of moral duty or social decency, and "Ouida" has human fact to deal with. But is this the substance of society, even of the showy and frivolous kind over which Fashion reigns? Pampered princes may be monsters of iniquity, and be tolerated because of their rank or wealth. The sins of the rich and powerful may be too easily condoned, and the weaknesses of women of influential families may be covered with a veil that nobody cares to tear away; but is society made up of such, and is this caricature to be taken as a truthful picture, even in the gay capitals of Europe or the resorts of fashionable diversion? A cynical Frenchman or a much-traveled adventuress of no nationality may gain admission to the ranks of literature with elaborately garnished stories from the slums and bagnios or from the scandals of the divorce courts, but AngloSaxon readers at least should shut the vile rubbish from their libraries. Anglo-Saxon ideas of society and of human life are not those of Zola and "Ouida." With that race the sensual was never uppermost even in its rudest days, when brutality of the roughest sort might be laid to its charge. It believes in the purity of woman, the fidelity of man, the sanctity of home and the family, and the possibility of a society in which the passions are controlled by a sense of duty and of right. With them the love of man and woman is not an animal appetite to be sated and then to give place to indifference or aversion. It is a holy sentiment on which lifelong companionship and helpfulness are to be based, and from which spring the sweet influences of domestic life and the graces of personal virtue and integrity. The Anglo-Saxon mind is not tolerant of infidelity or profligate practices cloaked by social pretensions, nor does it find entertainment in the garbage of the slums and the orts of unseemly households. It regards society as made up of families, in which decency is held in esteem, where the rose remains on the fair forehead of an innocent love and is not displaced by a blister, and where marriage vows are not rated with dicers' oaths. Society has in it healthful currents and the substance of a sound constitution.

English literature from its beginning has truthfully reflected the social life, the character, and the manners of the people whose blood is English, and there is nothing of which we have more right to be proud than the steady purification of the stream. The coarseness of some of the early poets and dramatists may have been "realistic," but it puts their works on neglected shelves in these days of purer manners. The first novels were so much given to

accounts of disreputable intrigue, and so infected with the baser qualities of human nature, that, for a long time, all novels were under a Puritanic ban not wholly without provocation. The drama of the time when "Astræa" loosely trod the stage has gone out, and fiction of the school of Fielding and Smollett has passed from life into history. Latterly we have had in English novels many inspiring and purifying pictures of home-life and the fairer aspects of society. Their lessons have been wholesome and their influence ennobling. They have taught us the comeliness and attraction of virtue, the beauty of honor, and the happiness that comes from noble living. In them fathers are respectable, mothers thoughtful and pure-minded, and sons and daughters have their steps directed by some loftier purpose than the gratification of the impulses that come from the animal nature. English fiction has been a powerful agency of reform and purification.

Upon this fair domain of our literature these foreign purveyors of infection-for "Ouida" has no claim to the title of Englishwoman—are permitted to intrude. They turn the gutters into our wholesome gardens and cast the uncleanness of the divorce court about our hearthstones. The rubbish which, in flaring pictorial weeklies, is excluded from respectable kitchens, is elaborated and embellished in gilt bindings and admitted to the parlor-table. It is the last tricklings of that ribald literature which has run through history in a happily decreasing current from the old times when human passion was deified and the rule of the senses was hardly resisted. It is the legacy of Sodom and Gomorrah to subsequent generations, the heritage that besotted Rome left to the nationalities that drew blood from her bloated carcass. To the AngloSaxon mind and heart it is or ought to be an offense and an insult.

