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And how transcendently extraordinary, I had almost said miraculous, will it be estimated by candid and reasonable minds, that a writer whose object was a melioration of condition to the common people, and their deliverance from oppression, poverty, wretchedness, to the numberless blessings of upright and equal government, should be reviled, persecuted, and burned in effigy, with every circumstance of insult and execration, by these very objects of his benevolent intentions, in every corner of the kingdom?"
If through a miracle there were to come down on this country, with a sudden, delightful affluence of temporal melioration, resembling the vernal transformation from the dreariness of winter, a universal prosperity, so that all should be placed in comparative ease and plenty, it would require another miracle to prevent this benignity of heaven from turning to a dreadful mischief.
Having already, in the preceding inquiries, ascended to an early date, and traced the condition of women through a long series of historic record to the present age, it may seem an imperfection in the plan to conduct the reader back to a still more remote antiquity than has hitherto been noticed; but this arrangement will be allowed, perhaps, to be founded in propriety, upon observing that the design was first to exhibit a complete series of illustrations, derived from a view of the circumstances of mankind as destitute of the light of revelation, and then to compare the condition of the female sex under the influence of a precursory and imperfect system of the true religion, with their actual state, or with the privileges secured to them by the nobler manifestations of CHRISTIANITY. By this mode of conducting the argument we trace the great epochs in the history of female melioration: the glory of woman appears at first eclipsed, as behind a dark cloud, which the passions of a degenerate race had interposed to hide and debase her: she then emerges, though partially, to view, through the mists and obscurities of a temporary dispensation, adapting itself to the circumstances of mankind as they then existed, but unsuited to what they were destined to become till at length, "fair as the moon," ascending to the noon of her glory, and tinging with the mildness of her beam every earthly object, woman attains her undisputed eminence, and diffuses her benignant influence in society.
Civil war and oppression now lay waste those extensive regions. Population does not increase, and the thinly-scattered inhabitants are too much absorbed in the cares of self-defence even to attempt any melioration of their condition. Such, however, will not always be the case.
And though you may think this to be false, yet you must take notice, that seeing the Salt of Jupiter only by its Sulphur is made more corporal, yet likewise it hath obtained an efficacy and power to penetrate Saturn, the basest and most volatile Metal, and bring it to a melioration of its Equals, as you will find it in reality. Of the Spirit of Saturn, or Tincture of Lead.
The fall of Robespierre would have made as little impression as that of the Girondists, if some melioration of the revolutionary system had not succeeded it; and it is in fact only since the public voice, and the interest of the Convention, have occasioned a change approaching to reform, that the death of Robespierre is really considered as a benefit.
I have one other remark to make. In my observations upon slavery as it has existed in this country, and as it now exists, I have expressed no opinion of the mode of its extinguishment or melioration.
I hope you have from the beginning sufficiently understood concerning this Natural and Supernatural Advice, and the first tinging Root of Metals and Minerals, whereon the Corner-stone is placed, and where the true Rock is grounded in its kind, wherein Nature hath placed and buried her secret & deeply concealed Gifts; to wit, in the fiery tinged Spirits, which Colours they gained out of the starry Heaven by the operation of the Elements; and they can moreover tinge and fix that which before was not tinged and unfix'd, seeing that Luna wants the Robe of the Golden Crown, together with the fixedness, as likewise Saturn, Jupiter, and Mercury do; and although Mars and Venus need not this Rayment, but can communicate it to the other five, yet I say, that they can perform nothing to attain any thing with wealth without the Lion, because they are not sufficiently accomodated with a fixedness of their Mercury, and a gentleness of their Salt, except it be that the Lion overcome them, that they have triumphed on both parts, and gained a remarkable Melioration altogether; this Melioration lies concealed in their Signate star, or Magnet, out of which all Metals have themselves received their Gifts.
He demanded L700 for the ground, and to be excused paying any thing for the melioration of the rest of his ground that he was to keep. The Court consented to give him L700, only not to abate him the consideration: which the man denied; but told them, and so they agreed, that he would excuse the City the L700, that he might have the benefit of the melioration without paying any thing for it.
I observe not the Order of the Planets, and not without just grounds; for I observe the order of their Birth, by which I am directed; for because Venus hath much Sulphur, she is sooner digested and ripened together with Mars, before other Metals; but because unconstant Mercury shewed them both too little assistance, therefore no room is left him to work harder, by reason of the superfluous Sulphur, so that they could obtain no melioration of their unfixt Bodies.
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