IMMORAL LITERATURE.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 46, 23 February 1909, Page 6

IMMORAL LITERATURE.

LICENTIOUS AND OBSCENE PRODUCTIONS. DENOUNCED BY BISHOP GRUMES. (Bjr Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHUKiCH, this day. Bishop Grimes, in his pastoral for 1900, 'which has just been published, leads a powerful attack on the immoral literature of the day. "Is it not deplorable," he asks, "to see society flooded with licentious and obscene productions, consecrated to the idolising of the grossest passions and doctrines the most degrading! Who can behold unmoved the crowd of shameless writers who seem to have no> other mission in life than to sully whilst attacking all that is pure and noble and holy? Sworn foes of every idea of order, duty, and justice, they prostitute their talent or their pen to the service, nay to the very justifying of the unclean vice which they would fain make attractive by the ! expounding of guilty theories or the depicting of morals more guilty and more j dangerous still. Writers of little or no ! talent often make capital out of the evil passions land corrupt inclinations of ■fallen nature, to draw readers by the bait of immorality." The Bishop enumerated certain works that should be avoided. i'_.e6ide," he says, "those filthy produo- ! tions, the mere title of which brings a 'blush to a Christian cheek, those licentious pamphlets which stain the very | hands of those that touch them, works which everyono with the least remnant of self-respect spurns iwith the disdain | they deserve, and the indignation they inspire, one should turn away from:—

" (1) Most of the current literature, whether it be what is known as yellowbacks teeming with licentiousness, the gilt-leaved sensational novels, the bulky reviews of the flippant monthlies, weeklies or dailies, which carp at the holiest and most lawful on earth. (2) Newspapers and pamphlets whose anti-Ghristian and sickly pages either feed the cold, polished pride of the intellect, inculcate a wretchedly empty sentimentality, and openly or secretly unfold the most wicked, irreligious principles. (3) Books which stupidly pretend to foretell the future and explain signß or dreams or any such like superstitious fooleries. (4) Those false or far-fetched interpretations of the inspired writings and of their holiest dogmas. fe (5) Pages which to-day belch forth some horrid calumnies against persons consecrated to the service of the Most High; scandalous deeds sprifng only from the Wicked brain of the writer, some historical lies, a thousand times refuted, yet a thousand times repeated with the same boldness and bitterness. (6) Those illustrations which have become to us what the amphitheatre was to the Romans of old—slaughterhouses for men and dens of infamy for women, whilst Christians were flung to the lions to pander to the passions of the bloodthirsty Romans; pages wherein the engraver's Satanic skill is used at one time to caricature the rites and ceremonies of our holy religion, at another to display the grossest forms of vice or the most painful and loathsome scenes of wretchedness and crime. (7) Poems or fables which, under the name of histories, are penned to enkindle the most inflammable passions in our nature. (8) Books which under pretence of encouraging virtue deify vice, foment 'and strengthen that passion which is the chief spring of every other. 0. Most of the cheap trash called novels, which, to catch the young and thoughtless, are filled with scenes of love and blood and thunder, amidst which the greatest monsters are held up as heroes of humanity. 10. Most of the prurient literature of the day, the perusal whereof is meant to heat the blood, inflame the senses, and throw a halo of false sickly sentimentality around trie day dreams of youth. 11. Books and pamphlets which, while professing to treat of necessary domestic relations, covertly pander to the worst 'instincts, and defile with the slime of an infernal fancy. 12. Books which talk in a fascinating manner of nought but the maxims of a corrupt world, the artifices of the devil and the flesh. ' 13. Novels which so vividly describe the weaknesses and extravagant transports of love, another name and cloak for brutal lust, on the altars whereof the readers are led as willing victims ready to sacrifice to this degrading vice every dearest interest. Every noblest affection of their soul, honour, and ambition are shown prostrate at its feet, and tho noblest of God's creatures represented grovelling -in the lowest state of infatuation till this passion becomes their only thought day and night, the only object of their worship, the chief aim, the sole end of their very existence. 14. Novels urging the imitation of ideals which our reason and common sense assure us never had nor could have any foundation in fact. 15. Works which, under the plea of informing the mind and developing the imagination, blunt the powers of genius and spoil the purest sympathies of nature, substituting in their stead unresisting slavish propensities called sensibility, which would have us excuse affections or vices, alike hateful to God, to His angela and to upright men. rj 16. Books or papers relating words and deeds that no true Christian would for the world ever wish to hear or behold or bear the responsibility of publishing the same.

17. In fine, whatever is eagerly sought and cherished by the depraved as they are dipicted and contemned by the good. Their name is legion."

• After dealing trenchantly with the pretexts assigned as an excuse for immoral and dangerous reading, his- Lordship says: Mry we not avail ourselves of this occasion to recognise the excellence of our local Press, though their policy on the education question is strongly opposed to ours. We gladly proclaim that as a true type of journalism they will compare most favourably with the whole Press of the Empire and of all Englishspeaking lands. Ably edited, and generally impartial, their columns are invariably closed to whatever might please prurient minds or make us fear to see them in the hands of even the youngest of our flock." * °