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THE LADIES * SANITARY ASSOCIATION. 385
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.
. B* — ^ Made Satisfaction " The Stead C...
great strength , tliat that may have a physical application as well as a spiritual one , and that the Father in Heaven who does not wish
the child's soul to die may possibly have created that child ' s body for the purpose of its not dying except in a good old age . And not
only in the lower class , but in the middle class , when one sees an unhealthy family , in three cases out of four , if one takes time , trouble ,
and care enough , one can , with the help of the doctor who has been attending them , run the evil home to a very different cause than the
will of God ; and that is , to a stupid neglect , a stupid ignorance , and what is just as bad , a stupid indulgence .
" Now , I do believe that if those tracts which you are publishing , and which I have read , and of which I cannot speak too highly , are
spread over the length and breadth of the land , and if women , clergymen's wives , the wives of manufacturers , and of great
employers , district visitors and school mistresses , have these books put into their hands , and are persuaded to spread them , and to enforce
them , by their own example and by their own counsel , in the course of a few years , this system being thoroughly carried out , you
would see a sensible and large increase in the rate of population . When you have saved your children alive , then you must settle
what to do with them . But a living dog is better than a dead lion ; I would rather have the living child , and let it take its chance , than
let it return to God—wasted . Oh ! it is a distressing thing to see children die _: God gives the most beautiful and precious thing that
earth can have , and we just take it and cast it away ; we cast our pearls upon the dunghill , and leave them . A dying child is to
me one of the most dreadful sights in the world . A dying man , a man dying on the field of battle , that is a small sight , he has
taken his chance , he is doing his duty ; he has had his excitement , he has had his glory , if that will be any consolation to him ;
if he is a wise man , he has the feeling that he is doing his duty by his country , or by his king , or by his queen . I am not horrified or
shocked at the sight of the man who dies on the field of battle : let him die so . It does not horrify or shock me to see a man dying
in a good old age , even though it be painful at the last , as it is . But it does shock me , it does make me feel that the world is indeed out
of joint , to see a child die . I believe it to be a priceless boon to the child to have lived for a week , or a day ; but oIl , what has God
given to this thankless earth , and what has the earth thrown away , in nine cases out of ten , from its own neglect and carelessness !
What that boy might have been , what he might have done as an Englishman , if he could have lived and grown up healthy and
strong ! And I entreat you to bea . r this in mind , that it is not as if our lower classes or our middle classes were not worth saving ;
bear in -mind that the physical beauty and strength and intellectual power of the middle classes , —the shopkeeping classthe farming
, class , and down to the working class lower and lower still ,
—whenever you give them a fair chance , whenever you give them fair food
The Ladies * Sanitary Association. 385
THE LADIES * SANITARY ASSOCIATION . 385
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Aug. 1, 1859, page 385, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01081859/page/25/
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