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    PEE-ADAMITE MAN.*

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    much so , that whilst they maintain that the ^ average ^ s tandard of ' momlity is lower , in factf in / tlfl . country than , m F ^^^ charge us with a ridiculous fastidiousness with respect to what we read by our firesides or se " e on the stage ; in other words they Suse us of a national pmdery / as childish as it is ' bypocx ^ cal and insincere . Without entering into any ^ f ^ - ^ i ^ J& ^ S literature of any country is an iinmistakeable and infallible leflex of the contemporaneous tone of feeling , or whether ^ %£ * £ V ™ £ systematic immorality , the same domestic and social "" P ^^ m London as in Paris : and even-supposing :, the sake ^ pf argument the al law of society are as fr quent and

    S " breacl ^ ^ or e as flagranlf in one capital as the other , which , insp . te of the reydatmns of Sir Cresswell Cresswell ' s court , we are far from allowing , is it not mor ; conducive to the public well-being to veil the evil with a decent reticence , and , even at the risk of being sneered at as prud . sh and weak-minded , to forbid its reproduction and representation by the press or on the stage ? The less we have of a bad thing the better ; and if vice is . inevitable in itself , it is surely no false delicacy to say as little about it , and to publish it abroad as little as possible . Pope appreciated the principle which lies at tlie bottom of our so-called pruderv , and a broad truth is conveyed m his well-known

    llUGS ~ : ¦ . ¦ " Vice is i' monster of so frightful mien , " As to be hated , needs but to be seen . ;_ ¦ . But seen t oo oft , familiar with her face , We first endure , then pity , then embrace . " He that toueheth piteii shall be defiled therewith ;'' the author , performers , and spectators of an immoral drama are all exposed to the debasement of mind which is as surely engendered by an unwholesome moral atmosphere , as are physical maladies by inhalingapoisonous physical atmosphere . It is ho more hardyto bend for an hour over a patient in the putrescent stage of typhus , than it is to spend an evening at a theatre in listening to the profligate vagaries of a veteran debauchee , or witnessing the degrading arts of a courtesan . ¦ : Vj . ¦ .

    with the writings of contemporary authors , such as " Le Due Job ' of M . Laya , or " La Penelope Noriaande " Alphonse Karr . Lei its take a play of Moliere ' s ; and see how the genius of Frenct comedy has changed , and •• ¦ ¦ h ow . woefully its -glory has departed Head " Tiirtufe , " and then read "Le Pere Prodigue / ' What ' s contrast do we observe between the accurate and complete delineation of character in the one , and the crude , superficial conceptions o ; the other ; between the repose of the master and the slovenly haste of the self-sufficient tyro ; between the wit of Moliere and the obscene double-rentendres of Dumas ; between true genius on the one hand , and the prurient imaginings of fifth-rate talent on the other . With the one , the object of his comedy was to amuse mankind at the same time that he corrected them ; the other neither corrects nor amuses , and is like a physician who employs his art not to heal his patients , biit to poison them . The unnatural pedantry of the dramatic iinities-has been abolished '; but that was not more objectionable than is the unartistic style which -marks the plays not ' only of Dumas the younger , but of most modern playwrights . The neglect of unity did not involve inattention tc symmetry , yet as a matter of fact ; how few plays of the present French school can be said to indicate that elaboration and finished study which ought to distinguish a national drama . The merest superficialities of character are seized , and an enumeration of these supplies the place of a full and deep grasp of the subject , such as we meet with in the comedians who lived in days when the public required a picture , and would not , as is now th e case , have been satisfied with a meaningless daub . As for England , she has no present drama . In France , the spectator has the satisfaction . oi knowing that such ingenuity Or talent as may be detected m the play is of home-growth i whilst the English playgoer cannot forget that lie has before him only an adaptation , in some cases a mere translation of some French piece , which was probably much too weak iii the- first instance to bear any dilution or filtration without losing what little flavour it ever had , and which therefore reaches us in ° a state of hopeless insipidity , However , we have not now to speak of the English stage , but we may say that its present feebleness is to be preferred to the " stroiiginindedness of our G ^ allican neighbours , and we shall be quite willing to bear the charge of prudery and straitlaced hypocrisy if it saves us from such garbage as tlie " Prodiga . 1 Father . "

    mercenary . . . _ . ,, „ ,, _ The Parisian public flock night after night to see the Pere Prodi < me ? ' a play " so noisome and fetid that it has been even prohibited at St . Petersburg , whe re ^ as a rule , the censor is not extraordinarily stringent . Still the admirers of Dumas theyounger —and their name is legion—maintain that it is not immoi-al ^ and this brings us round to the question with which we started- —When can a play be calledi mineral P Whenever grave , unmistakeable , downright vice is depicted in such a way as to excite laughter , and even an unacknowledged admiration . ^ LFolly ,, not vice , is the fat subject for laughter . . _ ' .. The ploy before us is an illustration . There are two heroes , father and son . The former , left a widower at the age of twentyin

    five with a son a year old , soon became the gayest man gay Paris ' . Having been himself educated in the midst of the . most rigid Puritanism , he goes to the . other extreme , and initiates his son in all the profligacies of the French capital ; and at the time when the action , of the play begins , the worthy gentleman s reckless extravagance has nearly demolished an enormous patrimony . Heroine there is none ; but the person who would be if there were one is a scheming prostitute , who intends to retire from business as soon us she has saved a certain amount of money . Another lady is

