeam. Tho tears of the cloud. The inconsistency of the wind. Tho timidity of the hare. The vanity of the peacock. The hardness of the diamond. The cruelty of tho tiger. The chill of tho snow The cackling of the parrot. The cooing of the turtle dove. All these he mixed togethor and formed a woman. And ho presented hor to the man. — Philippines Gossip.

An English writer gives the reason why ther literary celebrity enjoys more privacy than he did. and why no artist is quite so much made of as he would have been twenty . years ago. Other personages 1-ave taken their place, but they have no*; taken it fully. Our modern celebrities judged by the "company to meet" test arc mainly to be described by the adjective- "influential." They are beings who can possibly affect our material fortunes. They have wealth, in the first place ; rank, if possible, in the second ; they write little, speak publicly much, and spend moro lime at the telephone than the desk. Curiously enough, though science has had so much to do in_ the dethroning of literature, the scientific discoverer is hardly now so imposing a celebrity with the public of scciety as ho was when the great ideals ot Darwin and Huxley first made Carlyle feel angry and uncomfortable. The reason might seem to be that the larger scientific ideas of the present day aro not readily explicable to the public. But the writer believes that the real reason a not to be found here, or in any preference for one idea over another. She inclines rather to think that ideas of whatever sort are out of favour for the time being, and that movements, doings, achievements which result in the acquisition of things concrete are the occasioning factors of celebrity. But all this means that the very venue and site of social triumphs has passed away from the drawing-room to other places, notably to the racecourse and the Olympias of games. And thus, in fact, it has come about, with the rapid mutations of things human, that drawingroom celebrities have lost much of their terror for quiet, reasonable people. The motor, with its noise and oil and smell, has destroyed many a rightful pleasure; but that it ha& exploded the stuffy atmosphere of the celebrity drawingroom is to be set down' to its credit. There is nothing more remarkable in women (notes a Londoner) than their power of adaptability by which — marvel of marvels — their very faces and figures are changed to suit a fashion. If you want proof of this startling statement turn up the volumes of Punch and look at a picture here and there. One cannot altogether acquit Leech of creating the Victorian middle-aged woman. His damsels with the frilled skirts, the corselet bodices, the cottage bonnets filled in with roses, the tasselled croquet boots, were charming. One can imagine how they were fallen in love with — though one can hardly imagine how they returned tho affections of the young gentlemen in the flowing whiskers and baggy check garments. But the middle-age»i woman of Leeoh • Horror I