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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 27$
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"i ¦* THE DOMESTIC MISSION. 1. The B Mis...
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.
Notices Of Books. 27$
NOTICES OF BOOKS . 27 $
"I ¦* The Domestic Mission. 1. The B Mis...
" i ¦* THE DOMESTIC MISSION . 1 . The Missing Link ; or , JSible Women in the Homes of the London Poor ,
By L . 1 ST . R . James Nisbet and Co . 1861 . 3 2 . . Life Magged Work Homes ; or , and the Lin how k to and mend the them Rivet . . B B y y Mrs L _* . . N Bay " . R . ly . 1861 1861 . . Nisbet _ISTisbet . .
4 6 . Haste Workmen to the and Rescue their . Difficulties BMrs . . Charles By Mrs Wi . Bay litman ly . . 1861 1860 . Nisbet _JSTisbet . . 6 . Annals of the Rescued . y By Mrs . Charles Wi g glitman . 1861 . Nisbet .
7 8 . . Earning Our Homeless a Living Poor . , B y M . A t . S . Barb do er t . o hel 1861 p them . Nisbet . 1860 . . Nisbet . Ik selecting the above -works for notice , we have clone so in the
belief that they will be more acceptable to our readers reviewed as a whole , than under their separate titles ; for _while they severally
describe different fields of enterprise , all are devoted to the furtherance of one object , —the spiritual and social amelioration _,
of the lower classes , chiefly through the instrumentality of women , whether as paid agents , like the Bible-women , or through the
gratuitous services of educated gentlewomen . It would seem as if , at lasttheory had theorized into practice , and that instead of elaborate
, treatises on . supposition and possibility our bookshelves teem with short and telling narratives of facts done and victories achieved .
This new species of literature dates no earlier than the Crimean war—a calamity considered at the time as overwhelming , yet which
lias left behind it nothing but mercies and blessings . A long season of prosperity had unnerved us ; we were enervated by
uninterrupted tranquillity ; we required rousing . The cry _^ of distress never waxed loud enough to pierce the barriers which position and
prejudice had raised between the rich and the poor , the necessitous and the affluent . We wanted our sympathies to be touched , we
wanted sorrow to meet us on our own hearth , we wanted to be tried by the same necessities and afflictions as our poorer
neighbors , to teach us that we are all of one kindred , and that the feelings hidden beneath the silken robe are shared by the beggar
sitting on our doorstep . We had a rude awakening . The horrors of the battle-field may be veiled in wreaths of glory , but no fictitious
-coloring would disguise the stern realities of Scutari , of the long corridors crowded with wounded , —officer and man lying" side
byside overcome by the same destiny , both requiring the same necessaries and both requiring them in vain . It was there that the
true heroism of the woman , ever rising to the emergency , was fully acknowledged ; and in Florence Nightingale and her devoted
followers the world at large saw realized , what poet and painter Lad often idealized , the true dignity of the sex . Isolated instances
of individual devotion to the dying " , the wretched , and the lost , are not without their parallels in every age and country , but the peculiar
• element which in . this instance was so singularly developed had been _, hitherto in England unacknowledged . And that peculiar element
was the power which a seeming weak and fragile woman ( stepping
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1861, page 279, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121861/page/63/
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