    introduced , who plays the necessary but comparatively tame part oi the virtuous and intelligent wife . Of course there is the usual complement of pimps and adulteresses . The plot is " simple in its neatness . " At first the father and son live happily enough together , each enjoying his own style of immorality . The son meets with a beautiful and virtuous maiden , whom his father had previously courted ; he marries her , and at once subsides into the heavy husband . Then there is a ' rumour through Pans that the father is endeavourinir to seduce hia daughter-in-law . The indignant fathertiie uemi

    in-law , learning this , consoles himself in the embraces ot - horoine . The son , who lias full power of the purse , cuts off the supplies , 'and demi-heroiuo , having saved the predetermined amount , marries the pimp . The father , reduced to nnpecuniosity , fights a , duel with a husband whoso wife the son had had an intrigue with in his " fust" days ; wounds the weak-minded husband , and on tho strength of it becomes reconciled to liis gnitefiil son . And the piece terminates with the pleasing intelligence that the-son is in turn shortly about to becomo a father . and

    " The Prodigal leather " nightly furnjshca instruction amusement to hundreds of men and women . At what expense this amusement is procured , what sort of instruction it gives , and how it contributes to the growth of national virtue , may bo easily conjectured . It ia much as if a British paterfamilias were to take his wilo and daughters to promonaclo theHuymnrkofc at midnight for amusement ; and instruction . If u » nuu , or a body ot men , venture to plunge into an atmosphere of vice , it should bo as a physician outers tho ward sot "apart for somo inleotious disorder—ovcry availablo precaution haying been employed , and the motive being not _ an idle curiosity , but pure philanthropy . A man who with this spirit and in this way mmkes vice tho object of hia contemplation , is a benefactor to Immunity , nnd Uesorve * hearty encouragement , though oven then wo must remember that danger can never bo entirely roinoved . Bub no condemnation is suiflyiisntly strong for those who depict unprincipled dobuuehory in bright and attrftotivo colours , imhI who make the gotmo . drama a modiuin for promoting moral degradation , inutoad of the harnilesa amusoinonb and Uivursjon of rational beingH . , ' , Apurt from the moral question , and viewing it moroly in a literary light , tho work is singularly umnoritorious . To uuilerntand this xt is not enough to compare it with othora from tho sumo pon , or oyon

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    'TXTE can never too highly value the privilege ot every VV conceive , adopt , or publish any theory he pleases > Be Jus theory what it may , it will never endanger his head , even though it may injure his heart . The list of the Martyrs of Science / is closed . Her sons may suffer now from obscurity , poverty , and neglect ,-but no man will dare to deprive them of their hberty ^ of theorizing and publishing . Let them but pay their printer s and paper maker ' s bills , and they may laugh at the law J ustus freely as men may laugh at their theories . . this before be in

    It was not always so , as very theory us may - stanced to show . Our anonymous author is by no means the first propounder of it . According to him there were men before Adam ; so also were there pre-Adamites before this one . The only one known to us who worked out his idea into a book was Isaac L . a Peyrero , who published it in Holland in 1655 . An English version of it now lies before us , and was published in London , the iirst part in the same year , and the second part in 165 ( 5 . Evident y it was thought no small risk to publish it , for it beara no printer a name , and no kind of indication of author or bookseller . The unhappy author however , was speedily discovered , and had no peace from that hour for a whole year . At Paris his book was publicly comhimself committedto

    mitted to the flames ; at Brussels he was , prison . A prince had to intercede for his liberation , upon which . Peyrero repaired to Home ( in 1656 ) , where he gave an to the 1 ope n solemn renunciation of his pre-Admnitisin , and , at the same time , of his Calvinism ; the latter , however , being a very ditlerent icma ot creed from that which Oalvinists commonly hold , and nearly resembling the Deism of pur . age . Persecuted , nevertheless , as he was , he lived to the great age of eighty-two ; but at the last , upon being questioned about his pro-Adamitism , he declined to -retract Ins opinions , declaring with his dying breath , " Whosoever dojuea these tilings blasphemes . " So departed the old man , whose book contnins many curious remarks , and 'whoso life wns still fnore curious than his book . A poet of \ m own times wrote an epitaph tor him ,

    which may be thus ireely rendered : — ' * Poyroro Vies hero , a good Ieraolito , ITugenofc , Oatlioho , l > rc-Ad ? imite . To four religions his fuith ho plightea Yofc ull bo long and sn < Uy sUghtccl , Tlmt when ho Baw hiq pfehtle . th buu lio luvX not yot made olioioe of ono ! ' Tho nuthor , whose book is before m , is in » o danger of imprisonmont , and need not fear that his work wi I be burnt ; nor » itpioliablo that Pius tho Ninth will on ) l upon him to recant hus op » j onH Men may not talco xxn with hia thoo .-y , but they cortmnly - m \ l not t » ko off IiIb head . , ife may publish nnpthor volume on 1 * j fcvi es if so niiiulod ; and no doubt many of tho . posMflvitoii w « ul < tobU it with pJonsnro ! OHpooiully if adornqd with porbraifcui ^ ot the supposed antocodonts of the fiiireut poi < t of om-woatwn . n Tho amount of presumed proof of hia thoory , m bosod upon

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    l ? j 3 B , 18 , 1860 . J The Leader and Satui * day Analyst . 161

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    tuM bj / Herlplnro aiul Uvlmoo * houduti : Buundow ,, OM « y , urni uo .

    Pee-Adamite Man.*

    PRE-ADAMITE MAN . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 161, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2334/page/13/