The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-11-13

REsPoxsIBILTTIEs OF IITERA-
rUEE UYAyoIDzBLE.
The Drift Of an Age fs too Compiler TO be
bognstirsd About the Supernatural
Element in the Modern Drama.

Literature cannot escape itS reSponsl
bilities. The literature OF a people Il
largely the creator OF the moral atmos
phere Of that people. From the word e
the deed Is but STEP from the printed
suggestion TO the unlawful act the way
is as straight as the fight OF an arrow
in our excessive concern for the absolute
freedom of utterance and OF publication,
as well as freedom Of thought, this re-
sponsibility OF literature has been over
looked. and the relation Of the written
word to the moral sanity OF society has
not been calculated. In this time or IN
creasing lawlessDess; of impationce at the
restraints OF law; OF the disposition or
employers end employed, and OF evil
doors, and Of communities suffering by
evil-doers, 10 take the execution OF the
law into their own hands or rather 10
substitute Individual suggestions for legal
enactments: Of growing laxness as to
social OBLIGATIONS, IN regard 10 marriage.
and as 10 conformation of known rascali-
ties in business; Of public confusion OF
mind as to right and wrong in so many
cases in which properly instructed con-
science ought not 10 hesitate such, for
instance. as a mans duties TO his family
and to the State-it IS imperative that we
should look for the causes Of cemoraliza-
tion.
Is II due 20 the pushing Of the doctrine
of individualism 10 eXcess-an indiVi-
dualism which logically can only end in
the rule OF the strongest individual, that
IS the rule of force? Is IL unavoidable in
q period of necessary license in day Of
transition out Of various mental bOndages
and personal servitudes into a society
where no law need be invoked. because
no man will desire TO do anything that
IS not right? Are we demoraliZed because
we have cast away tradition, and are not
Instructed or guided by the lessons Of the
past, while materialistic science. which
has destroyed so much that we used to
rest in, created so much Of self confident
expectation, and confused us as to the
value OF life and the way Of life and
mechanical utilitarianism, with its cold
doctrine of lsisser-faire. have not yet
been able TO make for Us a modus
vivendi? The drift Of an age, or the
philosophy permitting that drift, is too
complex to be dogmatiZed about. and we
shall not make the error of attributing
the present condition. an onward or
retrograde movement, to any one cause.
But there is one reason for our present
situation which is too palpable 10 escape
attention. It is cause which Is recOg-
nized by the new school Of moralists in
France as the direct source Of the de-
graduation of thought and Of life. 1t is a
source Of the loss Of faith. Of the lowering
of ideals, Of the loss Of respect for law,
of the loss of the power to discriminate
between right and wrong. We speak Of
the relation Of literature TO lawlessness |
20 the duties of life. to crime. BY litera- |
ture is here meant whatever Is read, |
spread broadcast by the press, and espe- !
cially fiction, which is universally read by |
young and old, and is most subtly in |
huential in its effect upon mental and |
moral states. Before going further It IS
well to say that il is not here question |
Of intellect emancipation nor Of what
Is called the freedom Of thought and the
freedom Of the press. il is just a Ques-
ton Of the responsibility OF writers in the
creation Of the moral atmosphere Of a
people.
This responsibility should be put where
L belongs. Much has been written about
The low grade and vulgar stories Of adj
venture and crime, which are read by
ncipient Jack Sheppards, and which help
10 manufacture before our eyes young
'toughs," who fill the jails and the re-
'orm schools; and girls who. having set
before them false ideals, tread the gilt
ering path Of vanity that is lighted by
10 ray of modest and WOmdnly feeling; |
,r the weak and sentimental stories that
'educe TO fiabbinesS the moral sense and
he intellectual fiber of the young reader.
Ne are not likely to overestimate the de-
eterious effect Of these demoralizing
works. which publishers circulate in I'M
ecognized channels, and which news
,apers scatter like the down of the Can
da thistle. But all these, if not compare
lively harmless, are only reflections of
in a higher plane-only
ymptoms of a disease that does not
riginate where it seems to spread with
most virulence. For ideas that corrupt
r that save society do not originate from
Glow; they filter down from serene
Fights through the masses. 1t is the
heory that is potent 1t is the philosophy
hat kills or brings life.-Charles Dudley
Warner. in Harper's Magazine for No
ember.