Condemnation is not to be pronounced upon the authors of this sort of fiction more than on its readers. The writers have their gifts, and use them according to their nature. They are the scavengers and scandal-mongers of society, who will exist so long as they are paid and encouraged. They can not be silenced or suppressed; but it is a sorry indication when their books are in demand at the circulating libraries and the fashionable shops for literary pabulum in English and American cities. Their presence in drawingrooms shows that the old infection still asserts itself in the appetite taste it can not be called-which craves a stimulant for passion, and is tormented with prurient longings. It is the same spirit that leads to the secret traffic in the merely libidinous in litera

ture and art, the same that prompts the collecting of old indecencies at fancy prices under the pretense of "rare and curious," the same that promotes the gross sensuality that Zola pictures, and the yieldings to lust in which "Ouida" revels. The old Adam in the blood of the race, that besets its course with vice and lapses from integrity, is that which finds satisfaction in the perusal of literature wrought from the material of its sin and weakness. Pruriency and that alone is gratified, and at the same time excited and intensified, by this kind of reading. Pure taste and virtuous inclination find nothing congenial in it, and respectable drawing-rooms should as sternly close their doors against it as they would against the characters that pervade it.

A. K. FISKE.

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.

No. CCLXXXV.

AUGUST, 1880.

RUINED CITIES OF CENTRAL AMERICA.

We have always thought it strange that, while the sources of the Nile or the exact topography of the north or south pole has excited wide and unwearied interest, the past of an American race which has left imperishable monuments of its vigor should, even among ourselves, have been viewed with comparative indifference. The story of the Spanish rule in America is familiarly known to all men. Even in England every schoolboy knows who imprisoned Montezuma and who strangled Atahualpa. But how many Americans of our day have any adequate conception of the stately edifices of monumental Mitla, or of Palenque, with its magnificent palace, its terraces and temples, its pyramids and sculptured ornaments? How many, indeed, have any knowledge whatever of the innumerable splendid relics which, having defied the havoc of time, still crowd the entire nucleus of New Spain, and speak to us so eloquently of a noble culture, reaching back far beyond the conquest. Yet it might have been expected that every American who takes an interest in the history of this continent, or even in the history of the human race, would be curious to know who reared the stately structures which, in importance, far surpass any found in the land of Montezuma. More, no doubt, would be known to us of a territory so full of interest and so close at hand, but for the untimely end of the distinguished traveler John L. Stephens, the lax manner in which the work has been since conducted, and the consequent VOL. CXXXI.-NO. 285.

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ebb in popular interest. It would, however, be unjust to criticise with severity a work which demands more ample means and support than have hitherto been accorded to any of the numerous individuals who have purposed the exploration of these mysterious regions. But we are happy that it should now be in our power to signalize the departure of an expedition to Central America which it is hoped will, through the united efforts of a munificent gentleman and two powerful governments, not only win the good will and support of the local authorities, but also have at its disposal the necessary funds for the proper conduct of such an enterprise.

The expedition will have for its object a systematic investigation of the so-called "ruined cities" and other remains of ancient civilization in Central America and Mexico. It is dispatched under the joint auspices of the Governments of the United States and France. The expense will be jointly defrayed by Mr. Pierre Lorillard, of New York, the original promoter of the undertaking, and by the French Government. The expedition is under the charge of M. Désiré Charnay. It is thoroughly equipped, and comprises an efficient staff. The means are provided not only of photographing bas-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions, but of making careful casts of them by the process of M. Lotin de Laval. Copies of these casts will first be presented to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, and to the French Government-the latter collection to be permanently preserved in the Trocadéro of Paris. The collection and preservation of these casts will be one of the most distinctive and valuable features of the present enterprise, offering, as they will, to students of all countries, an ample field for investigation, and possibly the materials requisite for a solution of the linguistic problem. The exploring party will visit Mount Alban, Mitla, Palenque, and other great centers of ancient civilization. Its route will lie through Oaxaca, Tehuantepec, and Guatemala, terminating in the peninsula of Yucatan, where the ground is to a great extent fresh. Among the untamable Mayas and other warlike tribes where it is only possible to travel safely in armed force, the party will be able to secure a guard one hundred strong. From an expedition which is favored by such varied advantages, it is hardly unreasonable to expect many valuable and interesting accessions to our knowledge of the ancient and contemporary races of Central America.

Although the idea of equipping such an expedition has for many years been entertained by Mr. Lorillard, yet not only was