Books, Culture and Character (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

Published in 1906, this collection of speeches constitutes a forceful polemic for judging art, and literary art in particular, by a Judeo-Christian moral compass. The author warns against the doctrine of "e;art for art's sake,"e; finding that its true aim is "e;to put something ignoble in the place of what should be noble; something vulgar or something vile in the place of what should be wholly pure or wholly fine."e;