By ownership I mean such relationships as we see in the
households of those who are represented in the letter of the Southern
lady to her father. There we see the weak, the unfortunate, the
dependent nature clinging to the stronger, and receiving support and
comfort, and even honor, from those who in rendering kindness and in
receiving service have their whole being refined and cultivated to the
highest degree. There are no rigors in those relationships; everything
which contributes to the welfare and happiness of a serving class is
enjoyed, and all its liabilities to care and sorrow are removed, to as
great a degree as ever happens in this world.
"Allowing that there are always to be inequalities of mind and
condition, and that what we call menial services will need to be
performed; that there must be those who will have a disposition and
taste to work over a fire all day and prepare food; and that men of
business or study will not all be able to groom their own horses and
wash their vehicles; and that possibly the Coleridges and Southeys, and
their friends the Joseph Cottles, may, from being absorbed in their
ideal pursuits, still be ignorant of the way to get off a collar from a
horse's neck, and must call upon a servant-girl to help them, we shall
need those who will be glad to be servants forever, and who will require
for their own security that their employers shall 'own' them, and thus
be made responsible for their support and protection.
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