followed this course. What is objectionable is keeping the name as it is, in its Frankish form, and joining it to the Arabic name borne by the family of the named. This coupling produces a repugnant discord, like the discord of colors and the discord of sounds. For the words of the Semitic languages and their sounds do not harmonize with the sounds of the Western languages, because of a fundamental difference between the two groups in measures, in the points of articulation of the letters, and in the manner of prolonging and stressing the voice.
The ancient Arabs grasped this truth by instinct, and so they Arabized the Frankish and Hebrew names they borrowed, so that they should harmonize with Arabic utterance: they said Gharnata instead of Granada, Andalus instead of Vandalusia, Ibrahim instead of Abraham, Rifqa instead of Rebecca, Yahya in place of Yohanna. Our grandparents likewise Arabized strange names they borrowed, saying Markita and Katina and Tawdura instead of Margarita and Catherine and Theodora.
And the Franks did the same: they Frankified the Hebrew and Greek names and did not leave them in their original form. They said Joseph instead of Yusuf, Jacques in place of Ya'qub, Edith in place of Judith, Jean instead of Hanna, Marie in place of Maryam.
Observe, in the following names, the sharp discord between the Frankish name and the Arabic family name: Henri Maatouk, Jeannette Hanna, Yvonne Jechan, Simone Hobeika, Marie-Ange al-Qayyim, Antoine Hassoun, Gaby Ajram, Maggie Naoum.
Look at the difference between the ring of the first word and the ring of the second, and note how the two words differ in
measure, form, and the articulation of the letters. Do you not see
that joining two names so different, in this fashion, is like joining the sherwal to a brimmed hat, or the turban to a frock coat?.. This is the very same discord we find between a Frankish tune, like the fox-trot or the
Opinions and theories have multiplied, and we have seen them agree that a child's play has many benefits: it develops his personality and his body, sharpens his wits, and gives expression to what stirs within him. And here, Madam, is an example: Salma, aged five years, disliked one of her mother's visitors; so she made play a stage for acting out her feelings, taking with a friend of hers the role of the mother, while the other took the role of the disliked visitor, at whose visits she grumbled. This little drama she performed represented Salma's real dislike for her mother's friend.
Grown people can widen the horizon of their understanding by many means. But the child... what has he for widening the horizon of his understanding except play, whether by himself or with a band of sensitive little ones like him? So beware, Madam, of the nightmare of that barren notion which has settled in the minds of most of our ladies — that play is for the child a waste of his time, and that buying him toys is a graveyard for money. If you tried to watch your children's play at close hand, the opposite would become plain to you. Here is a knot that confronts the child in the course of his play, and he strains his mental powers to untie it; and there a situation that teaches him to share, since his monopolizing of certain toys the whole time rouses his companions' fierce anger — to say nothing of the discord it leads to among them.
As for the bodily benefits the child reaps from play, above all when the play is in the open air, they are beyond telling: every movement he makes in the course of his fun helps to strengthen his muscles. There are the doctors, Madam — ask them how many benefits to health the child reaps from it.
It usually delights children to lend one another a hand during play. How beautiful is the cooperative spirit they show when they join together in building a house of wooden blocks or the like; for nothing develops the spirit of cooperation in them so much as accustoming them to it from their tenderest years.
And since play has so great an effect upon the child's inner life, the modern nursery schools have taken it as a starting point in his instruction. Thus we see colored pieces of wood of round shape, for instance, taking the place of figures in teaching the child arithmetic — and so on through other endeavors aimed at making learning dear to him. May we never be deprived of wise men and social reformers, nor of mothers who accept counsel and guidance and act upon the valuable modern theories whose purpose is to rear the rising generation soundly.