Letter V. To Robert Dingley, Esq.; being a proposal for the relief and employment of friendless girls and repenting prostitutes / [Jonas Hanway].

  • Hanway, Jonas, 1712-1786.
Date:
1758
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter V. To Robert Dingley, Esq.; being a proposal for the relief and employment of friendless girls and repenting prostitutes / [Jonas Hanway]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    .[*03 numbers of poor girls have been lpft to their parents,, their country, and their God! What forrow, mixed with indignation, rauft arife in a generous breaft, at the fight of fuch numbers of young women plying in the ftreets, as abandoned proftitutes ? How extremely grating it is to hear, a woman addrefled with no gentler falutation than d—d b—h 5 a language not very civil, even when applied to the vileft of women, and yet, I am forry to fay, not altogether un- fuitable to the chara&er of thofe, to whom it is ufually given i* Who, that confiders the dignity of that nature in which the fon of God himfelf appeared, and views attentively the miferable condition of thefe wretches, can refrain from tears ? To be like a b—h, or fomething worfe, is dread¬ ful indeed! and, for being fo, to be ccnfigned to everlafting perdition! — Here all language ceafes; and all utterance fails ! To fee women difguifed with liquor, ox. fighting with each other, or the pooreft fort covered with filth and rags, and yet waiting for their prey: thefe are things fo monftrous as hardly to be conceived 5 nor arc they known in any other country. There is a certain elegance or deli¬ cacy even in vice, as well as in virtue, though indeed it is rendered the more dangerous to Tome perfons on that account.—And how often do we hear thofe tongues, which the God of nature defigned fhould foften the di- flrefles of human life, and give a relifh to its joys} uttering the greateft in¬ decencies, and the moft dreadful imprecations ?—Immodefiy herfclf is con¬ founded, and Impudence hides her face! These are truths which cannot be denied; but it is alfo true, that there are many poor girls who lament their fad condition, and would gladly * “ A fhamelcfs woman &all be counted us a dog,”