On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
Untitled Article
ordered home , so well reward the dispenser—such exertions have called up her holiest feelings , brought her happiest pulses into play . I am certain , were personal activity less confined to the kitchen , listlessness would be less present in the parlour ;—was there more action of hands ,, to say nothing of minds , there would be more overflowing of hearts .
The unnatural separation of dignity and usefulness , the pernicious association of elegance , and inutility , has created immeasurable mischief . How absurd , how insane are the notions connected with manual labour . Louis XVI . would have been a locksmith had the bent of his taste been permitted scope ; and George III . was fond of watch-making . What a pity either were compelled to forsake the path of mechanical usefulness for that in which they have left their names ,
* To point a moral , and adorn a tale / Perhaps I am about to propose what may appear as impracticable to others , as the application of co-operation to the present constituents of society appears to me . I would propose to that anomaly , a ladyr to go occasionally to work with her domestic drudges—to raise them , not in name merely , into the character of
* helps , and give herself a share of the exercise , the advantage of which they engross , but are , like herself , unconscious that it is a good . They will soon discover , though they may be slow to acknowledge it , that the white hand is well exchanged for the warm spirit ; the soft sleepy semi-elegance of langour , for the clear-voiced accents and agile movements of health , energy , and heart-felt satisfaction ; she will raise her domestics above the
exclusive debasement to which the present dark line of demarcation dooms them , and invest her house , and its government , with a character of dignity and kindliness , an atmosphere of peace and gladness , that hitherto it lias never known , because hitherto the actuating motives have been mercenary , and all idea of bringing refinement to household duties , or preserving it among
them , ignorantly scouted . But happy is that man , and I trust some such there be , who has his house-door opened to him by a smiling , not servile , maid-servant , feeling herself a useful and respected portion of his family ; who finds a wife and daughters regulating that family with order , elegance , and economy—matters nowise incompatible with the piano and portfolio , where a
unity of labour , and a judicious division of employment , is observed—matters no way incompatible with poetry , philosophy , and politics—nay , matters which are favourable to success in all the accomplishments and all the talents ; for the body does not more surely require variety of food than it requires variety of exercise . Who shall say , in our present deplorable state of lethargic indolence and ignorance , how much the brightness and Jkarness of thought may be dependent on the flow of the blcrtd ?
Untitled Article
Umversal Co-operation . 779
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1835, page 779, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2652/page/23/
-