The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-05-11
Morality in Fiction.
New York Herald.


tion-and the rising generation is
always more important than the pres
ent one-than the question as to what
constitutes the proper field of fiction.
Shall our novelists paint life exactly
as Ii is, give strong meat for men, or
shall they provide milk for babies
Cirgint6uS puertSque-and keep ever
before their eyes the fear of the young
girl who is the most eager and constant
portion of their public2 The Gallo
and the Anglo-Saxon temperament
differ in this respect. Tie Gaul
believes in unwilling the nudities of
life; the Anglo Saxon in looking upon
a man as a clothed animal. But one
important difference between the
Gallo and the Anglo Saxon household
must be taken into account. Pdter-
careful supervision over the reading
of his sons and daughters, while in the
latter the young people are generally
allowed to take care of themselves and
to work their own intellectual saliva
ton. Daudet, for example, dedicates
his "Sappho" ITO my sons when they
have arrived at the age of twenty
one" In England and the United
States the translation of "Sappho" is
in the hands of any stripping who
chances to have heard of it. The
question then resolves itself to this
Shall the novelist be restricted in his
field of intellectual activity in the
interest of the young, or shall he be
granted the latitude which we allow
the pathologist and the theologian, to
paint human nature in disease and
degradation as we'll as in moral and
physical health, on the understanding
that his books shall be locked in the
cases which are forbidden to our boys
and girls? Mr.. John G.. Whittier and
the Rev. Augustine f. Hewitt are
inclined to advocate an absolute taboo
of all subjects that would excite the
imagination or pander to the passions
of the young. Mrs. Anterior, on the
other hand, and to lesser extent Mrs.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, believes that the
proper mission of the artist is to paint
life as it is-to offer warnings as we'll
as examples. Perhaps the safer course
is in the middle way, which is advo-
Gated by most of our symposiacs. Let
US not letter our novelist too much,
let us allow him a wider latitude than
has hitherto been accorded, but let us
exercise a wise supervision over the
reading of the young, and see that
books which are harmless in them
selves, but which might prove harmful
to the inexperienced and the innocent,
are excluded from the hands of the
latter. "Adam Bede," "The Scarlet
Letter." and especially 1.-THE Marble
Faun," are not immoral books, for
they are written wisely, reverently,
and from a clean heart. Yet they all
deal with subjects which 1t is best the
very young should not know too much
about. And as our modern novelists
the Jameses, the Howells, the Hag-
CARDS, and the Blacks-have the fear
of the very young before their eyes,
they do not dare to handle the subjects
of this nature. They may lose some
thing of the power and the authority
which q wider range would give them
over the minds of adult readers, but
they save themselves from being
looked at askance by pdter- familtas
and from being denied perusal by the
young people under his charge. This
may seem merely an acceptance Of the
GaIlie vsnvv NJ fha sn0val Ruf I'm fact