because while they lived violently, youth also thought hard.
what was their "food for thought"? largely away from, and independent of, personal influence from the intimacies of home life; almost entirely freed from authority even in daily conduct, and from the restraints of an accepted moral code; they talked and read. all the rebellions and revolts of before 1914 were conspicuously abroad. above all, then and to-day, the novels (devoured for distraction) had forced sex-problems upon the most thoughtless; demanded for all on the threshold of life full licence for self-expression; analysed what they called the soul in undigested detail; lingered over body-contact, flushes and fires of the flesh; loudly proclaimed new laws of love.
the whole experience of mankind, our most sacred instincts, are flouted with contempt. the conflicting claims, which none can avoid, [18]between young and old, have been flung off. the old distinctions between wrong and right are categorically denied; all now demand an absolutely fresh start based on universal knowledge of sin, absolute freedom for the individual, frank discussion of physical intimacies, full rights to the egoist—"a commonplace promiscuity that masquerades as liberty, as courageousness, as art. a slimy, glittering snail-track threaded through all society."
and we have not, even yet, gone far enough! since, it is said, "conversation is over-sexed, the novel under-sexed, therefore untrue, therefore insincere." by this creed, there is only one real thing in life—physical passion.
i do not suggest that contemporary thought is all evil, unclean or false. many of our writers are serious, pure-minded men and women, rightly indignant with old falsehoods, honestly seeking new light. much of their work, too, reveals both sincerity and truth, a finer instinct for the ideal than the victorians ever knew. their courage is heroic, their frankness most wise.
but they are, on the whole, prone to haste. they denounce often without understanding; eager to knock down, without preparation to [19]build up. there is a large body of new doctrine, or interpretation of life and manhood, which is false, morbid, and poisonous in its effects.
above all, the message has taken youth unprepared—just when (more than ever before in the history of the world) they needed quiet patience for complete understanding. and it has, naturally, proved an attractive instrument for cheap sensation-mongers to feed novelty and excitement, in second-rate, widely read, novels. the appeal here is far more dangerous, because it lacks thought or any sense of responsibility in the writers. these insincere books, written for success to catch the crowd, even when slightly more veiled in phrase, are far more suggestive and unclean. they present conclusions without reasons, gospels without faith. they partly create, and largely reflect, life as it is for the moment. taking evil for granted, they do devil's work.
such are the prevailing influences of the day; very mixed, of grave peril, that have already done much to prolong the crime of war.
but the following pages shall not be given to mere abuse, idle complaints, or dogmatic assertion.
it is necessary, quite frankly, but with all [20]possible clear thinking, to examine and present the new moral teaching, to sift true from false; to declare how much has come from more knowledge and understanding, and how much from unreasoning anger, impatience of control, the search for novelty and pride in revolt. where, too, mere dirt has stained the page.
