On this page
-
Text (1)
-
MANNERS AND MORALS. 105
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.
-
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
- - And Prompt Me " , Hence Plain And , ...
that were it so became many , and reall their y necessary torments to both think , of about body _doing and soul something so fearful . I ,
suppose , among * other remedies , the admirable custom of female infanticide was discussed ; and sutteeism would certainlbe a
tempting proposition in the case of helpless and necessitous widows y . A thorough ventilation of the subject has taken place mainlif
not wholly , by the labours of women themselves . We ; know y , all about governesses wretchedly educated and worse paid ; about
starving sempstresses ; about young ladies—daughters of clergymen , of speculating merchants , or what not—suddenly thrown upon
the world , destitute and helpless ; about the overstocking of that profession of teaching which of old alone lay open to ladies . We
know , too , something about the statistics of vice , and how certain ranks are recruited in part by the helplessness of starving women
. The chief mark of original barbarism is a servile condition of the female sex . Among savages the women do the drudgery ; fetching
home the game , tilling the ground , while their lords and masters the hunting or scalping expedition being over , sit at ease and look ,
on . Civilization changes this state of things . Women are treated with ever more consideration . Their inferiority of strength is taken
into account , and they cease to be servile drudges . They are looked up to with respect as better and purer than the
roughliving men .. They are tenderly cared for and watchfully guarded . forgotten But when , the another old barb sort arism of has barbarism long died is away apt to and arise is . comp Women letely
become mere puppets and dolls , the cherished playthings of men mannered instead of , to their possess drud some ges . few To pretty be prettil tricks y of dressed surface and prettil lish y -
ment , that comes to be the beau ideal of a woman . Their accomp closest obligations , even their natural instinctsare suffered to fall into
disuse . Household duties are totally , neglected ; children are banished from the delicate mother from the moment of their birth
. Manners , in such a state , have outrun morals . Which barbarism is the worse ?
Prevention , not cure , is the aim . It was _$ uite time to think of prevention . It was quite time that the conventional position of
women should be seriously considered . There was so much misery , i and gnorant so much and unprotected consequent ; sin so , among strong a the poor rose and hel to pless Heaven and
that it could scarcely fail to compel a hearin cry g upon up earth . False manners were beginning to show unmistakabltheir invariable
effects : immoderate tenderness towards women was y issuing in the frightfulest cruelties .
If all women had been rich , if all had had fathers or husbands perhaps to work without for and blame protect . them For human , they beings might have to be rested uppets satisfied is a sin ,
no doubt , ; but it had not quite come to that . Ladies p had their , small accomplishments and their great—for ever great and
_inipera-YOJQ . X . I
Manners And Morals. 105
MANNERS AND MORALS . 105
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1862, page 105, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101862/page/33/
-