The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-08-17

! And this is but the beginning. From
vice to crime-from the divorce court
10 the police courts single step.
The whole intamy of impure novels
rests upon mistaken conception of
the passion of love. The notion that
if two people who have violent passion
for each other marry, they have neces-
sarily acted wisely, is as unfounded as
the converse, that if two people marry
without 1t they act unwisely. No one
disputes the existence Of such a passion
| as this class of novels builds everything
upon, but it is just as certain that 1t is
very uncommon, and a very doubtful
good if it does exist.
The love which the Book of Common
Prayer seems to consider the effect of
marriage is fortunately much more
common and much more sensible and
enduring and the divines who wrote
"The Form of Solemniz4tion of Matrl-
mony" have proved themselves to have
been far more shrewd observers of
human nature than the novelists. The
hero of the novel spends his breath in
vowing 81 do love )" the hero of the
marriage ceremony looks forward to
mutual kindness and affection and says,
81 a.iU love. The prominence given
to this passionate love in novels natur-
ally ends the book with marriage, be-
cause it supposes that people marry to
crafty their passions. If this were the
real case the 'failure" Of marriage would
be beyond controversy and divorce its
natural sequence.
A bad novel is worse than any other
bad book. A book intoxicating atheism,
socialism, robbery, ETC., would have
but ci1cumscribed audience novel
goes everywhere, and appeals especially
to the young and it is the peculiar
mischief of bad book, that when once
printed, it is scarcely possible to eradi-
cate it. Lately it has been said, "that
the success of such novels implies the
right to produce them" 1t is not so.
We have only to apply this dictum to
bad deeds as well as to bad books to
see how fatal to virtue of every kind it
would be. If because a certain class
desire impure literature it is to be sup
piled, why should not every other vice
be provided for3 "Liberty Of thought !
Liberty !"the demanders of such books
cry, but they do not mean Liberty, they
mean License.
1t is unpleasant to accuse any good
writer OF being oul-minded, and the
more so, as the accusation is easy to
make ; but impure images are just as
impure though the author talks in the
character of another person and the
frank decision of every thoughtful mind
must be, that immoral writing comes
from a prurient mind. 1t is a vice
which cannot be lndulged without in
| jury both to the writer and the reader.
AT any rate if moral scavenger work is
to be done, let men do it for feminine
delicacy is not only great fact, it is
also great social power, and if women
take to writing nasty novels, from whom
shall we expect the conversation OF
purity and religion7
1t is also SAID in extenuation, "that
this passionate physical instinct of sex
exists all around, and that it is folly to
ignore it That it is in fact, as legiti-
mate material for the novelist as any
other" Setting aside all morality, and
all decency. it is. But it must be re-
membered, that no one is made bad
by simply knowing that bad people ex
ist vet the majority would become
wicked if their intimate friends were So
| No personal contact is more debasing
than bad book. its characters enter
into the mind and continually deprave
it; nor can they be turned out, or "cut'
as disreputable acquaintance might be.
In Southern swamps there is gor
geous flower whose odor is that of car
ZION, and whose taste is death. But
because of it, no one denies to the jas
mine growing by its side, or to the rose
growing in the gorden, the praise Of
their sweetness and beauty. And in
like manner, the good novel is not pref
udiced to the general mind because
hiding under its reputation, the bad one
sneaks out into the haunts of good men
and women. For neither storytelling
nor story.readiug is vice, Or else hu.
manity always has been, and always will
be, hopelessly vicious.
And the good novel carries its own
atmosphere. 1t has characteristics
which none can mistake. 1t holds in
solution a great deal of experience. II
opens the eyes to the JOYS and sorrows
of prosaic and humble people, widens
our sympathy with them, and make us
sensitive to the great issues hidden un
der ordinary affairs. There may be no
evident evident moral, but it modifies
conceptions and gives wholesome men,
tai refreshment. For most people like
to reflect on life and its problems, but
the experience of one individual is too
confined, and the suppositious cases OF
the good novelist increase the area ot
reflection.
In the good novel the characters por-
trayed for our admiration are not driven
by animal instlcts, by passion, and i'm
pulse they rise from this low level to
the empire of reason and self control.
They teach or they comfort, or they
leave images of self-reliance. The thick