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76 FACTS VERSUS IDEAS.
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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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.
+ Beautiful As Weeds, Flowers If Left Un...
cruel a tendency , and so obtuse a perception as regards right and wrong" , truth , and justice .
The heathens were content to have their enshrined Penates made of wood , stone or metal ; but modern householders insist that theirs
shall be live women , dedicated to the service of the hearth , at which they are to sit year after year , silent , motionlesswith Berlin wool
, or novel in hand , _iintil their blood stagnates in their veins , their limbs refuse to move , and they become as useful or as useless as the
little _figures were of old , perched on pagan altars . And all this conies froin the idea attached to the word "
domestic , " which we must either change or enlarge to suit our simp advanced ly because civilization " domestic , or compress 77 cannot now into mean a still what narrower it once compass meant ,
, was any , more when than the house our mother old mail and -coach the , young means maiden a railway s of the train famil . y Time had
sufficient home occupation to keep the ruddy glow of health on their cheeks , the lustre in their eyes , and _flexibility in their limbs ,
and then the word domestic was not an empty sound . In our day , so many are the aids and appliances for the _jDerformance of
housework , and so much is turned over to servants , that when the members _fo _^ _lnd in the of way a fam of ily enrp consist loyment of several wherewith women to fill ther up e their is noth hours ing : *
yet it is insisted upon that they are to be _" domestic , and domestic only , —that is , become idle , remain ignorant , and . nourish indolence .
Can any other result be expected than the inevitable one forced upon usof hundredswe might say thousands of girls and women
, , hanging helplessly on society , incapable of earning their own livelihoods , just because their parents neglected to give them either
the training or the education which would have enabled them to do so .
This is one form of evil , arising , as we think , from a perverted use of a common word . In order to neutralize the effects of this
hard-worked word , an opposite one has been coined in the emergency of the moment . The one selected is " non-domestic but it
, is not well chosen , and for this reason , that a woman may be employed in other work than household , and yet be domestic in the
simple meaning of the word , in the same way that some men are called " domestic although they have their business out of doors to
, attend to . Consequently , women may be full of home love , and home affections , who in like manner have an occupation requiring
their presence for so many hours of the day elsewhere . There is another kindred word which does similar dutysomewhat in the
fashion of a policeman ' s lantern , when its fiery , eye is turned full upon the face of some unlucky individual , who is suspected of a
design of trespassing on forbidden ground , and he is promptly told to wheel about and retrace his steps . This second word is " woman _' s
sphere , and far more difficult to deal with than the other , as the
" sphere is so ill defined , so ' airily constructed , that one never is
76 Facts Versus Ideas.
76 FACTS VERSUS IDEAS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1861, page 76, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041861/page/4/
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