Owen's Moral Physiology; or, A Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population QuestionOwen, Robert Dale
Philosophy
Owen's Moral Physiology; or, A Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population Question
Owen, Robert Dale
Birth control; Malthusianism
Some weeks since, a gentleman coming from England brought with him two
pretty specimens of English typography. One represented a triumphal arch
with a statue of the late king, and was made up of 17,000 different
pieces of common printing type; the other, an altar piece, having the
Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Commandments, printed within it, and composed
of about 13,000 separate pieces. The gentleman was requested by a
Brighton printer who executed them, to present these, as specimens of
English typography, to some of his brethern craftsmen in America. He
presented them to me. I admired the ingenuity displayed in the
performance; but thought they ought to have been presented rather to
some printers’ society than to an individual. I therefore addressed them
to our Typographical Society in New York, accompanied by a note simply
requesting the society’s acceptance of them, as specimens of the art in
England.
I thought no more of the matter, until I received, the other day, my
specimens back again, with a long and not a little angry letter, signed
by three of the members, accusing Robert Dale Owen of principles
subversive of every virtue under heaven, and calculated to lead to the
infraction of every commandment in the decalogue: and, more especially,
accusing him of having given his sanction to a work, as they expressed
it, “holding out inducements and facilities for the prostitution of
their daughters, sisters, and wives.”
I subsequently learned, from one of the society, circumstances which
somewhat extenuate (albeit nothing can excuse) their childish
incivility. A gentleman who busied himself last year in making out a
notable reply to the “Society for the Protection of Industry,” got up,
at a late Typographical meeting, and read to the Society several
detached extracts from a pamphlet written by Richard Carlile, entitled
“Every Woman’s Book,” which extracts he pronounced to be excessively
indecent; and asked the Society whether they would receive any thing at
the hands of a man who publicly approved a book of a tendency so
dreadfully immoral; which, he averred, I had done. The society were (or
affected to be) much shocked, and thereupon chose a committee to return
to me the heretical specimens, which committee penned the letter to
which I have alluded.
Probably some members of the society really did believe the work to be
of pernicious tendency. Had some garbled extracts only from it been read
to me, I might possibly have utterly misconceived its tone and tendency,
and its author’s motives. But he must be blind indeed, who can read the
pamphlet through, and then (whether he approve it or not) can attribute
other than good intentions to the individual who was bold enough to put
it forth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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