Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1889-11-10
THE FlEsHLY SCHOOL.
1t IL Not Nearly So mineral n
People Paint 1t.


People Paint 1t.
81 have read Ella Wheeler Wilcox
and Amelie Rives," said Sir Edwin,
knocking the ashes from his cigar. "The
others l have not read. You speak of
Mrs. Anterior, Edgar Saltus, Abby Jack
man, and other writer's Of whom I have
never heard. The Quick or the Dead 1
read with vast deal OF interest. do
not regard this recent American litera-
ture az a new school, and most certainly
such school should not be established.
/ do not think there exists today sepa-
rate, distinct school of this kind. There
are certain writer's headed by our own
Swinburne and the gifted men OF France,
men whom know.
81 do not admit that these men con.
stitute school in literature characterized
as feshliness. Their work is the old
eternal classic revolt against Puritanism
and the narrower forms OF Christianity.
The first of them all was the Emperor
Julian, one OF the finest fellows that ever
lived. In his heart there was a revolt
against Christ and His teachings, for in
his breast was the old grace OF Greece
and the glory of Rome. This new reli-
gion of Christ, draped in gray, seemed
odious.
"Look round and see the clergy damn
the babes to everlasting hell, and say tits
wicked for man to look at woman g
ankles. Do not misunderstood me. 1
should never excuse immortality or for
give offenders against decorum. Let US
remember Swinburne's verses, and be
lieve that the poets of the present make
but natural and useful protest against
the extravagances of Puritanism.
81 agree with him who writes: "Dost
thou believe that because thou art vir-
tuous, there should be no more cakes
and ale?" Twas sitting with Walt Whit
man one day and I repeated to him
some of his own verses and explained
their philosophy and their beauty.
''He said to ne: you are the
first man to explain my own lines.
At this said to him: 4 am
no more ashamed Of body than of
soul. I look largely, broadly at men. at
literature, at the affairs of life.' Walt
Whitman is right. swear am no more
ashamed of body than Of soul. Read
those lines Of Robert Browning, in which
he says: Nor soul helps body more than
body once helped SOUL All me, it is q
sad spectacle disgusting thing-for the
world to be ashamed Of beauty.
"This does not apply to bawdy books.
There is no excuse for their birth or ex-
istence. There is no enemy to the beauty
of the world, the Greek of life, like the
obscene man. He is the guerilla that
defaces, mars the face and form of nature
If such books are written to sell, to pan.
der, the man who writes them ia villain
and should be cast headlong into the
broad Pacific, and the woman-yea, she
is worse than the man. There is Rider
Haggard! 1 know him we'll, and meet
him frequently on the Underground.
His work is clever, his She even better
than his Cleopatra There are beauti
full things in his books, yet people will
not read. But then you canno
Judge Cleopatra by the young women O
Boston. You Americans are very mora
except on Dupont street. There is more
propriety here than across the sea. Yor
must read the carpenters story il
Chaucer. Read the things those deal
old men 80 blandly printed."-[S. F