Winchester gazette. [volume] (Winchester, Va.) 18??-1826, 1821-10-20
THE READING OF NOVELS.

Out iouSudSos may no teau WIN tu0O-
cence aud safety. The novels Of
Fielding, of Richardson, and Of Rad
cliffe, no man of taste will peruse with
out pleasure, and no mao VI reflection
without Improvement. But far differ
ent from these, are the volumes which
usually crowd the shelves Of circu-
tating library, or are seen tumbling on
the soPhas Of fashionable drawing
room tits not the occasional perusal Of
the best, but the habitual reading Of the
worst, which it is the wish Of every
wise aud good man to censsre and re.
strain. Not few of these, instead Of
possessing that ease, perspicuity, and
elegance of style, which should seem
essential to lighter compositions, aud
works intended only for amusement,
are so defective in the common proper
ties OF expression, and even the ordina-
~ rules oil grammar, that they cannot
fail to corrupt the language aud de-
prave the taste of all who bestow their
time and attention upon them.--The
authors of others seem ambitious, on e.
| very occasion, TO introduce, not only
foreign idioms and praseology, end the
! inflated efflorescencs Of Gallo ara;ory,
but such cslloquial terms and sentences
from Frrach writers, as they would
persuade US, convey their ideas with
greater force or perspicuity, than any
expression which our own defective
language can supply. The real mo-
tive Of the writer is, probably nothing
more than the eontemptibls aifectation
of superior learning; but the practice
has an obvious tendency to corrupt the
purity and destroy The character Of our
English d:ction, aud rs far IS il il in
the power Of npve!lists TO effect it. to
reduce us to babble dialect Of France.
Some OF these publications betrsy such
iax'ty III their doctrines Of morality,
and exhibit such u iicentiousness Of
sentiment and description, as cannot
fail to inilame the passions, which they
ought to restrain, and TO undermine
the virtue, which they profess to sup
port. Others are made the vehicle Of
principles, hostile to our civil aud ec-
clasiastical establishments. A still
greater because more general fault,
is the misrepvesenta ion OF human cha
raciers aud human life. Love, resist
less love, is there considered As The ge.
neral agent in terrestrial lraDsa ctionr;
as the suie distributor OF good and evil.
of happiness and misery, to mankind.
Personal attachment conceived at sight.
aad matUred in a moment, bears down
alike the distinctions of rank and the
maxins Of prudence; and by the magic
nf no 81
daughter Of The eottager is exalted in
to countess, and the laborer at the
anvil or the mine, soem graers the
court aud The drawing-room. I lie he.
ro and the heroine are involved in dis-
fress in which no other mortals ever
were involved, and generally delivered
by means by which none but themselves
ever were delivered. They are, how-
ever, always married at last, and at
tain, in the possession Of each other,
such happiness as no human being ever
yet attained, aud such as Nature and
Providence, with all their bounty, ne
yer will bestow.
BY the constant perusal of narratives
OF this description, the youth of boil,
sexes are encouraged TO cherish expec-
tations that never can De realized, and
to form notions Of each other, which
painful experience will every day re-
flute. The mind too, by exercising on.
iy it weaker powers, becomes ener.
waited and enfeeb!ed, Gisgusted with
the tumult Of business, or the rough
ness Of contradiction, the most vaiIa,
BILE segson of life is spent in the sport
Of musing, instead of the labor Of think
ing, in The indulgence Of The fairy vi
sions of hope, and the reveries of per-
veried Imagination, instead Of the pur-
suit of science, The formation Of max
i,hs of wisdom, and The establishment
.of1he principles of moral duty.
The votes of the Jndieious are, we
doubt not, against that folly, so fasci-
mating and SO fashionable, Of novel.
reading; bat the practice Of The maio-
rity is clearIy on the other side; and a
& inst measures, which they can mel
Their approve nor prevent, all tina, the
minority can perform is to assert the
arguments of truth, and to enter the
protest Of Reproduction.
POTATOES On the best mode Of
preserving Potatoes to retain their IA