Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-04-15

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ure to dominate me- / ended in hor
rible disgrace. There is only one thing
for me now, absolute humility"
You may search long before you will
discover a finer, more searching. more
touching self-analysis thaD the passage
above. Wilde had formed the purpose
of suicide upon his release, but his
finer nature revolted and he began to
catch the glimmer of hope. He had
imbided the first lesson taught by sor.
row becoming humility.
"Morality does not help me. I am
born antinomian. | am one of those
who are made for exceptions, not for
laws. But while / see that there is
nothing wrong in what one does, see
that there is something wrong in what
one becomes. 1t is well to have learned
that
This artist soul had passed through
every stage of experienc, sin, pride,
rage, sorrow, repentance-on to the
chastened feeling of fellowship for
sorrow and to courage and to hope.
But his weakness is manifest. He can
see no meaning in moral laws. Relig-
ion does not touch him. Artistic to
his finger tips, he says he hopes to
write some day a book on "Christ as
the Precursor of the Romantic Move
ment in Life. - The finest passage of
all the book-and in its call of soul
for pity and charity there are few finer
is the concluding one:
AN trials are trials for ones life,
just as all sentences are sentences Of
death; and three times have ] been
tried. The first time | left the box
to be arrested, the second time to be
led back to the house of detention,
the third time to pass into prison for
two years. Society, as we have con.
stituted it, will have no place for me,
has none to offer; but Nature whose
sweet rains fall ON unjust and just
alike, will have clefts in the rocks
where l may hide, and secret valleys
in whose silence / may weep undis.
turbed. She will hang the night with
stars so that l may walk abroad in the
darkness without stumbling, and send
the wind over by footprints so that
none may track me to my hurt; she
will cleanse me in great waters, and
with bitter herbs make me whole"
hat are the lessons of this strange
personality On the very surface, Of
course, is the one hinted at when he
says, 81 see there is something wrong
in what one becomes the gain or
loss of character. A single sin may
be a lapse, but its danger is in the
habit of it which slowly builds up or
pulls down character. And character
determines destiny. The old lesson is
plain. "The soul that sinneth -
that makes business Of sinning-''it it
shall die.
Another lesson may be found in
Wilde's fatal admissions: Morality
does not help mel am an exception. "
No man is an exception where moral
law is concerned. Wilde failed to real
ize that art must comprehend morality.
True art must appeal to the whole man
senses, mentality, heart, and the lat
ter most of all. The art that does
not appeal to goodness as well as beau
ty and truth is meretricious art. That
is why Morris and Poe cannot be com
pared with Browning and Tennyson
Wilde belongs 10 the former group
ing
And as Poe ruined his life because
his art did not include morality so
Wilde wrecked his. And the pity and
pathos Of both careers is TO be found
in the fact that each suffered and
reached blindly upward for the light
that failed them. Wherefore il be.
hooves every man 20 remember the
OF Oscar Wilde--that he
- grew careless Of the lives Of Others,
that he ''took pleasure where Il pleas
..E - haffar