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    HELPS TO THE DOCTOR. 119

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    + I Think It Will Be Readily Admitted By...

    tions witli which women of leisure fill up tlieir tirae are only tolerated as an escape from utter vacuity . I -would not speak

    contemptuously of _tlie innocent pursuits in which so many of our dear friends pass a considerable share of their time . The

    diversified mysteries of crochet patterns are doubtless well worthy the attention of those who have absolutely nothing better to occupy them

    , "but it may yet be worth while to inquire whether there can be found nothing better .

    We have observed that it is easier to arouse into activity the generous sentiment in "women than in men . Every provincial town ,

    every rural neighborhood , bears witness of this fact hy its Dorcas societiesits clothing fundsits tract distributors , and its charitable

    proceedings , generally . Almost , every voluntary organization for the temporal relief of the poor is worked mainly through woman ' s

    influence . I have no wish to undervalue the organizations for charitable purposes which we now possess , but I cannot help feeling

    that their value mainly consists in the promise they afford of something better . "We have doubtless many valuable institutions of

    this kind , but they seem for the most part constructed on the princile of doing as little as possible . But the circumstance which we

    have p now most in view is , that our charitable institutions do not extensively afford occupation to that class of women who would

    gladly spend their leisure in pursuits worthy of a Christian Englishwoman .

    I cannot enumerate the many forms of organization which might afford a field for the benevolent activity of our women at leisure .

    My object is to call attention to one particular class of organization for the establishment of which among our fellow-countrywomen

    the present day , I think , affords especial opportunity . There is no form of active benevolence which falls so especially within the

    sphere of woman , and in which she so decidedly excels the other sexas the tending of the sick . This occupation , while it is fully .

    worth , the devotion of the most cultivated mindat the same time falls entirel y y within the reach of a person of ordin , ary capacity , if

    qualified by the necessary training ; I cannot imagine any pursuit in which persons of all classes and of all _varieties of

    dispositiongranting only this characteristic in common , an earnest self-denying spirit—could unite with such hearty good will as in . the care of the

    sick . The qualifications required for an efficient tract distributor are really more rare and more difficult of acquirement than those which

    are required for a good nurse . I myself , bungler as I should prove both in one and the other capacityshould feel far less hesitation

    , in volunteering to watch by a sick man ' s couch , than in thrusting myself into a poor man ' s cottage , and presuming upon my social

    superiority to prescribe for his soul ' s cure . To those who can but overcome their aversion to everything new

    w which ildly extravagant they have not in started the project themselves of instituting , there throughout will appear our nothing towns

    Helps To The Doctor. 119

    _HELPS TO THE DOCTOR . 119

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1861, page 119, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101861/page/47/