OPERATION OF VIRILE SENTIMENT 161 



phone are not of the classical order ; they convey no 

 lofty thoughts, they do not appeal to the higher side 

 of man, and if they have any meaning at all, it is 

 that of a suggestive lewdness. The bad taste which 

 it all implies is accentuated by the fact that these dis- 

 plays occur on a Sunday morning. It is no extenua- 

 tion to urge that if certain people do not care to go to 

 church they are free to disturb the peace of the 

 Sabbath which other citizens hold sacred. They 

 have no more right to do it than has the Salvation 

 Army, with its nondescript and brazen band of civic 

 and moral weaklings, to render Sunday afternoon 

 hideous to eye and ear alike. The very fact that the 

 feelings of others have been in this blatant manner 

 disregarded is simply another form of bad taste 

 superimposed upon the first. Will Dr. Cobbett tell 

 us why these people manifest such bad taste ? He 

 cannot plead in these cases the misery of their lot, the 

 poverty of their lives, or the absence of decent people 

 among their acquaintances. None of these things 

 explain it. It is not Parliament, nor the Priest, nor 

 ignorance, nor the absence of all accessories which 

 relate to culture, nor a vicious social environment. 

 It is the inherent obtuseness in regard to matters 

 of taste of the persons concerned. Their lack 

 of good taste is inborn. A momentary look at 

 their faces and deportment is by itself sufficient 

 evidence, for from the hungry Hon and the wolf up to 

 Man, Nature frequently implants her meaning 

 on the physiognomy and the motions of her 

 higher forms of life. 



