In the strong language of Carlyle, I would say that 'Here is a lie
standing up in the midst of society.' I would say 'Down with it, even
to the ground;' for while this perplexing and barbarous anomaly
exists, fretting like an ulcer at the very heart of society, all new
specifics and palliatives are in vain. The question must be settled
one way or another; either let the man in all the relations of life be
held the natural guardian of the woman, constrained to fulfil that
trust, responsible in society for her well-being and her maintenance;
or, if she be liable to be thrust from the sanctuary of home, to
provide for herself through the exercise of such faculties as God has
given her, let her at least have fair play; let it not be avowed, in
the same breath that protection is necessary to her, and that it is
refused her; and while we send her forth into the desert, and bind the
burthen on her back, and put the staff in her hand, let not her steps
be beset, her limbs fettered, and her eyes blindfolded." Amen.
The sixth and last of these papers, on the relative social position of
"mothers and governesses," exhibits in true and full colors a state of
things in England, beside which the custom in some parts of China of
drowning female infants looks mild, generous, and refined;--an
accursed state of things, beneath whose influence nothing can, and
nothing ought to thrive.
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