The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-10-13

imagination. Our writer's have appar-
emily forgotten this. They. with the
world today, live too much in their
working clothes, soiled and bespatter-
ed by the excessive realism of modern
life. The ideal is in battle with the
spirit of age Realism says, the ideal
is an illusion, passing dream OF the
night, an ignus fatus leading its VIC
tim on to nothingness.
Nowhere is this tendency better seen
than in the tread which modern liter
allure is taken as it is seen in the
novel. Literature, especially the no
vel soon shows the character of its
| own day. 1t reflects as in a mirror the
! thought and morals of its own age.
| The social life and institutions of a
! people are sometimes more clearly dis
| cerned than even in more serious his
| tories The modern novel is peculiar
/ ~ adapted to this end. The whole
! field of life is open TO the novelist. And
/ if a genius he only paints in words the
unwritten record OF a nations heart.
! He struggles faithfully 10 interpret the
| true and deep meaning of life. Hence
! fiction has its use, has its rightful place
! among human activities. If it is OF the
! highest it educates. 1t reines the in
! tellect, deepens the aesthetical and mo-
raj senses; it purifies the heart.
But are the novelists of the present
day losing sight of the true conception
of the utility of fiction? Are they too
| much under the reign of modern real
! ism to penetrate into the spiritual
meaning of human existence? 1t APP
pears so when we, at times, look over
| a large field of the literature of this
class. Realism is its god. A realism
| that deals not only with the trash, but
with the filth of society and the plague
| of humanity. The streams of an art
| that ought bring life in their flow
| scatter death by their putrid emana-
! tons.
Novelists tell us that it is the pro-
vince of fiction to please; true, but f1c-
| ton was no moral right to degrade.
! What special prerogative has the no.
velists under the moral government OF
| God to thrust upon the world and upon
| innocent minds the corruptiOns of the
! human heart? Many a young mind
| has caught it's first conception of sin,
| and it's first impulse TO an evil action
| by reading such literature. The ten
! dency in modern literature is not only
! to deal with the superficial and worth
| less, but to reveal the unclean, the i'm
| pure, the loathsomeness the beastli-
ness of human life It deals with char
| acters wallowing in the mire of their
| own immortality. It pictures a society
! living in the sewer of it's animalism.
| And this fOrsooth is called art" 1t is
! false There is no inspiration in it.
! 1t suggests no thought of a higher life.
It lifts no soul TO a purer atmosphere
It has the order of hell about it. lola,
| the Nero of modern felton, defends
himself and his school in this class OF
! litera ture. If he says, Il have once
! shown you every known detail of every
| known sin, and the list, it must be
confessed is long one, you will then be
| glad to walk purely in your appointed
path. You will remember what l have
described to you and be cautious.
| This is a poor apology. Poor philoso-
| ply. Must a man so down into hell
, to know what heaven is? Must man
associate with and fill his mind with
the licentious to know what purity
means? We are uttering no bigoted
protest against fiction. We are sim
! ply bringing the ethics of common
sense and of Christianity to bear upon
it. Nor are we advocating the wamby-
/ pamby or gOody-gOody-sor of litera-
ture. We are simply demanding a
mainly and healthya tone for the no
/ DloSI OF all ART, the dII u I0ClOIS.
But French realisn-and the ten
dency is increasing in the literature OF
other countries-in which this art is
clothed. presents morbid appearance
1t is naturalistic. MateriaIistic in its
conceptions. Nay, il presents false
| views of life. false psychology and a
! false morality. It may be study OF
character, but ii is study Of charac-
ter in its immoral phases. 1t is study
| of the beast and not OF the man. Its
heroes are seducers, cOurtesans, liars
! and hypocrites. It turns its face away
from the true, the noble and the good.
! 1t ignores the divine in man. 1t de-
J MES a beneficent God. And men sit in
/ the gloom of their own ruins, sad and
| discOnsOlate, weighted down with the
| persistency of evil. with no heaven OF
! inspiration to inspire them to the high
er ideals of life. Faith is lost amid
the debris of humanity, and man wan
! ders in eternal space rayless and path
| less Such a literature paralyzes.
1t sneers at religion, it mocks at sin,
] and teaches the mind new possibilities
1 of crime. It's influence disintegrates
/ the very foundations OF character.
| Some would fain doubt that a book
! has such an influence upon life and
| character. Let history give its testI-
mony. It tells us that literature has
| been a power in the social reforma ton
! or social degradation Of an age or a
people. The literature of Greece and
Rome made the Renaissance OF the
| fifteenth century possibility. The
| cynicism of Voltaire. the skepticism
| of Rosseau. the burning zeal OF Dicbrot
as projected in their writings lit the
awful confagration of the French Rev
olution Dickens representations IN
! his wcrkS nrieina-ed the English poor