Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/7

 NOTICES OF THE PRESS.

N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 11, 1879. "The author of this volume boars an honored name on the roll both of science and of philanthropy, and is equally distinguished as a woman of rare elevation of principle, of high educational attainments, as a sagacious and successful medical practitioner, and a wise medical counsellor. In a series of thoughtful and impressive reflections she here treats of the moral education of youth, considered in relation to sex. . . . .Of the truth and importance of the principles which she lays down, she presents many forcible illustrations, contending that they rest on the deep foundation of physiological law, and are confirmed by facts of universal experience. Her appeals to parents at the close of the work in behalf of the principles which she defends exhibit the eloquence of profound conviction and earnest purpose. . . . ."

"Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell makes a foreible appeal to parents to stop the ever-growing deterioration of morals among the young men and women of the present day. . . . .'The first falsehood,' says Dr. Blackwell, 'that must disappear, is the belief that the higher classes of women — the cultivated, the refined, the virtuous—have nothing to do with sexual vice; that they must remain ignorant of facts and see nothing but what is pleasant to see. . . . .'"

N. Y. Star, November 10, 1879. "Elizabeth Blackwell deserves well of the moral community for having recently said bravely and pointedly some things which most of our moralists, however good their intentions, are not stout-hearted or clever enough to say openly and inoffensively.

"Her little book, with the unpretentious title, 'Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children,' covers much broader sociological grounds than such a title indicates.

"Although written, as the author declares, to show the necessity for the proper development, distinctions, and discipline of sex in the young, it touches upon the important questions of the tendencies of sexual vice in modern civilization, and upon the disastrous results of those sins which society winks at, upon woman. . . ..

"Coming from a woman, this book is unique, but its testimony is so bravely given, its arguments are so dispassionately and calmly piled up, without oven the bias of sex, and its physiological authority is so complete, that it must be welcomed by all sincere moral workers as one of the ablest, if, indeed, it is not the ablest appeal that has been made in our time in behalf of chastity and sexual nobility of life.

"The chief value of the book to the young themselves is its convincing statement of the fundamental truth that happiness, health, and power are on the side of morality. Stated merely as an ethical proposition, this will not have any new weight. But shown as a physiological principle, founded in Nature herself, bearing always with it its own rewards and penalties, physical and moral, it must be of immense service.