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    74 FACTS VERSUS IDEAS-

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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.

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    + Beautiful As Weeds, Flowers If Left Un...

    long upheld and indulged , they become , if we may so speak , tangible petrifactionsand are received and known as custom and usage . It

    , may be , that what is in our day a false view , a prejudice , and a foolish custom , was once a true view , and therefore had a right at

    that time to be acted out . In the same way words are admirable ) so long as they represent the idea meant to be conveyed , but when

    the idea has grown and expanded , and the outer covering remains as small as in the infancy of the thought , then is the word useless _,

    the " geist" has escaped and we have only the dead letter , the shrivelled husk , the lifeless form . Nay , it is worse than useless , it

    is deceptive , because it is still held up as having its original worker meaning — , ' having whereas 1 been , from busy the , sp it irit has of entirel change y — lost that its never primitive -resting

    significance . less There ' and is this likewise is from another their const way ant in which iteration -words which become acts meaning like the

    never , -ceasing dripping of water : in process of , time the stone on which it for ever fallswears away , and the wood and the moss on

    , which its ice-drops rest , lose their original vitality and become petrified substances . In similar mannerthe perpetual repetition of common

    , words hardens and ossifies them , until they are no longer living representations , but a series of sapless , shell-like fossils , and thus

    they remain , waiting for some master mind or wand of genius to revivify themand make once more " the dry bones live . "

    , The use or misuse of words is so little thought of , that few apprehend evil results from what seem to be only harmless sounds ; and

    yet from these apparently harmless , often musical and pleasant soundsas much misery ( we use a strong term , but it is a true one )

    , springs into actual being as from any prejudice or superstition by which women have in all ages been victimized to a far greater

    extent than men . In speaking or writing of woman and her affairs , the public have

    so long been accustomed to a certain set of stereotyped phrases , ( many of these now done to death , and fit only to be cast aside as

    useless , " ) that when other signs are chosen to "represent what is alive and not dead _5 alarm is taken lest some idol or household image is

    about to be demolished . The dear , old , smoke-dried _" Lares" are hugged more tenderly

    tic than hearth ever / , the " Guardian moment" angels Paterfamilias , _" " Home catches altars the " " sound Loving of hearts " Domes "— - ¦ '

    , in those after-dinner speeches , where such loving sentiment flourishes undisturbed by the mocking laugh , or wailing sigh of those wan

    women who are wandering in the rough _, stony places of the world ' s highwaywho have neither homes , nor hearthsnor domestic altars

    , , , whereon to place a shrine . How those kindly meaning men would start were a band of such spectralchilly forms suddenly to appear

    , before them , and with earnest voices and imploring tears beg for

    something more substantial to be given them than airy words and

    74 Facts Versus Ideas-

    74 FACTS VERSUS IDEAS-

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1861, page 74, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041861/page/2/