Ladies' Companion for Visiting the Poor…
Advice for Upperclass Women Doing Charitable Work for the Poor
[Philanthropy]. [Anonymous]. The Ladies’ Companion for Visiting the Poor: Consisting of Familiar Addresses, Adapted to Particular Occasions. By the Author of “Lucy Franklin.” London: Printed for J. Hatchard and Son, 1820.
12mo.; pages faintly, evenly, yellowed; brown-grey endpapers; front inner hinge tender but sound; 1830 previous owner’s signature on 2nd blank, contemporary female ownership signature on title page; bound together with 15 various unrelated religious tracts of the same period, published by The Religious Tract Society and others, all of which follow after The Ladies’ Companion; contemporary brown full calf, with black morocco spine label; spine stamped decoratively in gilt, head of spine showing some light wear; a pretty and interesting copy of a scarce publication in a contemporary binding.
Second edition. Extremely rare: no edition of this title is held by the Library of Congress; OCLC turns up just one microfilm reprint of an 1813 edition without authorial attribution; not in Halkett & Laing, BL and Goldsmith (20804). Also, a search for Lucy Franklin (purportedly by the same author) turns up nothing in the Library of Congress and turns up an anonymous work with a slightly different title in OCLC (22123).
A practical handbook aimed at upperclass women who offer Christian charity to the sick and poor. Consists of 21 different sample addresses or moral speeches to be administered to the impoverished underclasses on various occasions: some of these include “Addresses to Lying-In Women/To be used shortly after a Woman’s Confinement;” “Addresses in Sickness/Address to one who has led a careless Life, but who is not awakened to a Sense of her Danger;” “Addresses in Sickness/Ejaculations for the Dying;” “Address to the Aged/Hymn for the Aged;” “Address To A Person Dejected From Extreme Poverty;” and many others, all suited for specific scenarios.
The handbook’s prostletizing purpose, and, inadvertently, its attitude towards the lower classes, is revealed clearly in its Preface:
In an age in which such great exertions are made for the benefit of the Poor, it would be superfluous to offer many arguments to Ladies in favor of visiting them at their own habitations. If it be generally allowed, that, by giving indiscriminate relief to all who apply, we are in danger of encouraging vice and imposition, it follows, that, if we would relieve real distress, we must take the trouble of tracing our petitioners to their abodes, in order to make ourselves acquainted with their characters and situations….
….But she, who, to the feelings of humanity, unites a strong sense of piety, will be anxious that her intercourse with her inferiors should conduce not only to their temporal, but to their spiritual benefit; and to this end she will thankfully embrace every opportunity of communicating religious information, or strengthening religious principles….Perhaps there is no class in society more open for the moment to religious impressions than the better sort of the female poor; and if, through the means of a pious and judicious friend, these impressions are frequently repeated, they may, in the end, produce a permanent effect upon the character…(pp. A-viii)
A handsome copy of a scarce book and an excellent example of the different ways that society regarded women of different classes in early 19th century England (& by extension, America).
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