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334 ORGANIZATION.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
4 A Success It Was Said To His Of Talent...
We are perfectly aware tliat self-abnegation is the highest virtue that can be exercisedand this by both sexes alike ; yet it is far
, from being * a favorite virtue in the present day , * and by the strenuousness with which it is inculcated upon women , a suspicion is
engendered , that either they are naturally averse to its performance , or that they are expected to do double dutyto make up for the
want of it in others . , We cannot by any process of reasoning be made to comprehend
why a woman any more than a man should , for some paltry cause , make herself miserable , give up all her wishes and wants , accept a
lie , or do anything * at variance with or highly repugnant to her feelingsso long as in an honorable manner she can escape from
, such moral and mental suicide . As women are now—when the plain truth is told , and the
language of gallantry or of condescension done away with—they are found to be not only deficient in the knowledge of princi x _^ lesbut
, as may consequently be apprehended , seldom even act upon them when aware of them ; and they are likewise wanting in knowledge for
the _joractical purposes of the most ordinary everyday life . All this is greatly owing to want of self-reliance and self-respectas . well
as to indolence and ignorance . To act from impulse or onl , y from instinct will no longer suit the times ; and if women are now to be
considered of more importance to society than heretofore , they must value themselves , and to be really of value , must exercise their
reason and perform their tasks with method . They must no longer be content to look on effort as a temporary expediency , no longer
regard the acquirement of knowledge as a hard necessity bringingno reward with it . To work is not to be a drudge to learn is not
to be a mere tasked schoolgirl ; the highest motives , should make women acquire knowledgeas well as practise philanthropy and
industrv . , This movement for the improvement of the position of women is
not one in which the aid of the other sex can be given beyond a limited extent . It is essentially women ' s affair to helthemselves
in other . the sex first to place hel , them and thxis in turn render . themselves more able p to help the p
It is not only as a temporary expediency that women must be more wisely instructed or self-reformednot merely because at
this moment there is a superfluity of them , for whom it is difficult for the other sex to provide . either with occupation or to maintain
in idleness . The matter goes far beyond this , - as mankind has advanced from step to step in civilization , women have entered upon
successive phases of condition , and in the state of transition now going onthere appears to be demanded for the halfor female
division , a , more pronounced position than has been as yet , accorded to it .
A Christian poet of the day asserts that the heaven of the sex is
composed of " love and song . " What is this but the teaching * of
334 Organization.
334 ORGANIZATION .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 334, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/46/
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