Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/266

 for Heaven's sake, to mention the "vermin"! For the Ishbosheth "cult" see nothing in a sunset, but much in a flea.

Hence when we read the criticism of a "strong" book, over the signature of one of the Ishbosheth, we know what to expect. All the bad, low, villainous and soiled side of sickly or insane human nature will be in it, and nothing of the healthful or sound. For, to be vicious is to be ill—to commit crime is to be mentally deformed—and the "strong" book of the Ishbosheth only deals with phases of sickness and lunacy. There are other "strong" books in the world, thank Heaven—strong books which treat strongly of noble examples of human life, love and endeavour—books like those of Scott and Dickens and Brontë and Eliot—books which make the world all the better for reading them. But they are not books admired of the Ishbosheth. And as the Ishbosheth have their centres in the current press, they are not praised in the newspapers. Binding as the union of the Printers is all over the world, I suppose they cannot take arms against the Ishbosheth and decline to print anything under this Masonic sign? If they could, what a purification there would be—what a clean, refreshing world of books—and perhaps of men and women! No more vicious heroes with short legs; no more painfully-injured milkmaids; no more "twins," earthly or heavenly—while possibly a new Villette might bud and blossom forth—another Fortunes of Nigel, another brilliant Vanity Fair—and books which contain wit without nastiness, tenderness without erotics, simplicity without affectation, and good English without slang, might