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Untitled Article
That any of these should have been thought to be written * in a style adapted to awaken the conceptions of the sensualist / for so a reverend correspondent expresses himself , is to me marvellous . It was evidently not only remote from , but totally inconsistent with the purpose of the writer . Of the various public journals which have favourably noticed that number , not one has hinted such a
charge , though many have quoted , and some largely , from the article particularly alluded to . Language cannot always be nice when great evils are to be exposed and corrected . But that is not the true and 4 virtuous delicacy , ' either in man or woman , which therefore veils the evil . It 13 the situation in which society too often places woman that is itself the indelicacy , and not the roughness of the hand that is held out to raise her from it . No consideration
would induce me to let pass a paragraph which I saw had a vicious tendency , but I am not over critical in language , when a vigorous mind is striving for a great good . As to the topic itself , I will briefly re-state my notion of the evil and of its remedy . The fearful number of unhappy and outcast women in this country , the miseries which render their lives , at least so it has been estimated in London , when reduced to that condition , of only about three years
average duration ; the ceaseless supply of this fearful vacuity by the nefarious arts of seduction ; the wide-spreading demoralization of youth and manhood ; the low and trifling objects to which what is called female education , is commonly directed ; the extensive failure of the marriage institution , as at present existing in this country , as to the accomplishment of the higher purposes which it should realize ; the anomalies , grievances , and offences , which arise out of this
failure ; and the wretched defectiveness of that early influence which should form the rising generation to purity and excellence ; these are a mass of evil which , if their removal do not constitute an exclusively Unitarian object , assuredly present one which ought deeply to move the heart of every good man and Christian . The remedy or alleviation which has been suggested , in conjunction with a thorough reform of female education and the increase" of facilities for the
independent support of women , is one derived , not from untried speculation , but simply from the combination of a principle in the Jewish code , with one which obtains in many modern states . The first , connecting seduction inseparably with marriage , and by giving every deceived or ill-used woman legal rights , tending to eradicate the crime ; and the other , the adoption of which would be a needful consequence from the former , rendering the contract properly civil ;
dissoluble by constituted authorities ; for causes legally defined ; and with due care for offspring , whose situation almost any provision would render better than that in which they are placed by discordant influences involuntarily held together . Now if others can indicate a more effectual remedy , I am very ready to promote their views . Until they do , I must , of course , retain my own unaltered , whether or not uncensured .
Some Unitarians profess not to be able to reconcile these views with , not merely their interpretations of the language of Christ but even * with the reception of his divine authority . ' This novel test of Christianity does , I confess , somewhat surprise me . The first
Untitled Article
352 A Letter .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 352, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/64/
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