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Discussions by Robert Lewis Dabney, Vol. 4: Secular is unavailable, but you can change that!

Dabney’s last set of essays, labeled as secular, still contains numerous religious themes throughout. Intertwining recounts of historical figures and events from the American Civil War with theology, many of these essays discuss current issues of the time such as slavery and women’s rights. A narrative of J. B. Baldwin interviewing Abraham Lincoln is included.

Now a woman can never resist an appeal to the principle of generous devotion; her glory is to crucify herself in the cause of duty and of zeal. This plea will be successful. But when the virtuous have once tasted the dangerous intoxication of political excitement and of power, even they will be absorbed; they will learn to do con amore what was first done as a painful duty, and all the baleful influences of political life will be diffused throughout the sex. What those influences will be may be learned
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