Elsie Inglis - The Woman with the Torch by Eva Shaw McLaren
page 66 of 118 (55%)
page 66 of 118 (55%)
|
"_From the first the personality of Dr. Inglis was the main asset in this splendid venture. She continued to be its inspiration to the end._" August, 1914, found many a man and woman unconsciously prepared and ready for the testing time ahead. Elsie Inglis was one of these. It is interesting to note that Dr. Inglis completed her fiftieth year in the August that war broke out. She started on her great work of the next years with all the vigour and freshness of youth. In her own words, already quoted, we can describe her at the beginning of the war: "Her ship was flying over a sunlit sea, the good wind bulging out the canvas. She felt the thrill and excitement of adventure in her veins as she stood at the helm and gazed across the dancing waters.... Joy had done its work, and sorrow and responsibility had come with its stimulating spur, and the ardent delight of battle in a great crusade.... "New powers she had discovered in herself, new responsibilities in the life around her.... She was ready for her 'adventure brave and new.' Rabbi Ben Ezra waited for death to open the gate to it, but to her it seemed that she was in the midst of it now, that 'adventure brave and new' _in which death itself was also to be an adventure_.... 'The Power of an Endless Life.' The words thrilled her, not with the prospects of |
|