nts they
permit, but officialism promotes all with zeal. At present we laugh at
Mesmer and study hypnotism; at present we sneer at the incarnations of
Vishnu and inquire into Theosophy; at present we condemn the
sacrificial "great custom" of King Prempeh and order our killings by
twelve men and the sheriff and by elaborate machinery; at present we
shudder at the sports of Commodus and wait breathlessly upon bulletins
from Carson City. Those who scouted the fetiches of Dahomey have
waited on their knees in the Cathedral at Naples for the liquefaction
of the blood of St. Januarius, or crawled in agony of hope to the
saving pool at Lourdes. There have been those melted to tenderest
compassion at the sight of a wounded dog or an overdriven horse, who
have yet owned human slaves and contended that it was right, even if
harsh, to sell a mother and her child from one auction block to
different owners. There have been those so wounded by the shortcomings
of their neighbors that they have organized white-capped bands of
virtue to wipe out immorality in the cleansing blood of murder. A man
may reject the miracle of Jonah and yet see an airship.

* * * * *

Now this is the tribunal that has handed down the judgment that
novel-reading is a vice. Is it not a most natural, just and honest
opinion? Could such a tribunal properly pronounce any other? Is it not
such a judgment in fact as vindicates the integrity of the court,
while it crowns the culprit with glory? In expressing the idea that
the reading of novels is only an amusement--to be taken up when there
is nothing else to do--your average grocer, tailor, lawyer, or what
not, has but spoken to you the world's judgment. In fact there are
countless readers of novels who have grown up in this atmosphere of
conviction that novels are meant only to amuse. They are so habituated
to the idea that novels, to them, are valueless--mere sentimental
unrealities or spiced narratives of heated invention--so that they go
through the treasure houses of genius without ever hearing the
soft-voiced persuasion of knowledge or seeing the marvelous, vivid
panorama of human life, illustrating its aspirations, sorrows,
struggles, triumphs and failures. Such readers, convinced in advance
that everything in a novel is fictitious, because the personages
discussed are fictitious in name, never dream that study of the
conduct of these personages may be useful to influence the