Doubtless we have erred in many ways in our interpretation of the book under attack: we are quite sure that we have not done it justice. After all, it must speak for itself, for everyone has his own reading of whatsoever comes to his notice. But of one thing we are sure, that it fills the test of literature as distinct from pornography; that it has a theme, sustains a thought, criticises life. It attempts, among other things, to show the futility of escaping from conventionality by way of seeking sin, for sin itself has its conventions. It pictures sin in this spirit, and in doing so it perforce speaks of sin. But it must be judged as a whole, not by a sentence here, or even by a page there (Halsey v. N. Y. Society, 234 N. Y. 1). And, as decided in the case just cited, a publication can be lawful even if it should happen to contain indecent passages.
6—The passages, to which reference has been made in the complaint originally filed in Special Sessions, are not indecent.
We submit that, having in mind the context, there is nothing in “Jurgen” which is indecent. A man studiously on the alert for the indecent can put his finger on certain words in the book; but the very meaning of these words is decent if we will but read them in the connection to which they are meant to refer. And other things that are said, so far from being indecent, are things lawfully to be said, unless the body of our literature should perish from the earth.
All of this is illustrated by the bill of particulars which Mr. Sumner, one of the prosecutors in this case, furnished when he filed a complaint in the Special Sessions. Mr. Sumner there enumerates the pages containing, as he thinks, lewd and obscene matter. We shall now deal with the particulars thus furnished.
What is there to complain of on pages 59, 88, 99, 114, 134–5, 275? Pages 88 and 99 require no discussion. On pages 134–5 Guenevere takes leave of Jurgen, that is all. On page 59 occurs “temptress”, which is not obscene. On page 114 the ghost of Smoit tells Jurgen that he is his grandfather, instead of the putative ancestor whom Jurgen had always accepted. But if this is lewd, then we must stop the sale of such books as Thackeray’s “Henry Esmond”. On page 275 Jurgen stops his vampire wife from sucking his blood through biting his chest. Burne-Jones’ painting “The Vampire”, is familiar,—even to those of us who never frequent galleries at home or abroad,—through Kipling’s famous poem.
But as perhaps it is not suitable thus to summarize the particulars which Mr. Sumner was at such pains to gather, we will take the other pages which he mentions and deal with them seriatim.
Pages 57–8—Jurgen’s conversation with Dorothy in the garden. A kiss is not indecent. Temptation came, but it was dispelled.
Page 61—Reference to “the bed” is made—But for whom? The bride. A bridal bed is not obscene or lewd. Vide wedding march in “Lohengrin”, and the relative chapters in Scott’s “The Bride of Lammermuir”.
Page 63—“Had wondered if he were really the first man for whom she had put a deceit upon her husband”, etc. If this is obscene, then nearly all current fiction is, to say nothing of the classics, ancient or modern.
Page 64—Jurgen counts up his conquests. But so did Don Juan. “The end of all is death”—but so said Villon—“Ou sont les nieges d’antan?”