Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-16

Literary censorship is no new thing
in the world.
It is as old as the hills.
Those who wonder over the stringent
regulations at Boston, who deprecate
the use of customs officials as book
critics, should go to Plutarch's Lives"
That great repository of ancient Cos
sip and wisdom, in the section devoted
to Numa, one of the legendary kings
of Rome, furnishes a striking instance
of literary censorship.
When the time came for the old king
to die he had two stone collins made, in
one of which his body was laid, and in
the other his sacred books, which he
had written out for himself.
Plutarch says that Valerius Antias,
an ancient historian, wrote that the
books which were buried in the chest
Of stone were twelve volumes of holy
writ and twelve others of Greek phil
osophy."
It Is needless to say that the first
dozen books we're not our Holy Writ,
since the death of Numa preceded the
Christian era by many centuries. The
term was used by the English trans
lator as the best to express what he
found in the Greek text.
Plutarch continues:
about 400 years afterwards when P.
in a time of heavy rains, violent tor
rent washed away the earth and dis
lodged the chests of stone; and their
covers falling off, one of them was
found wholly empty, without the least
relic of any human body; in the other
were the books before mentioned, which
the Praetor PetiliuS, having read and
perused, made oath in the Senate, that,
In his opinion, it was not 1T for their
contents to be made public to the peo-
pie; whereupon the volumes were all
carried to the Comitium, and there
burnt"
A praetor was a Roman magistrate
next to the consul II rank. He dealt
with both civil and criminal cases. It
is no wonder. therefore. that Petilills
was authorized to look over the books
so strangely recovered, and pronounced
judgment upon them.
The queer thing is just what Is queer
today in all similar cases, that the
opinion of one man should be accepted.
If the Praetor PetiliuS had called in a
group of learned men, and asked their
opinions, or submitted the question to
a vote, he might not have destroyed the
lost book: % Eum2.
Picture the scene In the Senate, as
Praetor PetiliuS arose to make his re-
port. Around him stretched the rows of
ivory seats. holding the venerable MEM
bers of the legislative body. clad in their
purple-bordered togas of cleaning white.
st have read the books of Numa, o
Senator's" declared Petilius, land swear
to you that, in my opinion, it is not fit
that their contents be made public to
the people"
That was all there was to it. Prob
ably no one asked to see the books for
themselves. Many scores of years had
gone by. and the subject Of government
was growing more difficult every day.
The people, the people, the people!
What a burden they are to legislators
in every age! The dear people cannot
be trusted to take care of themselves,
but care must be taken of them.
The Praetor Petilius undoubtedly was
sincere in his opinion. Having plunged
headlong into the reading of volumes
of ancient philosophy and "holy writ"
he found neither to his liking.
Let us admit that Petilius was an
honest man. the chances are that he