The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1840-09-18
THE PROGRESS OF MORALS.

We remember that our good mother, now wit
God, as Charles Lamb would say, used to be d
home attending to the legitimate business of wif
and mother, educating her children and maxim
a pleasant home for her husband She cared NOR
to tighten his cares and instruct his children, thai
for all the political conventions under heaven.
But, now, the mothers of the land, have forgot
ten their homes and their fire-sidGs, and leayid
their children to the care Of menials, they rid
about in Log Cabins, guzze hard cider, AM
attend coon-skin Powows. They sanction ibid
ness, intemperance and yagabondsm, in the oil
and encourage it in the young. Beautiful ven
beautiful guardians these of the youth of the land
God help boy born of one of these mothers. WI
say God help him, for it would seem that ST
whose legitimate duty this is, has more importaI
business on hand, and that she thinks the elecid
of this or that man to the Presidency of the Unite
States of America matter of much more impo
lance than the care of an immortal being whid
heaven has, most unfortunately, trusted to nd
keeping. TO watch over, and fit for usefulness
this world and happiness in the next, the your
men the country, has become business to whi(
our mothers and their daughters cannot stoop nov
a-days. 1t is business altogether beneath Them
Their place is now, in the broad glare of da
amid the thousands and tens of thousands of Draw
ing demagogucs, foul-mouthcd dcbauchecs al
drunken political backegs, liom the very sight
whom their mothers would have shrunk as fro|
the touch of a viper. They submit to the address
es, 6, Eamiliaritics Of men, who would sooner hat
dared the full gazc Of the burning eye of an Arcl
angel than looked their mothers in the face. Thl
daughters, the future mothers of the land, al
trained to think rlore highly of the balderdash, a
frtd attentions of TIE most abandoned bertine
the country than oftheir God, their virtue and thd
responsibility, as the vesal fire Of all that man wo
ships and idolizes in the social relations of life
Their sons are taught to think more highly Of Il
dalliancc Of beautiful courczan, the nightly rel
e and the drunken prawl Than Of their education 4
the honor of society and the counsels of the nj
ton And yet oh consistency so beautiful, col
sisency so dazzling, that we can almost fall dow
and worship its very idea, they fill their pailo
with the " Advocnte of Moral Reform" Il
I" Temperance STAR" and Magdalen Tracts |
What unhollowed mockery of their pretended 10
of morality and religion What vivid, dispair|
aud damning proof of the assertions Of llberlin|
and atheists that virtue is but II name, ard col
science bugbear. Go on 90 on beautiful II
formers, 20 on So shall you entitle yourself to
respect, the love and the vcneraton of all honor
bic and riglt-minded men ! So shall your daug
tiers become the 10 EQloa of the pure and beau
full, your sons the beau ideal Of the stern lover
Justice, and the strong minded and ncorruptiI|
guardian of law and order So shall future ger
ra,ions rise up and call You b,essed and when
hoyah calls upon You 10 return TO him the souls |
trusted to your care and keeping for while, he Il
find Them, not blacliened with pollution, u,iIdew
with vice; rotten with forbidden indulgcncics,
spotted as the leopard s-skn with impure aGectic
and unhoIy thoughts; but pure, holy, yiItuous, 81
spotted from the world white as wool, and p
pared 10 take their seats at his right hand Coo
Go on