Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-10-11
THE ANTI-SLAVERY BUGLE.

common place Of common life, and consecrato my.
sell exclusively to liberty, to art, to love. Add
you have become a free woman, an artist, a being
OF fantasy aud passion, carrying fantasy and pas
sion evea to exhaustion.
The result is known to you. In following only
the beautiful and ideal, you have arrived at the
coarse and the ignUbie; from n free person YOU
have become u slave, and the onjoyments of vanity
OF art, and OF love being no longer sustained by
anything real, serious, vital, and strong, have left
you but their dregs, their emptiness, their degra.
dution.
What am I 70 do now2 you ask me. Here,
madam, l can no longer convince you, either by
reason, or by your own experience. Since yoI
nave placed yourself outside Of the normal conli.
ti9hs OF lite, can only affirm to you the truth Of
what | am going to say. You will either fJllow
my counsel or disdain it, it is a question of life and
death for you, and what is more, a choice, as |
have told you, between honor and infamv. You
are twenty-eight years of age. The first period Of
your youth has passed, the second remains to you,
twelve years Of wOman's middle age, from twenty.
eight 70 forty. 1t is still Il future.
Break Oft first with every kind Of love. The
hrst thing that you have to do is TO learn to possess
yourself, aud unfortunately, you have up to thi,
day been but the slave Of another. This will cost
you dear in the beginning, you must expect it; bur
II the struggle is painful, the triumph will be
sweet to you. To possess yourself, to 6e emanclpa.
tod, enoSled IN body and soul, to govern your SEN
ses-this is what is called CHASTITY. You are no
longer a virgin. Well. the fault is reparable; you
may sun be chaste. Two years at least of this
discipline are necessary to you. The temptations
VIII be strong; those who having known you shall
see you change your life; those who, knowing only
your new lie, shall hear of your past; ali will find
1t worth their while to conquer your resolutions,
ana VIII leave no screw unturned to subject you to
their yoke! Relax not, or all is lost. Despise
those who turn your conduct to ridicule. 1t can
not escape yon, little as you know the heart of
men, that malice, and not the zeal Of virtue, will
edge their sarcasms. An ectycye leave her lovers
before her lovers leave her-ii is objectionable =
With entire abstinence from love, [ prescribe to
you q sober and laborious life. Accord nothing
TO sensuality, and sometimes ever make lenten fare.
This is what the priests call mortjfcation. and |
counsel 1t, not because there is any peculiar mag
&c IN this diet, but because it exercises us gradu-
ally In sell-control, s%ubduing nature and spiritual
izing our being.
you do not tell me what your actual mcaus of
existence are, but whatever they NAV be, YOU
must still add to them, develop them, apply them
in choosing a profession, in embracing a career.
You possess in ample measure, intelligence,
and even intellectually, an irreproachable ortho-
grapby, a good style, and write Il neat hand. /
do not speak Of your other talents which are I'M
known to me, Nothing is wanting to YOU, and
you may yet distinguish yourself in earnest life
as much and more than you have ever done upon
the boards.
Consider that you arc in society, like Robinson
Crusoe on his island, alone, with some resources
that fortune has left you. You must live, and if
your livelihood is already assured, you must en-
large and elevate its sphere. Had you been in
Crusoe's place, TN the sea-shore, would you have
died like q coward, instead of working as be did
foT twenty-five years? Well, now, you are better
than CruSoc, and you can do better than he did.
suppress romance and poetry from your read
ing. Your Imagination requires something more
certifying and purer. You have history, voyages,
geography, the sciences; 90 as far rs philosophy,
even, If you please. In a word, while remaining
an artist, as Nature has made you, work, occupy
yourself undertake new things, and bringing your
artlst-talent to bear upon your new life, incessant-
y ennoble your labors and enterprises. You do
not like domestic economy. It is because you have
seen only the scraps and the smoke of it, A wo-
man needs much talent. l assure you, to make her
apartment a picture and IA landscape. Yet in this
wise you all should strive. Are stoves, pots or
furniture more distasteful to the touch than colurs
and brushes?
"An& now, perhaps, you will ask, what is the
aim and end Of all Chis ? Madam, first, you must
believe me on my word, since you have chosen me
as your physician; begin the treatment, and follow
1t up with resolution, and then | will tell you what
you must do. will show you the superior aim Of
the universal life-an aim, TO have concurred in
which, with all our forces, will constitute our hap
piness.
Il salute you, madam, with esteem and affection.
"P. j. PR0UDIION."