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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1898, Page 6

Civilisation depends on morality. Politeness is the ritual of society. Outside of the Church there may be views of truth — theories, opinions ; but she holds and teaches the truth itself. — Dr. Brownson. A remarkable vagary of modern criticism is the serious dispute concerning morality in art. That is not an open question. We must require that same morality in art that we require in a women, a'ld this entirely for aesthetic reasons. Immorality is not beauty, and art has nothing to do with anything not beautiful. This is not a limitation of art, because beauty is everywhere, from the light of a child's foiehead up to its source in God. While every care should be taken to teach a child how to decide wisely he should be taught with < qual assiduity that when the time arrives he must make up his mind with promptness and resolution, and abide by the consequences. It is very poor training that allows him to change his mind with every fancy, to take what he has refused, and to give up what he has chosen. It cannot be so in manhood, and he will enter upon it quite unprepared for its stern decrees. Equally bad is that authority which forbids all choice on v< the child's part, that decides every detail and orders all the minutiae of his life. If he is brought up in absolute dependence on the will of another, and never allowed to decide anything for himself, it is not strange that the task bhould prove too much for him in after life. No freedom in youth often means no decision in manhood.