BOOKS AND MORALS.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15274, 26 June 1923, Page 9

BOOKS AND MORALS.

CENSORIOUS AMERICANS. A difficult question in the altogether difficult subject of censorship is that of the extent to which freedom should be permitted in the printing and publishing of hooks. America has been attempting to solve the problem, but all that can bo said of the results is that they are generally against the censorious. In every civilised country ' there are great variations of opinion on what constitutes a literary offence against public morals. There are still people who consider that all Imaginative literature is harmful—a belief that was very widely field unli! a generation or two ago. They will not read any novels, or any poems that are not devotional, stales a writ-' er in the Melbourne Argus. Sometimes they try to impose their opinions on adults as well as on the young. Gissinghas recorded the case of a suburban Mayor in England who objected to his son learning Longfellow’s “Excelsio,” because of the sentimental but innocent lines in which the youth is invited to “stay, and rest.” Thomas Bowdler, whose name has added a series of words to the English language, thought it necessary to “Bowdlerise" Shakespeare by preparing an edition in which “those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read .aloud in a family." Yet many young folk before and since his day have read unexpurgated editions of Shakespeare without suffering any harm. There may be dangers in precaution. Montaigne, in his essay, tells of a harmless word- being given a bad association in his little daughter’s mind because a governess stopped her when she was about to pronounce it while reading a book aloud. Old English literature, without expurgations, was freely read by Mary Lamb in her childhood and youth, and her famous brother, Charles Lamb, advocated for all girls a similarly unchecked access to books. Strangely enough, Swinburne, whose first volume of “Poems and Ballads" gave great offence to the, Mrs Grundy of the Victorian period, was a valiant defender of the bowdlerism of Bowdler.

Laxity In Novels. In recent years there has been a great increase in the liberties taken by novelists. Long ago the Influence of realistic writers in European countries affected the outlook and method of many English Actional authors, but latterly a more powerful influence has been that of Freud, and of other writers on psycho-analysis. To some readers novels so affected seem extremely morbid when they are not extremely foolish; much more harmful than- the work of the realists, which used to be considered shocking. Others defend the novels as scientifically accurate in their analysis of human nature; to say the least, much of the supposed science is doubtful in accuracy, and some is disgusting in application. Yet there is less inclination now than of old to ban objectionable novels. Associated librarians in England have taken such action at times, but apparently they have come to the conclusion that it does little good. Other possibilities for extremely offensive books include police prosecutions. In Australia a certain amount of censorship can- be exercised by Customs prohibition and proclamation.. Action of the kind is taken occasionally, chiefly with regard to works objected to on the ground of morals. A few years ago there were regulations under the War-time Precautions Act to deal with books considered harmful In that period for military and national reasons. In America last year, according to a book trade review, the censorship of literature caused as much discussion, action, and recrimination in twelve months as would ordinarily have taken place in twelve months. Eugene O’Neill’s “Hairy Ape,” a published play which has been described by leading writers as a work of genius, was brought before a magistrate in manuscript, but a month later the complaint was dismissed. Darwin’s “Origin of Species" and other longknown books relating , to evolution narrowly escaped being forced out of the school of Kentucky. It took five years to decide a series of American actions relating to Theophile Gautier’s old romantic tale “Mademoiselle de Maupin." The trouble began in 1917, when an agent of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice obtained a warrant for the arrest of an employee of a book-selling company. It ended in 1922 by the employee obtaining a verdict of 2500 dollars for malicious prosecution. A case with an opposite result was that in which a Cincinnati bookseller fined 1000 dollars for having sent' through the post a copy of the works of Rabelais. The bookseller did not* fight the case, holding that a retail shop was at a disadvantage In such actions. Unsuccessful action was taken in relation to a limited edition of another classic, the “Satyricon” of Petonlus Arbiter. This case was dismissed by a New York magistrate, but the district attorney has announced that he intends to Institute further prosecution. f Effect of Action on Sale. The Watch and Ward Society, of Boston, took action against Robert Keablo’s novel “Simon Called Peter,” slates the New York Publisher’s Weekly,” by sending word ■ to the booksellers in Massachusetts* that they would be prosecuted if the book was thereafter found on their counters. . This brought about a lively sale for the book in neighbouring sections, and newsboys went through the Rhode Island trains offering “the book that is suppressed in Boston." The proprietor of one circulating library in Arlington, Mass., was brought into court and fined for having the book in circulation. The ban had not been lifted by the end of January, but no case had been brought in New York. Several other books were suggested as being open to censorship, says the Weekly, including Rene .Maran’s “Batouala” and Joseph Hergesheimer’s "Cytherea.” In October Judge Nott, of the New York Court of General Sessions, dismissed a case which had been brought by the Vice Society two years ago against James Branch Cabell’s “Jurgen." The book had ben wilhdraewn in America for that period but remained in print in a British edition, many copies of which were sent to America. Seven years ago Theodore Dreiser’s “The Genius" was withdrawn on notice by the society that it intended to prosecute, but the publisher has now decided to reprint the book. “Ulysses,” by James Joyce, is a book containing half a million words in description of a very brief spell of ! life in Dublin. It was printed in English in Paris. Some of the critics have condemned it, and others have stated that it shows remarkable originality and new possibilities in Actional and other writing. It has not been printed in full in the United States, but an opening instalment printed two years ago in the Little Review caused 1 the publishers to be brought into

