Daily gazette and comet. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1856-186?, 1860-11-21
VICIOUS LITERATURE.

Man has been variousty defined by phil
| u-rphers as cooking animal, q borrowing
ard leuding animal, and lying animal !,
/ differing in the opinion of the philOso-
! pliers who have thus distinguished him
from the rest pf the animated world, chief
" in the respect Of aiding the digestion Of
his food by means cf fte. 81 negotiating
loans, and Of mendacity. The ripening
civilization uf these latter lays permits ~
10 add variously 10 these definitions
with the process efthe SUI, and the scarce
less illuminating processes of Messrs. Hoe
~ Go. imam mas become emphsticaily u
reading animal. We purpose TO regard
him w this Zig and so far as he desei yes /.
mildly 10 eXcoriate him.
The truth is he reads monstrous deal
of trash and twnddle. Nine tenths Of the
merely literary empnations of the petiodi
col press come appropriately under this
designation. Stories Of life such "a has
never beer lived upon our planet, deliHee-
| tons Of manners which are the manners
| neither of Rods nor men. nor the other
! "third estate" which we decline TO name (,
salient sketches, treading close upon the
very verge of downright immortality . fe-
It'd eXhumations Of the aubtetranean stra
tum Of life. exposed to the light like the
sores Of the leper euaiseness, rbaldry,
profanity, oil, however, wearing the thin
nest possible cloak of ieeency. aud assu-
ming to convey moral inculcation while
! eating nt the root Of morality like worm
compose an appalling proportion Of the ag
greEate reading Of the day. The denun-
citation Is sweeping. but one less eompre-
7 hensiye would be inadequate.
The French revolution. and the brief
but lurid reign Of terror which ensued, re-
4 vaafaf tho istonna IN Horfa nf N hf.apus
neither stratum of life of which king. oour-
tier. priest, physician. artisan even. had
| never. dreamed. From the Fauhourg Of
! ST. Antoines, its loathsome tributaries.
| subsidiaries. and snccursals, from every
leaking lane and alley of that Mecca Of
! civilization, opulence and proiligacy. pour
ed forth upon the boulevard and the Ely
see herds Of men Wild eyed. with tangled
hair, like the iuries, NJ washed, sans en-
| totte, meteiless. faveHeus, bloody and
| drunk. They swarmed about the palaces,
ther In vaded the Churches. they favaged
through the wards Of hospitals, they leer-
ed and grimaced at the portals Of hume
res. When the deluge Of blood subsided
I and order came again, men looked at each
other and grew pale. They walked upon
q crust. beneath which surged and heaved
this hitherto unsupported wave Of FIRE.
Society aud literature, no less than gen
eology, have their neither, intermediate
aud upper strata, each in some degree I'M
conscious of the other as were the Paris
isns, of the butrowiug herd of saiyrs
which that social upheayal unearthed.-
We have here, for example, literature
devoted 10 a strenuous advocacy Of Sab
bath breaking, a literature Of infdelty, n
literature of crime. The thieves lexicon
Is among the works with which American
photography has recently been enriched
In addition 10 these, there is n huge ag-
gregation Of print which IL is difficult 10
classify. hut the effect of which is to ener-
vste the immature mind. to incuIcate faIse
ideas of life, aud TO render distasteful TO
the young, the homely and useful prints,
which alone in most cases lehd TO happi-
ness and honor. What youth Of average
gifts ia content 90 follow the plow, or
WELD the scytbe. or swing the hammer,
after the useful and humble manor Of his
fathers, when he il instructed by the eX-
perienes of that dashing hero Of the pi-
ratical tale, that the path of glory and
gold is through the demesnes of edveH-
ture-that the coast Of Madagascar, and
the deck of long, low, clipper built
schooner. rakish rs 10 masts, and with
unheard Of qualities rs 20 speed, are the
fields for him Instead of the hillside or the
|
singing NJ the spinning wheel, or among
the milk pans aud other implements Incl
dent to butter. ia unaffected by the perusal
of the history of that rural demsel. who
clipping from such commonplace occupa-
tons. became countess, and achieved
lap dogs and diamonds, and carriages and
alteration Many and many Of those lep-
rous Hpecters who fit along the ghastly
lamp-light Of Broadway, bedizined. paint
ed, land how often hungry Departing
sick, drunk and dying y can if memory
aud mird remain, trace to the perusai of
this species Of literature, something Of the
influence which directed their footsteps
down the dark road, NJ tho end Of which
gloums the hospital, and (happily) a
grave without n uame. The good and
solvent citizen, who daily reads his mild,
unexceptionable newspaper the lettered
amateur who, in tho snuggost of studies,
over the most fragrant Of all tho Varieties
Of Souchong, bosido the most cheerful Of
seacoal fires, lpxptiously cuts the leaves
Of his favorite quarterly, do not perhaps
| dream that tho samo press which conveys
TO them its periodical missives Of instruo-
ton and recreation, conveys to muititudos
that intellectual driver which enfeeblos
tho mind "a narcotics and stimuIants do
the body. II IL true none the less, and
that portion of the press which labors in
the interest Of morality and religion, is
rocroaut to its duty IL it ignores IL, or fails
in It's cenaure and condemnation.
Uuhappily, this vicious literature Ia an
OWL almost without remedy. Whatever
the public taste demand will be supplied.
Literary censorship Of cour.o never takes
root in this country, If we except its tom
porary grapplo upon tho stony soil of early
puritanism, and there Is consequently no
relief except In the moral and religious
sense OF the community. Something may
DO done by tho schools in fostering taste
for tho better sort Of literature, something
by the heads Of families in vigorously ex-
GLIDING from tho household publications
bearing a shadow Of faint, much by the