Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1885-12-04
FROM THE PEOPLE.
sIr. Steel's Sermon.

10 the Editors OF the Appeal:
The Rev. Mr.. Steel has, ] think, been
unjustly criticised the psst week in the
press of the city for his bold stand for
purity. l beg to express my approval and
Endorsement, ,and deeply rs sret that the rev.
erend gent 'eman did not pursue the subject
more thoroughly. Many prominent writ
ers, such as Buckle, Draper, Spencer,
Huxley and Lecky, have held TO the as-
surd theory that literature, art, science
and the drama have been important factors
of civiliz i'm, and Draper affirms that
the Introduction of artificial light, without
which dancing would not obtain, YVES one
of the primary conditions OF civilization.
But these theories, though plausible, will
not do. True religion has sought in the
past-and / hope will continue in the
future-to eliminate the novel from literA-
ture, the passion from poetry, the nude
studies from art, and to suppress entirely
the drama and science when it has
audaciously opposed revelation, and,
indeed, by its own peculiar arguments,
has compelled many scientists to abandon
and retract their theories, or be burnt at
the stake. AS to dancing, not it alone,
but all promiscuous social intercourse be-
tween the youth Of opposite sexes might
lead to immoral results and should be
prohibited. Let each sex flock to itself
in their amusements, and when gathered
together i'll church for public worship let
the males be on one side. the females on
the other as in older and better days WAS
indeed the style. In literature let all
works OF fiction be destroyed and no more
written, and reading be confined strictly
to the time-history and trayel-and be
sure they are true. In poetry let nothing
but hymns and anthems be recognized
In painting let the artist confine himself
to landscapes, animal and full-dressed
figures. The drama must be uncondition-
ally suppressed. The study of the scien-
fists should not be pursued further than
that tontained in the first chapter OF Gen
esis. That God made the world and the
heavens and all therein is enough for man
to know. To seek further may
lead one astray. Finally, I come
to the nude in sculpture, which
Mr.. Steel very properly condemns,
and calls attention to the fact that before
the sculptor stood the nude model. In
my humble endeavors to raise the present
standard of purity it has often occurred to
me, and doubtless to other high-minded
men, either that the present form of man
was given him at The original fall, or that
nature made terrible and fatal mistake
in endowing man (male and fem LEI with
lower limbs at all-good for nothing but SIS
a means of locomotion and for wicked
artists to model and carve to degrade still
more an utterly depraved race. The mind
is the man and the brain is the medium of
the mind, therefore why should man be
compelled to lead a groveling existence
below the arm pits? And now for the
remedy. There has of late been q mar
velous advance in surgical arts, perchance
led on inscrutably to perfect the end l
now propose. Let the College of Surgeons
and the French Academy (Rho have
achieved wondrous feats) turn iheif undi-
vided attention to the possibility of
amputating man ct the neck. 1t
would be unnecessary to extend the
operation probably beyond one generation
certainly not many more) since by the
unfailing law SO clearly defined by Oar
win of natural selection, by which mem
hers sre not psrpetuated but become ex-
tinct as the foreleg of the whale, the fifth
leg OF the horse, the eye of the cave fish
and the tail of prehistoric msn-the
grosser part Of man would in succeeding
generations (if any likewise disappear, or
exist only in rudimentary form and only
the intellectual part remain. The suggee-
tions | first made will only have a tend
eney to improve the morals of man as he
now iE, but not until the last is accom-
plished will man possess the pristine
purity aud sublimated intellectually Mr..
Steele and I SO ardently desire. Not till
then Will man finally triumph over his
arch enemy, the devil! REFoRsIER.