he young hart or
gazelle! We grieve naturally if our children's feet are deformed or
misshapen at birth, but what a crime it is to destroy the form and
strength of the foot as God has made it! It is true that the Manchu
women in China rejoice in the feet which the beneficent Creator has
given them. The Dowager Empress--of whom we have read so much of late,
and who rules China with an iron rod, has feet like any other woman;
but millions of her countrywomen have been robbed of nature's
endowment through a foolish and wicked custom which has prevailed in
China from time immemorial. The feet are bound when the child is born,
and they are never allowed to grow as God designed, as the flower
expands into beauty from the bud. Chinese women realise that it is
foolish, that it is a deformity, but it is the "custom," and custom
prevails. It is like the laws of the Medes and Persians which alter
not. Women are powerless under it. It is in vain to a large extent
that they oppose it. There is in China an Anti-foot-binding League,
which receives the support of men of prominence. Even centuries ago
imperial edicts were issued against it, but custom still rules. It
was Montaigne who declared that "custom" ought to be followed simply
because it is custom. A poor reason indeed. There should be a better
argument for the doing of what is contrary to reason and nature.
Nature is a wise mother, and she bestows on us no member of the body
that is unnecessary. The thought of her fostering care was well
expressed by the old Greeks who lived an out-door life, in their
personification of Mother Earth under the creation of their Demeter,
perfect in form and beautiful in expression and noble in action. This
is far above the conceptions of nature or of a presiding genius over
our lives, taking into account social order and marriage vows, which
we find in Chinese literature or mythology. It is not difficult to
perceive the reason why the Greeks, who rule the realms of philosophy
and art and literature to-day, after the lapse of many centuries,
are the superior people. Well does that master-mind, Shakespeare,
characterise evil custom:

"That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil."

But a better day is coming for Chinese women. Wherever Christianity
has touched them in the past they have been uplifted and benefited.
The sun seems now to rise in greater effulgence on the Kingdom of the
Yellow Dragon. The wretched custom of dwa