The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01Brann, William Cowper
General
The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
patiently investigated the story of the great orator's flight,
and am fully convinced that it was a foul political falsehood,
just as the current story of Col. Ingersoll's cowardice and
capture is a religious lie.
Of course society has to make an occasional example and
its moral maleficence, like death, loved a shining mark. It
damned Breckinridge for getting tangled up with a desiring
maid in a closed carriage, and relegated him to the political
wilderness, yet twice elevated to the presidency the most
disreputable old Falstaff that ever vibrated between cheap
beer joints and ham-fatted old washerwomen who smelled
of stale soap-suds and undeodorized diapers. Cleveland
"told the truth"--when he had to--and was made a little tin
Jesus of by the moral jabberwocks; Breckinridge, an
infinitely better and brainier man, 'fessed up--and
couldn't go to Congress from the studhorse district of
Kentucky. When society goes hunting for scapegoats it
usually manages to get a gnat lodged in its esophagus
while relegating a mangy dromedary to its internal
economy.
Such are the conditions which prevail to-day; but I am far
from agreeing with the dictum of Pope that "whatever is, is
right." Had the world ever proceeded on that principle we
would still be honoring robbers and liars, thieves and
polygamists. The wider license accorded man harmonizes
neither with divine law, decency nor the canons of common
sense. We place womanly virtue on a pedestal and
worship it while tacitly encouraging men to destroy it. We
overlook the fact that a man cannot fracture the Seventh
Commandment without considerable assistance. We
should adopt a loftier standard of morality, nobler ideals for
men. Because he is more earthly than woman it does not
follow that he should be made altogether of muck. He has
made some little progress since the days of Judah and
Tamar, David and Bathsheba. He no longer consorts with
courtesans on the public highway, nor pens up half a
hundred wives in a harem, then goes broke buying
concubines. He has learned that there is such a thing as
shame, assumes a virtue though he has it not, seeks to
conceal his concupiscence. What in one age society drives
to a semblance of concealment in the next it brands as
criminal, hence we may hope that at no distant day the
single standard of morals will become more than an
irridescent dream--that Josephs will not be confined
altogether to gum-chewing members of the Y.M.C.A. We
may eventually reach that moral plain where the male
debauchee will be considered a moral outcast; but the time
is not yet, and until its advent illicit commerce will continue
to be more demoralizing to women than to men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account