1. The Prude In Letters And Life
_ I. THE PRUDE IN LETTERS AND LIFE
It is deserving of remark and censure that American literature is become shockingly moral. There is not a doubt of it； our writers, if accused, would make explicit confession that morality is their only fault--morality in the strict and specific sense. Far be it from me to disparage and belittle this decent tendency to ignore the largest side of human nature, and liveliest element of literary interest. It has an eminence of its own； if it is not great art, it is at least great folly--a superior sort of folly to which none of the masters of letters has ever attained. Not Shakspeare, nor Cervantes, nor Goethe, nor Moliere, nor--no, not even Rabelais--ever achieved that shining pinnacle of propriety to which the latter-day American has aspired, by turning his back upon nature‘s broad and fruitful levels and his eyes upon the passionate altitudes where, throned upon congenial ice, Miss Nancy sits to censure letters

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