The whole experience of mankind, our most sacred instincts, are flouted with contempt. The conflicting claims, which none can avoid,
between young and old, have been flung off. The old distinctions between wrong and right are categorically denied; all now demand an absolutely fresh start based on universal knowledge of sin, absolute freedom for the individual, frank discussion of physical intimacies, full rights to the Egoist—"a commonplace promiscuity that masquerades as liberty, as courageousness, as art. A slimy, glittering snail-track threaded through 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 in life—physical passion.
I do not suggest that contemporary thought is all evil, unclean or false. Many of our writers are serious, pure-minded men and women, rightly indignant with old falsehoods, honestly seeking new light. Much of their work, too, reveals both sincerity and truth, a finer instinct for 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 without understanding; eager to knock down, without preparation to
build up. There is a large body of new doctrine, or interpretation of life and manhood, which is false, morbid, and poisonous in its effects.
Above all, the message has taken youth unprepared—just when (more than ever before in the history of the world) they needed quiet patience for complete understanding. And it has, naturally, proved an attractive instrument for cheap sensation-mongers to feed novelty and excitement, in second-rate, widely read, novels. The appeal here is far more dangerous, because it lacks thought or any sense of responsibility in the writers. These insincere books, written for success to catch the crowd, even when slightly more veiled in phrase, are far more suggestive and unclean. They present conclusions without reasons, gospels without faith. They partly create, and largely reflect, life as it is for the moment. Taking evil for granted, they do devil's work.
Such are the prevailing influences of the day; very mixed, of grave peril, that have already done much to prolong the crime of war.
But the following pages shall not be given to mere abuse, idle complaints, or dogmatic assertion.
It is necessary, quite frankly, but with all