Year: 1875

Many people seem to consider that it
matters not what the man is if the work
appears well, forgetting that man
must of necessity leave his imprint on
his work. For example, there is


prominent religious paper published in
New York, whose editor is an avowed
infdel There is in another city pa
per devoted to the interests of SO
called cluse-communion" denomina-
tion, whose editor is avowedly an open
communist. There are other papers
and books having large circulation in
Christian families, whose editors and
authors are very different from their
professions in their works. One of
these men referred to says: g 1t makes
no difference what believe, provided |
cater to the tastes of my readers" Now
we do not believe that it is possible to
bring forth wholly pure thing out of
an impure. 1t may be well concealed,
but the poison is there nevertheless, and
will work perhaps all the more surely.
The work must in some way be of and
like the man. Out of the heart the
mouth speaketh, even though it speaks
for the express purpose of deceiVing.


The written words of a bad man,
moreover, are usually more dangerous
than his conversation, as President Por-
ter well says in his Books and Read
ing: "To read an author is, however,
more than to hold communion with a
mind in its ordinary state, or by the
usual method of hearing the converse
tion of a person, even in the happiest
mood. For by the act of writing the
mind is ordinarily raised to its highest
energy both of thought and feeling. 1t
condenses, as it were, and intensifies it
self; whatever is good into What Is
doubIy good whatever is bad into what
is doubly bad" And again: GA book
does not merely represent an author,
but it represents the best part of him
or, it may be, the worst. 1t gives the
picture of his inner self in forms en-
larged and ideally improved. The
colors are more intense and more finely |
contrasted than in the reality of his or
binary experience. And Milton says
of books: "They do preserve, as in
vial, the purest efficacy and extraction
of that living intellect that bred them )"
and so, while the good is good concen-
trated, the bad is bad concentrated. |
Mrs. Browning, in Aurora Leigh, says |
very aptly:


For the wicked these
Are winged like angels, every knife that


strikes
Is edged like elemental fire to assail


A spiritual life"


1t would be only necessary to refer to |
some of the most beautiful poems in
our language to illustrate how the true
character of an author crops out, and |
yet, when evil, is all the more danger
Gus because wearing the outer garb of |
beauty and sometimes of purity. Evil |
men eyer delight to serve their master
in the livery of heaven, and so, when
one is conscious that the man is not |
what he should be, he may be very sure
that his work will be tainted with ,ne
same imperfection, with the same inn
morality.


Suppose, however, that he should sue
cessfully conceal his immortality, what
effect must the knowledge that sooner
or later will be sure to come, that the
author is hypocrite, have upon the
mind of a child who has been educated
thereby; e. G. suppose a child has
learned the maxims of Christianity from
the paper to which reference was made
at the beginning of this article, will not
paper is an infidel work adversely upon
the mind of that child, and tend to make
him value more lightly the truths he has
leaned? 1t is an accepted maxim in
oratory that the power of an address de-
pends largely and mainly upon the char
acter of the man who utters it. Is it |
any less true of that which is written |
People would not tolerate preacher or
teacher whose moral life was bad, and |
yet they will tolerate books and papers,
having often times far more influence
upon the character, though written by |
the most immoral of men.


One of the crying shames of the day
is the reading matter that falls into the
hands of the young, and at present there
seems to be but one remedy, and that is
for those who have the care of the young |
to be sure of the character of the authors |
and editors before they put the books |
and papers into the hands of the chill
dren, and rigidly exclude the works of
every man under whose influence they |
wouldn't wish their children to come.