Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1871-06-19
The Social Morality of the Day.

A writer in late number OF the London
STfE-F7y Revisy undertakes TO maintain that
the supposed connection between advancement
il Civilization and Improvement in morals is
nothing more than rhetorical commonplace
Our increased humanity, he argues, IS only the
COM quence Of our lessened familiarity with
suffering; the dislike of seeing or feeling pain
CaTsing men not TO infict it needleSsly as they
once Cid. In regard to temperance in eating
and drinking, and deconcy OF language. we may
he ahead Of our grandfathers but while there
arc les drUmkar,ls now than hundred years
AGO. there are many more who habitually resort
to stiIaulants To a degree short of intoxicatiOn
And the writer urges that though we are
startled even vet at the plainness of speech
which VIC encounter in Tom Jones or Gil Bias,
Vet no acquaintance with Fielding or lie Sage
would give half the familiarity with vice which
NAY be gained from course Of cotemPOrary
novels. As regards the stage, if our playrights
arc more modest in what they give actresses to
saw our managers are certainly less 50 in what
they give actresses to wear.
But a vet more serious cause for dsquietude is
To be found in the growing disposition to trife
and cOGuet with forms Of vice to which there is
10 excuse for men being even tempted. The
poetry Of Swihburne and the fctions of some
living French novelists deal to a considerable
GASHA Win hAiOA hhehe hafO UGH
thought to have disappeared from literature
with the extinction of Paganism.
This weakening OF moral and social re-
strants' the Rerier writer holds, is the result of
the eniOym Mt Of wealth by class to whom
labor, whether of hand or brain, Is alike strange
and who soon run thTOug the round of ordinary
excitements and are easily tempted TO wander
into regions where they find novelty, il nothing
else. Something also is traced to the reaction
from theological and philosophical controversy
which leads young men TO treat all varieties of
rcligion a. alike unworthy Of attention from
thc~e 10 whom art and culture can unfold their
treasures
Now this Rerieac style of argument has a spe-
cious look, but little examination by the light of
history shows Us that IL has no real foundation.
There were not only more drunkards hundred
years ago, but there were more tipplers. Guzz-
ling was universal from high to low; and the
man who could not hOldhis own in this way with
his fellows was held 70 be "a milk sop" The
coarse rguage Of those days was but an index
OF the morals. Fielding and lie Sage were stand
ards in their time, and they faithfully depicted
the manners. nj morals of their day. Swinburne
anu tie kind Of French noyelists Indicated pre-
sent only the rotten faneies OF their OWE brains
and excite only disgust with the great mass of
nOdern readers. The standards of our DAY are
novels and poems pure IN language and thought
the works Of Scott, Thaekeray, Dickens, Tenny-
son and LOngfell0w. The great increase and
wide diffusion Of knowledge among men has
taught them that there physical as well as
moral penalties Tor vice: causing a strengthening
rather than a weakening of restraints" Aud
there Is 10 more reason 20 dread that phiosophi-
cal and scientific controversy will under
InI1e religious belief now than there was in
the time Of Calico, when science and theol-
Cgy apparently came III conflict. Those
who fear that the advanced civilization
Of this age viii cause reproduction of the de-
pradel morals anu terrible vices Of the Roman
Empire at lis period of highest culture, do not
take into account the great religious, moral and
Benevolent agencies at work in our day, making
Cur culture something better than the mere cuI-
tIirJ Of tie intel leet; and the number OF men.
4.lateOver. to whom wealth comes with no OBJ
FiOvs duties forms but very small proportion Of
file People, and, from the agencies above re-
feT1ed ., is undoubtedly smaller in proportion
to the lumber of rich men than it was a hun
dreI years ago. Recalling what history tells US
OF the manners and morals of the wealthy men
of that period, and contrasting their lives with
those OF the very large number of the PROSPER
Gus men OF our time engaged actively in reIi-
giOus, moral or benevolent efforts we have
no reason TO fear that We are deteriorating in
1LiS respect,