The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-07

and elevation. p. F. Lyons. Observer.
LITERARY IAAI0RALlTY.
The completion, by the great grand
daughter # the famous novelist Henry
Fielding, Of an expurgated edition Of
Tom Jones recalls instantly one of
the best known anecdotes Of Dr. John
son. Asked BY lady if he did not
consider a certain picture indecent, he
replied promptly, mo, madam, but
your question is" And so, 10 matter
what the immortal story Of the i'm
mortal novelist may have brought to
different minds and different tempera-
ments, there can be no question that
the revised edition of it by this prudsh
miss is an indecency such as her great
grandfather could never have under
stood, much less have brought himself
TO contemplate. Whether its enormity
is greater as an offense against art
or as ar overturning Of morals it would
be difficult to decide.
The performance is another iIlustra-
ton, this time in the field of litera-
ture, of the characteristics which we re-
ferred TO a short time ago as constitut-
ing this "a hystericaI age Miss Field
ing knows of a world IL which there
are no other inhabitants than the
British Matron" and the young Per-
SON. to whose innocent cheek the blush
Of shame mast never rise. That there
is such thing as literary art she Of
course, is unable TO comprehend At
fiicted with a sort Of moral anaemie,
that finds horrible tendencies 70 sin in
a red blood cOrpuscle, the erotic stories
Of the day, the vileness with which the
literature of fiction has been pene-
trated for the last ten years, are a
matter too trifiing for notice. But trat
there should exist a book ii which men
and women are robust, in which nasty
things are not covered BY nice words
and wherein men and women talk and
act as men and women did in their
day, is an offense to decency Miss
Fielding appears to be a British edi-
ton of Anthony Comstock in petticoats;
to whom the appearance of vice is mex
pressibly more shocking than the arti-
Gle itself
There are as we said at the outset
two points of view from which to re-
gard this literary atrocity that has
been given to the world under the title
of a revision Of Tom Jones' for mod
ern times. The artist will see in it an
objectionable sin. It cuts away every
shred of interest or value in this in
comparable work that has stood the
test and retained it's human interest
after the lapse Of years. It is singular
how entirely divorced from judgment
and taste in all other particulars are
those sexless creatures who fear to
have US deal with life or look upon it.
Their false modesty, so near akin to
prudery as DR.. Johnson observed,
leaves no room for even ordinary intel
igence. And 50, as one might expect,
the changes in tom Jones" are not
limited to the softening of early Eng
lish Oaths or the removal of episodes
that suffuse the cheek Of innocence.
in the name of nineteenth century pro-
priety the propriety of the sexual novel
and the music hall, those inimitable in
troductory chapters in which Fielding
addresses to the reader his half whim-
steal, half profound philosophy.
There are few things in literature
that have the universal quality belong
ing to these wonderful chapters. No
boy ever read tom Jones" and was
able to skip them. Half lifetime
after they were conned in the eager
ness Of youth, their impression sur
wives. And they give to the work its
finest literary finish and completeness.
There is not word in them that could
offend the most sensitive modesty. Yet
all have had to suffer editorial excision:
which is only the common penalty that
genius suffers at the hands Of ignor
ant assumption. Taking into account
the banishing Of these delightful bits
Of philosophy, in which we look into a
mind as rarely deep as it was strong
in vision, the cutting out of the chap
ter titles, and the removal of every
atom of episode and conversation that
could possibly suggest the existence in
the world of aught save that kind Of
modesty which drapes the legs of it's
pianos in pantaIettes, the revised .rTom
Jones" is an artistic monstrosity upon
whose like we hope never to look
again.
But the quarrel lies deeper than that
Ii is extraordinary that any one in
whose veins runs drop of the blood Of
Henry Fielding, any one who is not at
heart a lover Of vice and a pander TO
1t, should fail to perceive the profound.
open and fragrant defiance Of morality
involved in this deliberate act of emas-
culation. For, whatever we may