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    104 MANNERS AND MORALS.

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

    _[ Religion is acknowledged to be something more than a barren _assert tion of belief ; morality something more than a beautiful abstraction *

    Profession without practice is coming to be looked on as a shameful lie ; and men do really feel and confess the disgracefulness of their "

    vices . The tendency is undoubtedly towards practical truth . Of necessity this ferment throws up to the surface some refuse *

    and scum and froth . Quixotisms are rife . Here one sees a _ludierous state of watchful preparedness against utterly unknown crises :

    Don Quixote sitting , through the long night / lance in rest against the fulling-mills . Here , again , Don Quixote charges

    pseudopagans in a flock of innocent sheep ; or in his dreams does mortal combat with altogether imaginary , not extinct , Satans , and slays

    wine-skins . There is much elevating of plain and common , or even questionable virtues , into peerless Lady Dulcineas ; much

    selfcrowning with barbers' brazen basins ; some setting free of galleyslaves ; some misleading of simple Sanchos with promises of

    impossible islands . In the midst of many a tremendous career , the hobby Hosinante comes to the ground to the discomfiture of her rider *

    But for all this , the movement is a good one . These are but the Wanderings that lead to discovery of the right path ; the false

    guesses that help out the true solution . That there should be a spirit of earnestness among men , a

    recognition of duty to be done , an eagerness for work , a shame of sloth , an abhorrence of false profession , is no small good . If some

    of the suddenly aroused sleepers do not , at first waking , know exactly how to use their exuberant energies , or whither to direct

    their untried strength , such knowledge will come in due time * " Get thindle and thy distaff readyand God will send thee

    flax . " y sp , ¦ ¦ . ; The most notableperhapsof the present hopeful signs , is the

    , , spirit of self-emancipation which has arisen among women I Women have determined to assert their humanity—simply thai ;

    however much satire , at its wit ' s end for a subject , may misrepresent the movement . They have awakened to the fact that they have

    bodies and souls , that these were probably intended to be used , and that it is wise to set about seeing how to use them . If there were

    a law of nature that all female children should be born to sufficient means ; and that all , without exception , should obtain excellent

    husbands at the turning of the teens ; then , the orthodox doctrine that women should educate themselves for marriage alone might have

    some show of wisdom . But nature has sinned against her duty in this matterrefusing to comply with conventional laws ; and the

    notion has arisen , at length that , since nature refuses to conform to social opinionit may be worth while to try whether it were not

    well for social , opinion to conform to nature . Mahomet , finding that the mountain shows no disposition to move , quietly walks to

    the mountain . The Pariahs of the old system , who perversely

    persisted in being penniless , and . unmarried or -unhappily married ,

    104 Manners And Morals.

    104 MANNERS AND MORALS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1862, page 104, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101862/page/32/