TOPICAL ARTICLE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 120, 23 May 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

TOPICAL ARTICLE.

LOW-GRADE LITERATURE.

The spread of so called education lias brought into existence literature of most pernicious and degrading kind As everybody, nowadays, can read, so everybody has his mind and taste catered for. The capacity to read by no means guarantees an elevation of mind, or refinement of taste, but, as applying to the great mass of individuals, endows them with the ability of indulging a normal low taste, and aboriginal gtossness of appetite. Popular literature has assimilated itself to position. Tons of " penny dreadfuls " are sent. broadcast from the printing machines of the world, to sap the intellects of the young and thoughtless with their poisonous pictures of life, and their false suggestiveness.

Worse still, books, designedly written to stimulate the baser passions of their readers find ready market and favor among those who have been taught to read, but have not been taught to think. Thus in these times we find that the tone generally,-of literary thought and effort, exhibits a marked decadence, and that form and style, no longer display the polish and excellence of the old writers.. All this indicates that the great army of readers swallow their food at a gulp, and without masticating it. This would be bad enough, were the diet wholesome; it is ruinous to the < moral-tii< gestion when otherwise^

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Gutter literature is indeed a menace lo society, and it is amazing that social reformers have aot moved towards its annihilation. There are published, books that may be likened, in their effects upon the moral health of their readers, to some loathsome disease in its operation upon the physical system. It is pitiable to find that these accursed productions are permitted circulation. They find their way into the hands of the young and impressionable unchecked. These books are in many cases the work of clever people who take hold upon the .aspens of society that the clean mind repels from its range of thought. Translations from the French in particular are eagerly bought, which exhibit much artistic form and workmanship and are therefore the more dangerous

It is false argument to contend that works such as many by Zola and Tolstai educate the morals of their readers, and enlighten their intelligence. For one reader that comes forth unsoiled a perusal of many of their so sailed realistic productions, ten must be'tainted. For it is not given to sreryone to touch pitch' and remain undefined. Nay the reader who tosses aside the novel of realism as unclean, and strives to forget its insidious teaching, may discover, to his consternation, that the poison once absorbed, cannot be eradicatedi

Now there is a wide, distinction between literature of this class and the coarse but humourous writings of the eighteenth century. The bane of the realistic writings of the present day lies in their terrible earnestness. The reader rises from their perusal with' a. sense of the utter evil of human nature. His spiritual sympathies and instincts receive a wound that never heals. His very faith in a higher life is staggered by these pictures of the yileness of humanity. Shall it be said that it is always well to know the truth, by those who defend such literature ? But are these things true ? In a. measure, perhaps they are. It is not true however, that humanity is so utterly vile as it is depicted. No man or woman, however degraded or vicious, is without some sense of good 4 But these realists, as they call themselves, are so far false to truth, that they depict human beings who have do redeeming light within them^

It may be said that literature reflects the mental fashion of the hour, and that its history reveals that it has its healthy reactions. This may be said of all ethical forms. But we must remember that the literature of to-day is contemporaneous with universal education. Sixty or seventy years ago, the range of readers was limited to comparatively few: and those belonged to classes that had »njoyed mental training for generations. When Sir Walter Scot poured forth his scries of romances; when Dickins and Thaclvery took the reading world by storm, the intellectual capacity to which they appealed was confined to people who may be said to have inherited the influence of education, and that had brought to them elevation of thought and purity of taste.

But the readers ol the literature of to-day, in its more popular form, belong to those who may be said to have acquired a new sense, which they have not yet learned to employ, to advantage, And this ,is why we may not expect any, reaction in popular taste for' many generations to come. The " educated " clown is still the clown; It needs the effect of education upon his posterity, to wipe the clay from their inheritance of his men* ;tal mediocrity^

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It is likely however, that we shall see some attempts made to secure clean reading for the people. And it .will probably l,e made first in this part of the world, where healthier conditions of existence point to a impulsion agajusti boMiousg mental

relaxation.- It-to a good SIS» lnflee. d that the country press find it so advantageous to circulate . high class literature of a clean type.; If there are people who cannot be brought, at a bound, to care for high thought, and distinguished expression, they may be so far guided in their choice of reading, that what they do read shall, at least, do them no harm. It is an important matter. The least rcflestion will show that great mischief is wrought upon humanity by the inferior character of much of its literature—its books and papers^

While we recognise that it will be a delicate task to interfere with the popular right to select their own amusements, there is no reason why a dangerous book or periodical should not be barred from circulation, as consistently as a play, of evil tendency is prohibited, by the public censor, from representation.;