Blair Collection > Practical grammar of the antient Gaelic, or, Language of the Isle of Man, usually called Manks

XXXVl A SERMON.
liave tlieir duties to perform in the interesting situations of wives
and mothers, and upon tlicir conduct tlie happiness of tlieir re-
spective families must depend ; by their virtuous lives, the virtue
of the community be preserved ; and from the decent behaviour
of this humble class of persons together, the very character of the
nation be deduced.
But if the advantage to be derived from communicating to
them wisdom, particularly that " wisdom which cometh from
above, and maketh them wase unto salvation,'"* may not be con-
sidered by some as producing a good equal to the expense, reflect
ye upon the innumerable evils which are by these means avoided,
and which would naturally flow from ignorance, — which would
destroy all the happiness of the lower orders, and corrupt the
higher. Let the good, therefore, to be acquired, and the evil to
be avoided, determine your conduct. And stop not here, but in
life follow up the good work which you have here begun ; and
carefully reserve for them such employments and such labour as
may be suited to their sex.
It has become, most unaccountably, the prevailing fashion to
employ the labour of men where women "would serve with more
propriety, w^ith more delicacy, and more effect. There is scarcely
a province, either in trade or husbandry, where men, fitted for
more hardy employments, have not obtruded themselves. It
rests with you, within your respective circles, to reform and
remedy these evils, to prevent such a detrimental interference,
and secure for the helpless females constant employment. For
be assured that, next to ignorance, idleness is most fatal to them;
and sorr}^ am I to observe that in this county women are not
sufficiently employed, particularly in the inexhausti1)]e labours of
the field ; for tliere is scarcely a part in husbandry in which they
are not capable of assisting : whereas, to glean, and not to eani
their bread, is their only annual occupation, — an occupation that
tends to sow the seeds of corruption, if not of dishonesty, in their
own and their children's hearts ; and the fatal consequence is,
* James iii. 17:2 Tim. iii. 15.