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85 Letterto the editor: sketches of Lecturing September 4, 1851 New York State Rose occasionally communicated with her friends in the freethought community about her lectures on that subject, using the forum of the letters to the editor column in the Boston Investigator, a publication she could expect most of them to read. It is interesting to note that, although she speaks in opposition to religion, she is sometimes allowed to speak at churches. When she refers to “priests,” it is in the Owenite sense of clergy of all faiths, and does not refer solely to Catholic or Episcopal priests. This letter to the editor was published under the title “Sketches of Lecturing” in the October 1, 1851, issue of the Boston Investigator; it was written on September 4. The date tells us that only six weeks before Rose was to give her great speech on women’s rights in Worcester, she was on the road in upstate New York, lecturing on freethought issues, and invited at one church to stay and lecture on women’s rights in the evening. Rose managed to be an influential advocate for all of her reform issues simultaneously. n Mr. Editor:—I had a very interesting visit in the western part of New York, about 13 miles south of Rochester, and while there I was requested to speak in public; and as it ever gives me the greatest pleasure to contribute my mite towards the general stock of knowledge and happiness, I willingly accepted the proposal. We had seven meetings in the vicinity. In the village of Rush I spoke twice in the Baptist church, on the formation of character and on woman’s rights. The meetings were well attended. The Methodist minister of the place and a brother minister from Lyma College called to see me. We had a very interesting conversation on the nature and merit of belief. The minister from Rush of course deemed it very meritorious to believe in his ism, but wrong and wicked to believe in any other; still he was quite polite and gentlemanly. Since I left there he has taken up my lectures to preach from. I am glad he did so; it will do good, for as gold is purified and refined when passed through the fiery furnace, so does Truth come out clearer and more beautiful from under severe criticism. At Honeyday, I spoke in the Christian Church, on the present social evils. The meeting was well attended, and at the close of it a minister 86 ernestIne l.rose made some remarks in reference to what I said concerning the clerical profession . He considered clergymen the most self-sacrificing class of people in society, and, as an evidence, he gave the fact that he had been for some years minister in that place and was not worth a dollar. In my reply I told him that when he hears that the ministers receive calls to leave large and wealthy congregations to go to some poor ones because they stand more in need of their instruction, to let me know it, and I would take back what I said. The next day, Sunday, in the afternoon, I spoke in the Universalist Church in Smithtown. The house was very much crowded, some could not obtain even standing room. After the meeting I was requested to speak there in the evening on the rights of woman.The meeting was well attended and kept up till quite a late hour. What convinced me most of the progress in intelligence and liberality in the part of the country, was the profound attention with which they listened to these lectures, and the marked interest manifested during and after the meetings. They created quite an excitement , and I received many invitations to visit and lecture in the vicinity. The last two lectures I gave in Rochester, but owing to a want of time to give proper notice, and to the influence of the priests on the people, were not so well attended. But without wishing to burden you with a lengthy detail, I must say that much good could be done there to awaken the slumbering faculties of the people. The country around Rochester is inhabited by a fine, industrious, intelligent class of men. The land is beautiful , the fields teeming with the fruit from Nature’s bountiful store-house, and if we only had more laborers in the mental and moral fields, we could reap a plentiful harvest of...

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