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Untitled Article
grown-up families nt > longer tax . How much more might , and would , a female overseer of the poor do in acting for the poor , than any of that kind of superintendents have ever yet done . If she were applied to in the case of a lying-in woman , she would not order dry bread , as was done on a recent occasion . She who had been herself a mother , and given a mother ' s nourishment to
a child , could appreciate the necessities and the sufferings of the creature who , in such a case , appealed to her . Was there a female police , acting in conjunction , and under wise regulation , with male officers , the young victim of folly might find a friend and an adviser , where she now only finds a further betrayer . Women once invested , by education , opinion , and custom , with
the power of exerting heart and mind in behalf of their fellowcreatures , instead of shrinking from the miserable prostitute , would pause and speak to her , and might , perhaps , often turn the sinner from her way of sorrow . If an estimate could be made of all the dormant moral and
mental power which sits with dowagers at fire-sides , or as mere lookers-on at midnight parties , —power which might be brought to bear beneficially on the best interests of all , —the very welkin would ring again with laughter at human folly . Women are allowed to Le guides and directors in all that adds polish and
grace to social life ; he is only a bear , who has not been modified into a beau by the agency of belles . This is only one form of a power , which ; so far from being confined to drawing-rooms , should be extended to school-rooms , lecture-rooms , workhouserooms , cottage-rooms , and prison-rooms , and then , if the world were not the better for this accession of power from female hearts and minds , then let woman bear the brand of inferiority , upon proof , and not upon presumption .
There is one point which is remarkably neglected by all the writers upon women , even by Mrs . Jameson , whose delightful work on Shakspeare ' s Women should have won for her a diadem , if crowning the head could add consecration to the brow of genius . She says , in speaking of the character of Miranda , that it ' resolves itself into the very elements of womanhood . She is
beautiful , modest , and tender , and these only . ' Mrs . Jameson ' s poetic temperament invests her views with a veil , which may be worn when we are companioned by ideality , but must be put aside when we encounter reality . The rank which beauty holds , poetry has conferred , but philosophy has not confirmed . My spirits sadden when I think how many , beautiful at heart , are wounded by this overweening , this exclusive homage to the beauty of form .
But that which I would principally remark is , that the female character is always considered such as it exists in youth , though , like the male character , it becomes modified ana ^ altered with advancing age . Abstractly considered , woman is always beautiful and young , —beauty , modesty , and tenderness arc her ele-
Untitled Article
Qualier JFomtn . 35
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1835, page 35, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2641/page/35/
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