The morning call., 1890-10-20
LIGHT LITERATURE.
Rev. John Gray's Discourse at
Metropolitan Temple.
An Interesting Talk on the Subject of Bad
Books-Tolstoi's Soma Not Obscene.
Degraded journalism.
"Lfght Literature was the subject of a

"Light Literature was the subject of a
very interesting discourse last evening at
Metropolitan Temple by Rev. John Gray,
rector of the Church of the Advent. In the
course of his remarks the speaker said: A
good book is the record of good life. All
books may be divided into two classes
those that deal with the outward facts of
existence and the acts of men, and those
that treat of inward life, or which have their
origin in the imagination. The first class
comprises history and the second fiction.
THREE SUBDIVISIONS.
For convenience the latter class was sub
divided into three orders: trifIng, sensa-
tional and bad literature. Under the first
order of this subdivision the preacher in
cluded those vapid, colorless tales, without
point or moral, which take no hold or make
no impression on the mind, and consequently
are not productive of much harm beyond
the filling of the mind for brief period
with absurd dreams and dwarfing the taste
for good reading.
POISONOUS READING.
Sentimental literature has something in it,
to be sure, but, he asked, is that something
desirable? Such literature portrays history
in strange and fantastic forms, shaded with
alluring rays of light and color. 1t draws
men, leads the mind to c0njure up impossi-
bic conditions and results, and fixes a false
estimate and standard of character. "a. 1t
poisons the mind of the rising generation,
which is TO guide the destinies and make the
homes of this great republic and leads boys
and girls to emulate the example OF crlml-
mails.
DEPRAVED TASTES.
Books of this kind are eagerly devoured
by the class of people WHO have not been
educated to a high standard, and whose
minds in consequence cannot readily grasp
the higher questions of life. They have not
been trained to hard thinking and they will
the higher problems of human life.
What then shall we erect for the ediice we
have destroyed? He would recommend
The public libraries, and yet they do not
seem to reach the people as they ought.
There is too much preaching in the world
to-day and too little acting.
FILTHY EFFUsIoNs.
Bad literature, he confessed, may be
found almost everywhere, and by bad liter
AZURE he referred to books written with the
intention of corrupting the morals of good
people, reeking with the stencil Of vice aud
crime. These filthy illusions, the emana-
items of diseased imaglnations, are kept
constantly before the eyes of the young.
They are called realistic fiction, and pour
forth the fires of destruction.
DEGRADED JOURNALISM.
The speaker, after referring to the morals
of lola, here attacked the degraded news
paper that prospers by parading before the
public the frailties of humanity, and which
never loses an opportunity to unveil the
skeletons of family life for the amusement
of the depraved.
OF Tostui's Kreutzer Sonata" the
speaker said he did not regard it as i'm
pure, nor see how any fair-minded person
could condemn it as all obscene publication.
The author is good and famous man. 1t
is not bad book, bat certainly a very
strange one. 1t is simply an Overdrawn pic
lure of the evils existing in civilized society
under the sanction of law, and in denying
the sanctity of marriage its author makes
MS one great mistake"