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    MANNERS AND MORALS* 101

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    - - And Prompt Me " , Hence Plain And , ...

    iiiany of which , cannot but be wrongly solved at first , and which _, find their true answers only by the failure of successive

    misinterpretations of them . Treatises of political economy give us instances enough of this . Thus it happens , that in the course of progress

    there are checks and even retrogressions which make the most enthusiastic despondent . Mighty nations have culminated , and

    then declined and fallen . Barbarous immigrations have swept before them many an enervated civilization . Such checks and

    retrogressions we hear ascribed by some to _siiper-cxvilizeLtiony as if the effects of civilization were beneficial up to a certain _pointy

    beyond that injurious and destructive : while , in reality , every such decline and fall may be traced to its cause in misinterpretation of

    Some problem , abuse of some new discovery , or neglect of some established law Though , for those who live in an age when the

    advance of civilization is disturbed , and who are eye-witnesses of the recoil of the wave , it is almost impossible to retain their

    belief in progress ; in us , who live in quieter times , the faith should be strong . We see that the recoiling wave flowed back the

    mightier , and flooded the opposing barrier ; we learn from the mistakes of the past , and their consequent anarchies , to escape

    mistakes for the future . Notwithstanding falls of Roman Empires , and French Revolutions , —

    " And Yet I the doubt thoug not hts throug of men h , the are widened ages one - increasing with the process purpose of run the s suns , . "

    "While we cling to a faith in progress , let our faith be a reverent faithascribing the glory where glory is due ; and , further , let us

    , constantly remember the human and _imcertain element in progress , the liability to error , to misinterpretation of questions new and old ,

    to abuse of the advantages of civilization . Here , as _elsewhere , we need to winnow the chaff from the wheat .

    "While we thankfully admit that , on the whole , morality does advance hand-in-hand with advancing civilization , we cannot hide

    from ourselves the many aberrations from the onward road , which at first sight would seem to be the effects of civilization , but which ,

    _ajs we said above , are to be ascribed to abuse of it . There are checks and retrogressions in morality as in other branches of

    progress , and it is not always easy to see that these are merely the recoiling waves of an advancing tide .

    Cursory newspaper-reading , with its disclosures of Divorce Court abominationsof mercantile fraudsand such-like matters , gives us

    , , a not very favourable notion of the present time . Although these breaches of law are to be regarded as exceptional blots on the

    morality of the age , yet questions will arise , from the evidence attendant on these disclosureswhether the standard of

    conven-, tional honesty be very high ? whether the conventional estimate of

    marriage To offences be very agains pure t law _* however , the present inquiry does not

    Manners And Morals* 101

    MANNERS AND _MORALS * 101

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1862, page 101, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101862/page/29/