The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1914-03-06
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DRESS, DANCING,
MORALS: A WARNING
BY Rev. FIR. Joseph Nc VI ahon.
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ing influence to-day IN our dress, our
literature, our drama and our amuse-
ments.
In the insidious influence of this
principle pervading every department
of our life to-day we are encounter
ing one of the causes that destroyed
powerful nations.
While art in the abstract is neutral,
art in the concrete in practical life
comes under the Ten Commandments.
The good and the true, as well as the
beautiful, have rights.
We must ask ourselves if this ex-
cessive or undue cultivation of the
aesthetic is right or is wrong.
Are the canons of art to be supreme
or is the standard Of Christian NOR
atty to be accepted?
If art cannot be subordinated to the
standard of Christian morality, then
lpaganism has triumphed.
According to the teaching of the
present day morals must not inter
| fere with art" Art for arts sake.
This is the cry heard everywhere.
Beauty is not Essential"
Perhaps we forget that French nov
els have debauched whole nations. But
they have been excused on the plea
of exquisite style. A storm of criti-
cism has been aroused by certain
forms of dancing. But they are jus
titled, it is argued, because they are
so beautiful, SO graceful. We hear
criticism of certain plays whose sub
jects are distasteful, but they are ex-
cused on the ground that the acting IS
so perfect.
Two things are essential for a ra-
tional life-the true and the good.
| Beauty is not essential God has
given us an aesthetic sense to enjoy
! life, but beauty as it is interpreted
in certain existing conditions to-day
is not essential Beauty is only an
accidental accessory of this life.
The commonplace history of life
shows how absurd it is for art to
place itself on the same plane with
the good and the true, as it is doing
at the present time.
Wherever lovers of art have
brought about substitution of the
principle Of art for arts sake, to the
exclusion of the true and the good
degeneration and ruin have followed.
Glaring examples of this are the an
cient Greeks and Romans.
We are yielding to the assertion of
a new paganism. We see it all around
us. We have seemingly lost the pow
err to judge what is proper and what
is not proper.
Moral Barriers Breaking Down."
Society to-day says art must be
judged by the canons of art alone,
We are reminded, "To the pure all
things are pure" But where are the
pure? Since when has human nature
lost the faint of original sin?
The struggle goes on all the while,
the lower nature against the higher,
the lust of the flesh against the spirit.
In accepting the principle of art
for arts sake we break down the
barriers of social delicacy and reserve
With the newly accepted standard OF
amusements, dress and drama, these
will be broken down still more. A
moral barrier once broken down is
seldom put back. This is the history
Of Christian development.
twenty-five or forty years ago we
in the United States could boast OF
our standard of morals, which was al
most Puritanical in it's austerity. We
could point with pride to our promi-
nent families. Can we do so at the
present time? Millions of men and
women who helped to develop this
country in it's early days had little
; if any, sense of the beautiful, but
they led happy, useful lives and pur-
sued higher ideals than we who live
in the present day.
Until the leisure which came with
the multiplication of wealth the de-
sire to bring beauty into every phase
of life did not show itself. AS the
artistic sense has developed there has
come a decay of religious faith and
a relaxation of moral fiber.
Victims of "Muddle- HeadeGness."
Christian morality cannot exist
where art dominates, because art un-
trammeled finally ends in gross SEN
suality. The substitution of art for
the good and true has always ended
in physical and moral decadence.
So it is now in this country. We do
not have to go to Rome and Greece.
We have become noted all over the
world for the pursuit of the beautiful.
We are trying to civilize people by
teaching them that beauty is essen
tial, and that where beauty exists
there will be no excuse for vice.
We are suffering from excessive
culture of the aesthetic. Our enjoy
'hents to-day require no thinking, and
we are suffering from muddle-headi-
ness. But we have no business read
ing questionable novels, seeking ques-
tionable plays, unless we can think
logically and philosophically.
| AS the true, the good and the beau
tiful are of God, there can be no con-
lict between these. Eliminate the
true and the good and art becomes
pagan. Corruption and ruin follow.