This mutilation belonged to the worship of the great heathen goddess of Asia Minor, and was associated with her debasing cultus.
They merged God in nature, debasing the spiritual conception of the Deity with fleshly attributes.
The character of the questions made a duty of the priest to ask during confession, are debasing in the extreme, their whole tendency towards the undermining of morality.
Her opposition to the debasing theories of the "Romance" marks the later period of woman's entrance into literature, and is an era from which dates the modern intellectual development of Europe.
So far from celibacy producing chastity or purity of life, church restrictions upon marriage led to the most debasing crimes, the most revolting vices, the grossest immorality.
As the first synod in North America was called for the purpose of trying a woman for heresy, so the first synod of the reformation was assembled for the purpose of sustaining polygamy, thus farther debasing woman in the marital relation.
William Carle-ton went so far as to accuse him of deliberately giving to the public "disgusting and debasing caricatures" of Irish life and character.
The only parallel case with the male sex would be that in some Eastern communities which are rotting and falling to pieces from their debasing and unnatural crimes.
But the sin of the girl soon becomes what the Bible calls "a sin against one's own body," the most debasing of all sins.
I have likewise an aversion to monarchy, as being too debasing to the dignity of man; but I never troubled others with my notions till very lately, nor ever published a syllable in England in my life.
But this would be a practice too debasing for a sovereign people to stoop to, and too profligate not to be discountenanced.
A plurality is far better: It combines the mass of a nation better together: And besides this, it is necessary to the manly mind of a republic that it loses the debasing idea of obeying an individual.
Their worship combined cruelty and licentiousness, and was perhaps as debasing a superstition as the world has witnessed.
As the doctrines of heathen religions were corrupt, so their worship was only a debasing superstition.
A supernatural religion had become necessary in order to counteract the fatal consequences of these debased and debasing superstitions.
The virtues of a man of rank should be in proportion to his station; but you have distinguished yourself only by holding up to the world the debasing example of a dishonorable and licentious life.
Emily will not require to be brought out, nor paraded through the debasing formalities of fashion.
In the later history of these nations, their idolatry degenerated in character, and became a system of most debasing tendency.
An impression seems to have gained currency in the United States that the unæsthetic features seen in Japan to-day are due to the debasing influences of Western art and Occidental intercourse.
And none of these can be attributed to thedebasing influence of Western art.
Now it is conspicuous that the conception of the nature and purpose of woman, as held in the Orient, has always been debasing to her.
He said such a preposterous coalition would bring us into contempt with all our neighbours; and was worse, in fact, than debasing the gold coin of the nation.
What an excuse, what a sanction is here for the demagogues who direct the worst passions of men to the worst and the most selfish purposes, and the most debasing consequences!
Their low moral standard cannot excite surprise when we consider the debasing tendency of their worship, the objects of their adoration being nothing more than their own degraded passions invested with some of the attributes of deity.
It led me to think--to examine my past life, and to renounce for ever those follies, which I now felt were debasing to both soul and body, and unworthy the pursuit of any rational creature.
Now you are not only a slave, but a slave in the most debasing bondage.
You talk about freedom; and yet are a slave to the most debasing appetite.
From a third to a half of the sum he earned weekly, he spent in gratifying the debasing appetite that had almost beggared his family and reduced him to a state of degradation little above that of the brute.
Had he been overflowing with wealth, he would have slipped from a creditor, and duped a friend; there was a pitiful and debasing weakness in his nature, which made him regard the lowest meanness as the subtlest wit.
Trust me, noblest of men; I should be unworthy of the name you have given me could I sully it in my person by one debasing word or action to the author of all our ills!
It is a debasing of reason, the superior faculty of the soul, and a setting up of the flesh or inferior faculties, like setting dogs to govern men, or the horse to rule the rider.
And when women are thus enslaved, who have so great a part in the education of children, by which all virtue and civility are maintained in the world, it must needs tend to the debasing and brutifying of mankind.
It is a debasing of the soul of man, and using it like the brutes, while it is principally set upon the serving of the flesh, and on a temporal felicity, and neglecteth its eternal happiness and concernments.
Remember how base a sin it is, and how dishonourable and debasing to the mind of man.
They would have taught you that sin is the debasing of human nature, and that religion and walking by the laws of God are altogether preferable to the ways of sin and Satan.
He had not been subjected by his uncle, Abdul Hamid, to the debasing seclusion which had for so long been the fate of heirs to the throne.
I was grieved by their tale of sorrow; but it did not surprise me, as I had met with too many proofs of the debasing tendency of theatrical amusements, to be astonished by such a narrative.
Olivia thought that this taste for obscure company was the fruit of Mary's early training--the taint left by those bitter, debasing days of poverty, in which John Marchmont and his daughter had lived in some wretched Lambeth lodging.
The debasing taint of your mother's low breeding reveals itself in your every action.
With loathing at her heart, with a feeling too bitter to allow her tears to flow, she performed the debasing act, forgetting that the marks she was thus making on the ground was the accepted symbol of the Christian faith.
The monarchs of Assyria spent their time mainly in debasing crime and voluptuousness.
The Olympic, Pythian and Isthmian games, which were kept up to give strength to the body and courage in the battle, were debasing and corrupting to the lowest degree of wretchedness.
Now, were the lamp of life admitted into the heart, it would instantly dispel such debasing delusions from minds of every class.
