The Opelousas courier., 1895-08-03

To listen while you softly murmur
Words so sweet, SO tender, true,
That I fain would die while listening.
If I could not live for you
Vrilby anA Santtifieatlon
That conjunction of names looks
peculiar, doesn't it? Yet the two
are not SO widely separated as
wQ2ld seem at first blush.
There is one great question agita
ting the civilized world just now,
You hear it in literary circles, in
financial circles, in scientific circles,
in political circles, in social circles,
and in religious circles; and that
question is: "Can Purity exist in
the midst of Impurity? Is there
such a thing as goodness, as tGRtin
in the world
In "Trilby" we foll9/ the life of
a girl born and fearePin the vilest
surroundings that paris could at
ford, who grew up as an artists
model, sitting i'm Natures garb
aloue, who was avowedly at times
personally impure; and yet she is
painted as being perfectly pure in
heart. Those things which to the
ordinary mortal seem so vile and
low were so usual to her, so natural,
so much a part of her everyday life
that she could not see anything
wrong about them until Love step
ped in and aroused her from her
sleep of Innocence. 1t then seems
so perfectly awful to her that she
runs away. She is discovered by
an old rascally musician who sue
ceeds in hypnotiziug her and attun-
ing into sweetest melody her voice
which had yetafore been powerful
but excessively harsh. Like most
rascals he works her for all she is
worth, and lines his pockets with
gold. On his death Trilby of course
by degrees RECEIVERS from the hyp-
notism, but her health is undermin-
ed and she soon dies, evincing up
to the very last her absolute purity
of heart and nobility of character
in spite of birth, Surroundings, rails
ing, and latterly her nomadic, adj
venturous life
We put down the book, and our
verdict is: "Possible, but highly
improbable" In the first place, Du
Maurier makes II big blunder from
the standpoint of heredity. No one
who is at all q practical observer of
life would p6ssfbfA expect a drunk
en-, rowdying Irishman and a loose
lived Bowery girl to parent Purity,
whether of Heart or Life. DuMau-
rier presents the motive question of
the book (Can purity exist in the
midst of impurity p from a mental
standpoint, and in his handling
evinces some knowledge of the ply
steal makeup of mankind but there
is a higher plane, which he does not
seem to comprehend at all !; it is the
spiritual or religious plane! In re-
ligious circles we hear constantly of
sanctiication! All Christian chur-
ches teach sanctification, but each
takes a different point of view. AS
nea as we can understand it by
taking the concensus Of opinion
land we have heard and read many
discussions on the snbject), %sahctifi-
cation means a simple belief that
God CAN keep us from all sin, and
an acting upon that belief. If God
can keep us from committing any
sin land what Christian doubts it y
He can keep us from two, and if
from two from a dozen +; it from a
dozen, from all-if we just act on
that belief. Then if saved from all
sin we would have absolute purity
of life and thought. So you see the
term specification expresses to the
religious world just the sentiment
that DuMaurier voices from an in
tellectual standpoint i'll the story of
Trilby that Purity can exist in the
midst of Impurity in this world"
One can scarcely pick up a lead
ing magazine without finding an ar
ticle' on social purity. The world is
out everywhere against i'm
il political circles-the peo-
pie are begging for pure govern
ment, for less wire-pulling and more
honest sincerity What does it all
1t means that the conscience
Of the world is awakening that hui
manity is reaching upward to a
life! In the noble Chris
life the reaching is toward a
pure, consecrated, sanctiied life to
God. In the intellectual world the
is expressed by such
books as Trilby land others) and the
constant cry against social impurity
and drunkenness. The physical ma
bure, the lowest part Of us, seems
yet asleep or obliyious Of the fact
hat it has its part to do. We see
his sentiment beautifully reflected
the vegetable kingdom-aWay
Town in the bottom OF slime and
,oze and green stagnant water a
iced is dropped, it terminates, and
! slender stalk begins to push its
way upward: It may be for months
t is growing upward, ever upward
3nt in thn FITNESS Of Time If reach