I came across an article under this title in the newspaper Lisan al-Hal, from the pen of its proprietor Mr. Ramez Sarkis, and so I set about watching for a chance to obtain this letter of motherhood, which the well-known woman of letters Mrs. Julia Tu'mah Dimashqiyah addressed to her son Nadim, who occupies an important post at the Lebanese Legation in London. The letter dates back some two years, to the occasion of her only son's resolve to marry an English girl of ancient lineage.
We thank Mrs. Dimashqiyah for acceding to our insistent wish and permitting us to publish this delightful letter in the pages of The Woman's Voice, and we hope it will serve as a reference and a firm foundation for anyone who wishes to enter upon a new life and a new era, for the tenderness it holds and the wisdom of its counsel; enough that it stands as a lofty literary piece and a magnificent poem of motherhood.
A. J. Sh.
Mr. Nadim Dimashqiyah with his bride
O life of Mama, I ask you to read this with blood as cool as that of the English, among whom you have been living for a year now in their own homeland. The subject before us is the gravest subject we have discussed together so far. Keeping our nerves calm, therefore, will make it the easier for you to listen, and for me to examine the matter with deliberation, without bias toward any particular opinion, whether of the heart or of the head.
Most people, as you well know — and I do not say the young, for in my view all people are alike in this respect — enter upon marriage either at the prompting of sexual inclination or at the prompting of interest. It is emotion, then, that most often takes charge of the management in this arena, drawing up for those who seek marriage its plan in whatever color it wants and craves, whether that color be love, or passion, or money, or prestige, or a splendid motorcar, or an impregnable palace, or, or... etc. And so the two partners, the man or the woman, proceed to the contract and the covenant to build this house which, no sooner is its founding complete, than they add to the society to which they belong a factory — among the most momentous of life's factories for the preservation of survival and the secret of existence — the factory that bears the man's name and expresses his being and the being of his partner through what they add to it of their offspring and the fruits of their material and social efforts: if good, then good; if evil, then evil!!
God forbid, my son, that you should be one of those who do not grasp the gravity of undertaking to found a home — other than that home which will be the highest example of our new Arab home, which the
nation awaits, and of which we stand in the most urgent need, especially in this milieu that pins its great hopes upon your marriage and your future...
And now let us return to the effect your letter had upon us.
I read it, and so did your father, twice, and three times. Then each of us withdrew to his own room without either of us uttering a single word that might tell of its effect on us. Here is what passed through my mind when I was alone with myself, without any addition or omission. I had scarcely reached the passage indicating Miss Margaret's determination to remain at the side of her supposed first fiancé and to serve him should he return from the war disfigured, or deranged, or unable to support himself by himself... whereas if it were otherwise, she would be free and released from him. This, be it known, though there exists no legal or religious text compelling her to this bond with which she has bound herself of her own free choice...
No sooner had I finished reading this passage than a wave of love and esteem for Margaret swept over me, one which I am powerless to describe. It is, in very truth, a noble sentiment that can issue only from a girl of intense sincerity and refined breeding. There is also her love for you, and her silent friendship through the months that have passed since your acquaintance began, and her attending to the ordering of your needs, sacrificing her leisure hours and her rest — all of which increased my love and