court. A case which was dismissed in 1922 arose from the seizure of “Women in Love,” by D. H. Lawrence; “Casanova’s Homecoming,” by Arthur Schnitzler; and an anonymous “Young Girl’s Diary.” Schnitzler’s fame as a man of genius apparently affected the result. Other novels, miscellaneous works, and medical volumes are not yet settled; hut it is claimed Lhat the balance of decisions has been against the censorship. Leading publishers—Messrs Arthur Scribner, Alfred Harcourt, and G. P. Putnam—were appointed by the trade to watch the censorship. They met a committee of the Authors’ League, but it was decided that there were no developments calling for special -joint action. The publishers' Association has declared that in matters of censorship individual houses must be Individually responsible for what they publish. When Authors Were Pilloried. As in these cases, most of the objections taken to books nowadays relate to morals. In past centuries many works were “burnt by the common hangman." and some writers were pilloried, burnt in the hand, or had their ears cut off, because the authorities took objection to volumes on religious or political grounds. "Arepogaitica,” Milton’s eloquent plea “for the liberty of unlicensed printing,” was written at a time when the censorship of books was a burning question, and when it was dangerous to be a sincere and outspoken author. These passages give some indication of Milton’s view on the subject of books and morals: “Good and evil, we know, in. the field of this world grow up together almost inseparably; and the knowledge of good is so involved and interwoven with the knowledge of eviL, and in so many cunning resemblances hardly to be discerned, that those confused seeds which were imposed on Psyche as an incessant labour to cull out and sort asunder were not more intermixed. . . . I- cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virture, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that Immortal garland (the heavenly reward of the Christian) is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary. . . . Since, therefore, the knowledge and survey of vie* is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can wc more safely and with less danger scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates and hearing all manner of reason? And this is the benefit which may be had of books promiscuously read.” In 1693, nearly 450 years after Milton wrote, the House of Commons allowed the Act regulating the censorship to lapse, but in 1703, for having written the satirical “Shortest Way With Dissenters,” Defoe was sentenced to pay a line ofriJOO marks, to stand thrice in the pillory,” to find securities for his good behaviour during Seven years, and to be imprisoned during the Sovereign’s pleasure. In later years alleged blasphemy was a fairly frequent subject of prosecution, but few cases of the kind have been instituted in recent'years. A different form of action in the case of books to which objection is taken by the Roman Catholic Church is that of placing the names of books on the Index Librorum Phohibitorum. Works so listed, whether on doctrinal, moral, or religious grounds, are not to be read by members of the Church. A recent addition to the Index was that of the work of Anatole France. Perhaps the safest conclusion to which consideration of the whole subject leads is that offenoe or lack of offence in moral matters relating to books should depend on intention. Probably no clean mind has been contaminated by a book unless the book was evilly meant by the author.