XI
HAVE WE ALREADY FORGOTTEN THE NATURAL LOYALTY OF YOUTH. HOW ARE WEPAYING—OUR DEBT TO THEM?
Honour the dead, care for those who saved the homes: for, as we havehere striven to show, never before has youth been in such dire need ofsympathy, understanding, and help. Too soon we forget that war blastshumanity, a state of war makes us all brutes, degrades every man,woman, and child, in every part of their nature, for all hours of theirlives. Youth, indeed, was rudderless through no fault of its own and,when least prepared, most needing a clear vision, it has been tossedinto such a medley of mad notions as never before deluded mankind.
We were, indeed, at the approach of Dawn; new light was breaking overthe mists of Victorian morality. To recover the _real_ progress, whichhas been diverted into a mere riot of attack, we have endeavoured togather together, examine, and clearly state what the "new" morality_really means and leads to_, how it has come to be upheld. Withoutdenying in some the honest seeking of truth, we have sought to makeclear where the teaching around us to-day is untrue, destructive ofreality, and poisonous in its effect.
As now proclaimed, this teaching cannot escape its responsibility formuch evil talk, thought, and emotion, for many black deeds. Under itsinfluence, thoughtless humanity is fast coming to believe and say thatall love, or even comradeship, between the sexes without immediatephysical satisfaction is hypocritical and unreal; that is, cramped byforced self-denial or an evidence of cold blood and incapacity for reallove. The young live feverishly by this conviction: they flaunt theirpassions, their falls and their conquests, before the world. They jestat sin, sneer at restraint, and spare no thought for purity. Kindness,courtesy, thought for others, are cast to the winds. At all costs, theymust be themselves, and snatch the hour's joy.
Such feverish disorder of emotion—the swooning delirium, sudden fires,and complete abandon of balance—is not natural to wholesome humanity;but, as we have seen, _it can easily be produced by suggestion_. Nowthat popular novelists casually produce drama and crude excitementby smart tales of such over-sexed human beings, an immense body ofreaders, without knowledge or experience to combat the falseness of thepicture, have come to accept it as a _normal record_ of real life. Theyare adapting themselves to its alluring thrills, modelling their livesto its pattern, and acting upon its teaching. From men and women, theymay too soon become mere male and female, as God did _not_ create them.The whole history of mankind, our centuries of growth from cave-man tothe last word in civilization, have established truths which remaintrue. Our right to be ourselves can never wipe out our duty to others.There is an eternal and infinite difference between Right and Wrong,and those who ignore this _cannot escape the penalty_. Love is notlust. All that is finest and noblest in human nature has been builtupon a pure and constant loyalty; of which the eternal symbol (howeversmirched and stained by folly or sin) is marriage and the home.Character, which ultimately rules the world, grows straight amidstthe influence of family life. The permanent ideal for man and woman;creating new life, bearing and cherishing each new generation, is acomplete union of the whole nature, spiritual and physical, whereof thespiritual bond must be supreme.
_Self-control, restraint, and, if needs be, Sacrifice, are the highestexpression of Self._
If we may not refuse new light, we can never forget old truth. Thefoundations of morality have been established by our gradual emergencefrom that state of savagery, into which we were again for a few yearssubmerged by war.
Those who blot out the Vision attained by centuries of man's upwardfight, thereby confounding the ultimate issues of right and wrong,setting the body above the soul, _are intoxicating and poisoninghumanity as with a deadly drug_.
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
The following correction has been made to the original text:
Page 55: because it is as light airs[original has "a light as air"], imponderable
Moral Poison in Modern Fiction Page 11
