like the holy books of the Hebrews, expressions "plainly
descriptive of natural situations;" and it treats in an
unconventionally free and naked manner of subjects and matters
which are usually, by common consent, left undescribed. As Sir
William Jones observed long ago, "that anything natural can be
offensively obscene never seems to have occurred to the Indians
or to their legislators; a singularity (?) pervading their
writings and conversation, but no proof of moral depravity."
Another justly observes, Les peuples primitifs n'y entendent pas
malice: ils appellent les choses par leurs noms et ne trouvent
pas condamnable ce qui est naturel. And they are prying as
children. For instance the European novelist marries off his hero
and heroine and leaves them to consummate marriage in privacy;
even Tom Jones has the decency to bolt the door. But the Eastern
story teller, especially this unknown "prose Shakespeare," must
usher you, with a flourish, into the bridal chamber and narrate
to you, with infinite gusto, everything he sees and hears. Again
we must remember that grossness and indecency, in fact les
turpitudes, are matters of time and place; what is offensive in
England is not so in Egypt; what scandalises us now would have
been a tame joke tempore Elisoe. Withal The Nights will not be
found in this matter coarser than many passages of Shakespeare,
Sterne, and Swift, and their uncleanness rarely attains the
perfection of Alcofribas Naiser, "divin maitre et atroce cochon."
The other element is absolute obscenity, sometimes, but not
always, tempered by wit, humour and drollery; here we have an
exaggeration of Petronius Arbiter, the handiwork of writers whose
ancestry, the most religious and the most debauched of mankind,
practised every abomination before the shrine of the Canopic
Gods.