This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837 edition. Excerpt: ... 94 Chapter VII. MEANS OF PRESERVING HEALTH. IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. OBJECTIONS ANTICIPATED. THE LAWS OF OUR BEING ARE FIXED. EXTRACT FROM DR. COMBE. ADVANTAGES OF THE STUDY OF PHYSIOLOGY.--STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN. CLEANLINESS. WARM AND COLD BATHING. MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF THE SKIN AND THE LUNGS. -- CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. EXERCISE. COLD EXTREMITIES. THE LUNGS. DIGESTION. FOOD. DRINK. FASTING THE BEST CURE.-- CONSTIPATION. TIGHT LACING.-- TIGHT SHOES. Were this chapter headed with, "The Means of Preserving Beauty," how many eyes, that will now turn away from it with indifference, would then he riveted to it; and yet a hetter understanding of the subject would make those who are most anxious to preserve their good looks, seek most eagerly to know how to preserve their health, for without that, no one can long be beautiful, and with it the plainest person is sure of one kind of comeliness. We think with horror of that sort of suicide which is committed by hanging, drowning, or poisoning; but take no note of the more numerous, and more responsible cases that are to be found among those who destroy their health by inattention to the laws which a wise Creator has affixed to the human constitution. Ignorance, a blamable ignorance, of the structure and functions of those organs on which life depends, has occasioned the death of thousands. Women study all the arts and sciences which are fitted to embellish life, whilst they fail to become acquainted with that one subject, on which depends the exercise and full enjoyment of all else that they IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 95 know. They spend years in learning to sing, without devoting one hour's attention to the construction of that wonderful instrument, the lungs. They pursue all other kinds of...

In Conversational Rhetoric, Jane Donawerth traces the historical development of rhetorical theory by women for women, studying the moments when women produced theory about the arts of communication in alternative genres-humanist treatises and dialogues, defenses of women's preaching, conduct books, and elocution handbooks.

The award-winning author of The Peabody Sisters takes a fresh look at the trailblazing life of a great American heroine Thoreau s first editor, Emerson s close friend, the first female war correspondent, and a passionate advocate of personal liberation and political freedom. "Megan Marshall's brilliant Margaret Fuller brings us as close as we are ever likely to get to this astonishing creature. She rushes out at us from her nineteenth century, always several steps ahead, inspiring, heartbreaking, magnificent." Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity "Megan Marshall gives new meaning to close reading from words on a page she conjures a fantastically rich inner life, a meld of body, mind, and soul. Drawing on the letters and diaries of Margaret Fuller and her circle, she has brought us a brave, visionary, sensual, tough-minded intellectual, a first woman who was unique yet stood for all women. A masterful achievement by a great American writer and scholar. Evan Thomas, author of Ike s Bluff: President Eisenhower s Secret Battle to Save the World "Megan Marshall s Margaret Fuller: A New American Life is the best single volume ever written on Fuller. Carefully researched and beautifully composed, the book brings Fuller back to life in all her intellectual vivacity and emotional intensity. Marshall s Fuller overwhelms the reader, just as Fuller herself overwhelmed everyone she met. A masterpiece of empathetic biography, this is the book Fuller herself would have wanted. You will not be able to put it down." Robert D. Richardson, author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire Praise for The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism A stunning work of biography and intellectual history. Deftly weaving material from the letters and journals of all three sisters, Ms. Marshall . . . performs the intellectual equivalent of a triple axel. William Grimes, New York Times This beautifully written book is at once an intimate portrait of three remarkable sisters and a study of women s place in the vibrant intellectual and literary culture of nineteenth-century New England. The product of twenty years of research, Megan Marshall s tour de force is impossible to put down. Drew Gilpin Faust, author of The Republic of Suffering "