General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great BritainPeters, Samuel
History
General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain
Peters, Samuel
Connecticut -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Connecticut -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
It may seem very strange to find this custom of bundling in bed
attended with so much innocence in New-England, while in Europe it is
thought not safe, or scarcely decent, to permit a young man or maid to
be together in private anywhere. But, in this quarter of the Old
World, the viciousness of the one and the simplicity of the other are
the result merely of education and habit. It seems to be a part of
heroism, among the polished nations of it, to sacrifice the virtuous
fair one whenever an opportunity offers, and thence it is concluded
that the same principles actuate those of the New World. It is
egregiously absurd to judge of all countries by one. In Spain,
Portugal, and Italy, jealousy reigns; in France, England, and Holland,
suspicion; in the West and East-Indies, lust; in New-England,
superstition. These four blind deities govern Jews, Turks, christians,
infidels, and heathen. Superstition is the most amiable. She sees no
vice with approbation, but persecution, and self-preservation is the
cause of her seeing that. My insular readers will, I hope, believe me,
when I tell them that I have seen in the West-Indies naked boys and
girls, some fifteen or sixteen years of age, waiting at table and at
tea, even when twenty or thirty virtuous English ladies were in the
room; who were under no more embarrassment at such an awful sight in
the eyes of English people who have not travelled abroad, than they
would have been at the sight of so many servants in livery. Shall we
censure the ladies of the West-Indies as vicious above their sex on
account of this local custom? By no means; for long experience has
taught the world that the West-Indian white ladies are virtuous
prudes. Where superstition reigns, fanaticism will be minister of
state; and the people, under the taxation of zeal, will shun what is
commonly called vice with ten times more care than the polite and
civilized christians who know what is right and what is wrong from
reason and revelation. Happy would it be for the world, if reason and
revelation were suffered to control the minds and passions of the
great and wise men of the world, as superstition does that of the
simple and less polished! When America shall elect societies for the
promotion of chastity in Europe, in return for the establishment of
European arts in American capitals, then Europe will discover that
there is more christian philosophy in American bundling than can be
found in the customs of nations more polite.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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