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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.
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Untitled Article
called accomplishments , i . e . singing , music , and dancing , and dressing , and g . peculiar carriage and capacity for gesticulation , whereby to excite the senses , and attract the notice of those of the male se * who are deemed sufficiently wealthy , or sufficiently noble , tQ be worth looking after as husbands P Do they , for the
moat part , adcj tp these qualities any others , save the parrot acquirement of three or four languages , for the purpose of misusing them in speech , the capacity of working at certain useless toys , and the knowledge of the regular routine of fashionable business , which all fashionable people undergo—the breakfasts and dinners , and balls and suppers , and the proper time to go out of town ,
and the proper time to return ? Are they ever instructed in useful knowledge ; are their minds trained ; is their judgment in any Way exercised or enlarged , to enable them to distinguish between good and evil , between virtue and vice ? Are they not taught to make the expedient the reiudy substitute for the right ? And when what is called their ' education' is ended , or when they are what is called * finished '—alas ! how true is that word—what then
remains for thera ? Are they not led out like ' lambs to the slaughter ; ' are they not put up for sale at the fashionable shambles , where they arp ' brought out' to be disposed of to the highest bidder , with more real coarseness , though disguised under the veil of hypocrisy , than it is the lot of female servants to undergo at a statute fair ? Are their feelings ever consulted , their likings
or dislikings ? Are they not bidden to sit , and to walk , and to re * dine , in those modes which are most likely to attract the eyes of the chapmen , just as a horse is put through its paces ? May they speak ere they are spoken to , and are they not required to overcome every feeling of repugnance , when a likely bidder appears to make his offers ? Are they not studiously instructed that mar *
riage is not an affair of love , or affection , or judgment , but merely a matter of bargain and sale , for the purpose of securing as much of wealth , or station , or both , as they can possibly achieve ? Are not the whole arrangements made with diplomatic caution , and is not a half concluded bargain frequentl y broken off , in consequence of a better offer ? What is the female in all this better than an
eastern slave r What is she better than the female who sat by the way-side , and received the gifts of Judah ? Wherein does she differ from the hirelings who infest the street-corners to entrap the unwary ? Nay , she is worse than them , for in most instances they have been betrayed in the days of inexperience , by the influence of passion or affection , and the harshness of the world , shown to a fault , has driven them onwards to crime . But the female of 9
rank or respectability , as it is termed , is trained to undergo in her youth a species of prostitution which is sanctioned by law . Disguise it as we will , under the fine sounding names of * honourable alliance / ' excellent match , ' and other specious terms which have been invented to make interest look like affection , the mar-
Untitled Article
218 On the Condition of Women in Eng ' land .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1833, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2612/page/2/
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