20
THE STAR IN THE WEST
repletion ; the variety of the dishes is extraordinary
in
delicacy and piquancy as well as in number .
The
morals
of a nation
can with
fair accuracy be
gauged from the condition
of
its
arts and literature
,
and
in
what
a
state
are ours
?
Our music the jangling
ditties
of
the
streets
,
our paintings
,
posters
and
be
dizened Jewesses
;
and our literature
,
heroically vulgar
,
vulgarly
obscene
,
and obscenely insipid
.
Morals
,
the nation has none
,
merely
a
better art
in
disguising
than
in
former times
,
that
is
all
.
We
no
longer can produce
a
Swift
,
a
Congreve
,
or
a
Dryden
,
a
Smollett
,
a
Lever
,
or
a
Sterne
,
and yet our writers
are
legion
—
and
as
feculent
as
the flabby prostitutes
of
the
street
.
The
facetiae
of
the fifteenth century
,
“
Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles
,”
“
The Decameron
,”
“
The
Heptameron
,”
“
The
Nights
of
Straparola
,"
“
Brantôme
,
”
etc.
,
etc.
,
are not only masterpieces for
all
time
,
but are pure
,
even
chaste
,
compared with the
the virginal
lusts that are becoming
so
fashionable
in
our modern literature
,
whose maidens are Lesbians
,
and whose heroes are
satyrs
.
Europa
is
no
longer
satisfied with her bull
,
but seeks an ichor
-
maddened
elephant
;
Leda disdains
her swan
,
and
burns
for
a
straddling
ostrich
;
the goat
of
lechery sits enthroned
o'er
us
,
and
is
fast coupling
with
the
mind
of
the
nation
,
and spawning
offspring
effeminate
,
lustful
,
and
degenerate
.
Tribades
with
their
evil
-
smelling
kisses swarm over our pages
,
heroines are
no
longer
satisfied
with
mere
men
,
but
must
strain
to
their
breasts legless monsters
;
whilst
a
hero will listen
to
his
loved
one
snorting
in
the
arms
of
some
lusty
Păthān
.
Such literature
is
revolting
,
not
in
its
mere
descriptions
,
for
these
are
nothing
to
the
student
,
being
generally
but
poorly
described
realities
,
but