Moral Poison in Modern Fiction

  III

  BECAUSE WHILE THEY LIVED VIOLENTLY, YOUTH ALSO THOUGHT HARD.

  What was their "food for thought"? Largely away from, and independentof, personal influence from the intimacies of home life; almostentirely freed from authority even in daily conduct, and from therestraints of an accepted moral code; they talked and read. All therebellions and revolts of before 1914 were conspicuously abroad.Above all, then and to-day, the novels (devoured for distraction) hadforced sex-problems upon the most thoughtless; demanded for all onthe threshold of life full licence for self-expression; analysed whatthey called the soul in undigested detail; lingered over body-contact,flushes and fires of the flesh; loudly proclaimed new Laws of Love.

  The whole experience of mankind, our most sacred instincts, are floutedwith contempt. The conflicting claims, which none can avoid, betweenyoung and old, have been flung off. The old distinctions between wrongand right are categorically denied; all now demand an absolutely freshstart based on universal knowledge of sin, absolute freedom for theindividual, frank discussion of physical intimacies, full rights tothe Egoist—"a commonplace promiscuity that masquerades as liberty,as courageousness, as art. A slimy, glittering snail-track threadedthrough all society."

  And we have not, even yet, gone far enough! since, it is said,"Conversation is over-sexed, the novel under-sexed, therefore untrue,therefore insincere." By this creed, there is only one _real_ thing inlife—physical passion.

  I do not suggest that contemporary thought is _all_ evil, unclean orfalse. Many of our writers are serious, pure-minded men and women,rightly indignant with old falsehoods, honestly seeking new light. Muchof their work, too, reveals both sincerity and truth, a finer instinctfor the ideal than the Victorians ever knew. Their courage is heroic,their frankness most wise.

  But they are, on the whole, prone to haste. They denounce often withoutunderstanding; eager to knock down, without preparation to build up._There is a large body of new doctrine, or interpretation of life andmanhood, which is false, morbid, and poisonous in its effects._

  Above all, the message has taken youth unprepared—just when (more thanever before in the history of the world) they needed quiet patience forcomplete understanding. _And_ it has, naturally, proved an attractiveinstrument for cheap sensation-mongers to feed novelty and excitement,in second-rate, widely read, novels. The appeal here is far moredangerous, because it lacks thought or any sense of responsibilityin the writers. These insincere books, written for success to catchthe crowd, even when slightly more veiled in phrase, are far moresuggestive and unclean. They present conclusions without reasons,gospels without faith. They partly create, and largely reflect, life asit is for the moment. Taking evil for granted, they do devil's work.

  Such are the prevailing influences of the day; very mixed, of graveperil, that have already done much to prolong the crime of war.

  But the following pages shall not be given to mere abuse, idlecomplaints, or dogmatic assertion.

  It is necessary, quite frankly, but with all possible _clear_thinking, to examine and present the new moral teaching, to sift truefrom false; to declare how much has come from more knowledge andunderstanding, and how much from unreasoning anger, impatience ofcontrol, the search for novelty and pride in revolt. Where, too, meredirt has stained the page.