The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-08-17
THE TORCH BEARERS

But the spirit back of it all is the
vital thing. The history of civiliza-
ton is the history of mans search
after God, yes, and of Gods direct and
indirect revelations of Himself to
man. Ignore this or deny it and his
tory becomes "a meaningless maze
without a plan" Question the truth
of revelation, and doubt opens the
door to despair. Let art teach the
people that God is only the Ideal of
their own best selves, and the people
will learn to worship themselves. And
if worship of self is the true worship.
then the survival of the fittest be-
comes the law of life; the individual
as well as the nation is in duty bound,
not only to prove, but to improve his
fitness by the utmost use of tooth
and claw until the unfit is elimi-
mated, and the "mightiest" stands
proven the "fittest." Let art or edu-
cation or science disguise or color
it as they will there is no logical
stopping place between the worship
of a personal God and the worship of
self
Was it a phase of this worship of
self that was displayed in the prede-
lection for the human body itself?
The number and variety of the semi
nude figures suggested this question.
Perhaps this is ground upon which a
mere layman is unwise to tread; for
| the demands of art and the acquired
tastes of artists, and the classic
models of paganism justify many,
many things that lie above the reach
of the uninitiated. Yet even lay
man may be permitted to express a
wish that the gentle pleas of mod
esty might find a hearing in the court
of art.
Not prudery but prudence would
second this plea. Even the primary
school boy could appreciate the cop
per-colored forms of the magnificent
Indians who barred their forms and
displayed their limbs with all the
| naughty pride of the warrior chief.
But the water dancers" and the
''wavelets one read of these,
one somehow had longing anticipa-
lions of flowing robes and mist-like
wells, and there stole into the mem
DRY, half forgotten visions of beauty
and grace wherein modesty moved
| like a queen among our mothers and
| our sisters of thirty years ago. Alas
for the anticipations and the visions
| The misty dreams were quickly scat
| tered by the multiplicity of flashing
| limbs that seemed to kick defiance at
| the stars. Now when such an unre-
| served abandon of motion, and such a
| free display of the human figure is,
in a way, consecrated by the temple
of art, it is not prudery but prudence
that asks: will not such abandon and
such freedom be initiated in a thou
| sand circumstances where passion and
| sin and immortality stand ready to at
| tack the frail defenses of the human
| heart.
If the ancients degenerated to the
worship of the human form, they had
many excuses which we have not.
| But at least let us ask this question:
| If art be licensed or deem itself IL
censed to follow beauty beyond the
bounds of modesty, why should it not
freely follow beauty within the realms
! of religion and truth? When religion
and history vouch for the truth of a
beautiful tradition crystallized in the
heart of a nation, why should art de-
face the beauty of that tradition by
casting doubt upon that which trans
figures it with beauty, namely it's SUI
| pernatural truth?
Was it Ruskin that said: when
art ceases to be the handmade of re-
ligion art degenerates? Let the
Torchbearers ignore that dictum and
they will only light the way to death.
Let them heed it, and sooner or later
their wagon will be hitched to a star.
Let the Civic Players heed it and the
city of Minneapolis may hope to see
realized their ambition, viz, to achieve
ultimately a municipal theatre with a
self-perpetuating group of actors,
writer's, and producers.