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    44 WOMEN IN ITALY,

• Transcript

  • 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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    - A And Very That Striking Of Land Diffe...

    _i _^ emembranee of her domestic griefs and trials in a whirl of gaiety , whilst Narcisso vies with his wife in a sedulous desire to effect the

    same object through a career of fashionable dissipation . Such are too often the results of what are termed love _inarriag-es in Italy ,

    results embodied forcibly in the proverb , Chi _d'amore sipiyUa _, di rabbia si scapiglia _? a proverb in general acceptation throughout the country .

    How much a social reform in Italy is needed , how striking" are the evils resulting from the social system in active operation there

    to the present day , is strongly exemplified by the following extract from the writings of the celebrated Silvio Pellico , in reference to

    marriages of the class last described . cep ci tion To that the the brief choice raptures was of preci the pitate honeymoon . JFrom , the ensues regrets ennui of , one and , or the of both

    perthe the partie gentler s , arise and slig more hts generous , offences , being and dail of y the bitter two dissensions , becomes . The mmon woman ly the , losing victim of her the natural unhappy goodness discord of , either disposition _g'rieving she to _forms death attachments , or what is throug worse h ,

    affection which it seems but which to her eventuate she will in find nothin amends , but for remorse the absence and shame of conj . From ugal such unhappy , marriages proceed children who g for their first school have the

    unworth children y consequentl conduct of y the uncared father or for of the or little mother loved , or , of destitute both the or parents almost , destitute of education , without respect towards parents , without fraternal or

    basis sisterl of y affection the national , without virtues an . idea All of these the domestic things are virtue so common s which that form to the see them we need only to look aronnd us . _JSTo one can tell me that I exaggerate , . "

    Words strong as these would not have been used by such a man as Silvio Pellieo , an ardent lover of his country , if the evils alluded _,

    to had not been universally and strikingly apparent , and in no task could the Italian patriot of the present day be more profitably

    employed , than in that of striving to extirpate the canker which is preying upon the vitals of his country . It is but a spurious

    patriotism which would gloss over or ignore evils that can be remedied ; and since truly as Silvio Pellico says in the passage quoted , " that the

    domestic form the basis of the national virtues , " Italy can never under any form of government become great or prosperous , until the homes

    from which her people issue , are purified from the unholy influences which pervade them at present . . To accomplish this object the means

    are plain : woman must be elevated in position ; in every stage of her career she must be looked upon and treated as an intelligent

    , responsible being , and not as one from whom the great gift of reason has been withheld . As a girl she must be liberated from the

    galling restraints which fetter her now ; she must be constituted the _giiardian of her own honor , and the shaper of her own destiny .

    The influences of a cultivated mind , and of moral princrples fully developed , must supersede the _ditenncfs vigilant eyeas a check upon

    , impropriety of conduct . Her marriage must be an act proceeding *

    from the object her own of free her will love and pleasure choice , and In her not husband a constant she must galling see 1

    44 Women In Italy,

    44 WOMEN IN ITALY ,

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1858, page 44, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091858/page/44/