Book Description

Excerpt from The Aberdeen University Review, 1917-18, Vol. 5 The subject of this paper, the effects of Literature on Character - a subject at once vast, complicated, and minute - cannot be handled shortly; and it is therefore the more necessary not to touch on related subjects even the most simple, and to make- clear at the outset that I do not propose to say a word either of Literature distinctively moral, or of Literature distinctively immoral. There is such a thing as distinctively immoral literature, literature merely sensational, merely sensual, or merely licentious; and by this last I mean literature written by one who has no conception of law, who admires unthinkingly every display of the unbridled ego, who sees nothing in the Universe but the conflict of greedy or self-centred interests. There is also such a thing as distinctively moral literature, literature solely sober, solely ascetic, solely legal; and by this last I mean literature written by one who has no conception of the private will, who attaches no meaning to air or fire, who admires unthinkingly every exercise of restraint, who sees nothing in the Universe but a collection of people denying themselves for each other. Nay, I am even willing to admit that, owing to human nature - and by this I mean what every one means when he uses that term, the tendency of the self to gratify itself - immoral literature has often an immoral effect. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.