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A woman's secret. Corbin, Caroline Fairfield, (1835–1918).
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A WOMAN'S SECRET.

BY

MRS. CAROLINE FAIRFIELD CORBIN.

CHICAGO: CENTRAL PUBLISHING HOUSE, 84, 86 & 88 DEARBORN STREET.

1867.
page: 3[View Page 3]

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by MRS. CAROLINE FAIRFIELD CORBIN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Northern District of Illinois.

TO
JOHN STUART MILL,
THE AUTHOR
WOULD HEREBY EXPRESS HER ADMIRATION AND GRATITUDE
FOR
HIS NOBLE EFFORTS IN BEHALF OF THE ENFRANCHISEMENT
OF
WOMAN.

page: 4-5[View Page 4-5]
  • "Force rules the world still;
  • Has ruled it; shall rule it.
  • Meekness is weakness;
  • Strength is triumphant;
  • Over the whole earth
  • Still it is Thor's day."

LONGFELLOW.

  • Ere long a fairer morn shall rise,
  • With purer air, and brighter skies,
  • When Force shall lay his scepter down,
  • And Strength shall abdicate his crown,
  • And Love incarnate sway the race,
  • With wisest power and tenderest grace.
page: 6-7[View Page 6-7]

PREFACE.

It is not strictly as a work of art that this book appeals to public favor and criticism. It has not been written for immortality, but to serve, if it may, a single purpose to the present day and generation.

It has seemed to the writer that the ideas of the relative positions of the sexes, the status and work of woman, and the nature and office of love, require a new setting forth at the hands of this generation. The old method of expressing these things, and the old faith concerning them, were wise and good in the olden time; but now, as in the days of Christ, new bottles must be fashioned for the new wine of advancing civilization.

In attempting to contribute her mite to this yawning treasury, the writer has not been in the mood, indeed she is not sufficiently learned, to touch statistics, but has been content to leave them to the handling of those exact minds who are already working with so much effectiveness among them. Neither could she always, from the nature of the work, cite authorities nor answer objections. Many themes have been simply touched, which would require volumes for their elaboration; and many weighty arguments have been omitted, because they did not come within the scope of the work, or would have clogged too much the flow of the narrative. What the writer has mainly aimed to do, has been to get at a few underlying principles as old as the hills and place them in, possibly, a new light before the reader.

Her grateful acknowledgments are due to Mrs. Alfred Clapp, of St. Louis, President of the Western Female Guardian Society, to whose earnest appeals and kind encouragement the inception and final accomplishment of this work are mainly owing; to Rev. Robert Collyer, of Unity Church, Chicago, for the generous and judicious loan of books, for some just criticism, which was also gentle, and page: 8-9 (Table of Contents) [View Page 8-9 (Table of Contents) ] for a kind appreciation of the purity of her purpose; and to Dr. De Laskie Miller, Professor of Obstetrics in Rush Medical College, Chicago, for truest sympathy and most helpful help in the line of his professional knowledge and experience.

Concerning anything in the subject matter of this book which may seem unusual, the writer can only say, that throughout her whole work she has labored under an imposition of conscience, and
  • "When God commands to take the trumpet,
  • And blow a dolorous or a thrilling blast,
  • It rests not with man's will what he shall say,
  • Or what he shall conceal."

It is only right to add, that she has made the subject of Prostitution and its causes one of thorough practical research, and speaks no more strongly concerning it than her knowledge of facts will warrant.

CHICAGO, May 1st, 1867.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

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