The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1883-03-14
(From the N. Y. Times.)
The Rev. DR.. Morgan Dix on
Modern Society.

Friday evening his series of Lenten dis
courses in Trinity chapel, by talking
about some of the sins of women which
menace our homes. The church was
crowded to its utmost capacity with men
and women who listened attentively to
DIR. Dix's searching words about the fol-
lies and crimes of society women of the
day. We could all recollect, the speaker
said, how the fairest stories of our youth
began with the formula, Once upon a
time" So some people to-day said
"Once upon time" men looked with
reverence upon women. Men had ro-
mantle thoughts of women. Then there
was true and honest chivalry in the
world. But that, these people said, was
"once upon time" These days had
passed. We lived in wiser, if harder,
age. Our eyes were opened. We saw
things differently. We saw that the
facts were not in accord with the ideas
of "once upon time" We saw it was
mere fancy and nonsense to talk to or of
women as men did in the days of
chivalry. These people, DIR: Dix con-
tinued, wanted a social reconstruction.
They wanted women to march shoulder
to shoulder with men as mems equals in
all things. Let the ideal woman, they
said, be put out, and let us have in her
place the actual woman. DIR. Dix ques,
toned not, he said, that the position of
woman had changed-for the worse, he
thought, in those things in which woman
was most sensitive. The olden homage
paid to her was now only civility, her
privacy was invaded, and newspapers
printed her name in full and treated her
Just as they would man. That woman s
position had changed for the worse was
not at all the fault of men, 1t was
largely those bodies of women who were
striving to take women out of their
proper sphere who had brought about
the change. Dr. Dix held the old idea
of woman. He abhorred and detested
the modern idea. He rose up and
blessed her who was true, Christian,
reverent woman. Men, he continued,
were worse than women Much could
be said to show this on religious grounds.
Women were morally the superiors of
men, and in many instances they were
becoming intellectually mems superiors
They had more time to read and cult
vate their intellectual powers. Many
men, wrapped up in commercial life, had
little time to read more than the news
papers, and could not keep up with the
rapid advance in knowledge of women.
Why, asked the preacher, should women
wish to lower. themselves to our level ?
Why should these queens abdicate their
thrones and come down to mans level?
Women's sins, Dr. Dix continued, fell
naturally into classes or groups, and of
one of these groups he proposed to speak.
1t included the lack of a serious use Of life,
and the habit of turning their thoughts
wholly to happiness and pleasure; the
degradation of matrimony and the DELHI
crate determination of some women to
defeat the very object for which matri-
mony was instituted the habit, where a
home existed, Of neglecting that home, of
running about after pleasure, and of
leaving children to the care of servants J;
and the growing inclination to that chief
of all denominations, divorce and lax
notions about it. Women, said DIR. Dix,
were not wholly free from blame for the
growth of these things. Had not Chris
tian women given occasion to these
women agitators, this world would have
remained so true that their fanatical sis
ters would have woven their webs and
tried their arts in vain. The mischief
began in the education Of children. Pa
rents strained every nerve to give their
children an education above their class.
1t was the same with the richer class,
where mothers did their utmost to make
their children shine conspicuously in
"society." The mothers serious bust
ness in life, In her view, was to give her
daughter a successful entrance into
society. If only the girl was pronounced
a " success" that was enough. IT know
not what greater degradation, said DIR.
Dix, can overtake young woman on
her coming out in society than to be
weighed in this commercial way and be
pronounced success. >" A child he
continued, was sent to school. She was
placed in the hands of careful, conscien-
tious teachers. She made good progress,
learned to love her studies, and took de-
light in her advancement in knowledge.
She reached the age of Is. That was
the very time in her life when that
higher education Of woman" rightly
understood, should begin Two or three
years might make her the woman she
should be. But the mother stepped in
perhaps herself weatherbeaten wreck
of that maelstrom of society" The
mother insisted that her daughter must
"come out" The young girl rehnon.
strated and her teachers protested. No
matter Go she must, and 90 she did,