the body to claim care as the abode and organ of the soul, not as the tool of servile labor, or the object of voluptuous indulgence.
A poor woman who had passed through the lowest grades of ignominy, seemed to think she had never been wholly lost, “for,” said she, “I would always have good under-clothes;” and, indeed, who could doubt that this denoted the remains of private self-respect in the mind?
A woman of excellent sense said, “it might seem childish, but to her one of the most favorable signs of the times, was that the ladies had been persuaded to give up corsets.”
Yes! let us give up all artificial means of distortion. Let life be healthy, pure, all of a piece. Miss Sedgwick, in teaching that domestics must have the means of bathing as much as their mistresses, and time, too, to bathe, has symbolized one of the most important of human rights.
Another interesting sign of the time is the influence exercised by two women, Miss Martineau and Miss Barrett, from their sick rooms. The lamp of life which, if it had been fed only by the affections, depended on precarious human relations, would scarce have been able to maintain a feeble glare in the lonely prison, now shines far and wide over the nations, cheering fellow sufferers and hallowing the joy of the healthful.
These persons need not health or youth, or the charms of personal presence, to make their thoughts available. A few more such, and old woman[1] shall not be the synonyme for imbecility, nor old maid a
- ↑ An apposite passage is quoted in Appendix F.
