Litchfield enquirer., 1834-01-16
FoR raE LITenFHELD ENouIRER.
ON FICTION.


 i till your eyes dim; you may it till your fans cy Is intoxicated and bewdered; you may admire it Ill you are entraRced wh the frantic joy Of the niac but reach forth your hand grasp it. and it mei,s away ike ke bAseIess fabric of visiOn" It has no subsiauce--nO reality. Array it in its mOst gOrgeOus cOIOrng, adOrn it with the rappngs of royal pageantry cloIhe t with rainbow hues woven in the air-oom Ot Genius but strip Of all it's borrowed tin- selling, its cap of folly and its pain,ed mnsk, and what is Ia naked, deiormed md ghastly skelston with out life, without pOwerdeiestaLle, hdeOus horrible.
 And is this the creature whom so many of the pre- sent age would advocate possessing qualities cara ble of inssrucIing enlightening and moralizng the world ?-hs bediSzened harIot-llfis tile sOrceress this mockihg pagean,-shall sEe usurp the place of pure, simple, unadulteFaied truth?
 But, say her admirers, Fiction powerfully aids the efforts ofIhe orator and the poet. This deny. The orator and the poet derive their highest gifts from ture. Genuine eoquence well real poetry, must be based upon the immutable laws of truth. What ever is unnatural oversraned in their productions, appears weak, puesiIe and coneraptihle. So far as they deviate from nature, they have claim emi hence. The ini,n,able poem of Thomson's Seasons is pregnant with truth. He seldom wanders in the of fiction; but paints the beau,ifal scenes of Nature precisely as he saw them. Nothing is over- strained; al is tn perfect harmony with nature she is. no, fiction woud represent her be. No min- iser in the pulpit preached such powerful gospel truths as Young in his Night Though,s;" none ever described the benign features of religion with terIy hand as the amiable poet Cowper. No poet, ancient modern, ever breathed more ienderly the songs of natures simplicity, poured them forth with truer pa,los than Robert Burns. And none of these poets be strictly called fictitious writers.
 1t was the romantic madness of Homer's fiery epic that reused Alexander to conquer and desoIate the world. It was the stern and savage strains of Ossian that gaveto Napoleon his dark and impetuous spirt when he sgrode over the bood-siained fields of Eu- rope. and sarveyed with composure the slaughtered millions whose necks he ascended the throne of ambition Those spirited geniuses the intimate companions of these two sanguinary madmen. who could have been satisfied fthe blood of the whole earth had been poured beneath their feet. They read them, they committed them memory and with their swords beneath them, they placed those authors under their pillows to dream of the morrows conflict the thunder of battle, and the carnage of the mighty. Such of the effects of fiction wrought up into an idol Juggernaut, by the master hand of infatuated Genius.
 Of the orators it may be said, that Demosheaes, Cicero, Erskinc, Curran, Pitt, and Henry, despised the adven,itious aid of Fiction. They stood forth the bold and unwavering champions of Truth; and it was 10 her they owed their power and greatness. Had they descended from their lofty stand in the forum embrace the false eDchaniress Fiction, they would have heen hssed a, and scorned by indignant pub lie. The orator who misrepresen,s and perverts the truth is aa@Orhy Of essPem and conidence.* Was il fiction that made haughty Felix trenkae his throne '? No--it was the divine energy-ihe native jesty ofiruh It truth alone that gave the gospel all its power and efficacy. Clothed tn its holy pano- ply, the ambassadors oi Heaven, few in number, with. out wealth, mostly simple and uneducaied fishermen, contended against principalties and powers and do minions and gained bioodess victory; while on the other hand the arch imposier Mahomet, arrayed in the garb of fiction, carried his absurd doctrines Of sensual paradise, through seas of blood, with the sword of the warrior, and the fire of hell.
 But we may be told that fictitious narra,ions give the reader correct knowledge of human nature aDd of character This argument cannot be fully sustain ed. Fiction seldom portrays characters as they actu ally exist h invests them with qualities they do possess. It magn6es their virtues beyond all bounds of reasan and paints their vices in the colors of de- mons. IT correct knowledge of human nature can be obtained mus. be gathered from intercourse with osf fel"w ks6gs from the pages of history, and more especially ltpn' ,He Bible. Whoever applies to this latter source eoi Divine Truth for nslrucon caa. not De msled.
 Away then with Fiction. Is the present generation composed of children, that they must be pamPered with Gsiver and Siuisd aud Munchausen stories to the neglect of sound and substantial facts? No-I oice that tie present. notwithstanding all it's faults, is an age of untring effort devel"pe principles in the sciences and io search for truth in all the depart ments learning for hidden treasures" Le, the advocates of novels and romances pore over their fashy contents till taeir eyes grow dim Tel, them mis- spend their precious hours n learning sicky senti men,alsm; ia nof:iing themselves for all the s,sr.sv duties Oflfe; in huzzing about the ears cf the affected coqueue; they have my piy-I will no, say scorn.'
 Give me solitary draught from the pure well Of Truth, and let the intoxicated revellers of Fiction drink deep finer Circesn cup, envy not their enjoy men; for, at iasi they will assuredy fnd that " iDiteih like serpent, and sngeth like adder" Can they be % foolish as pursue the shadow, and lose the substance?
 So satisfied were the municipal authorities of Paris of the evil tendency of works of 6cton, tparticuary those of Sir Walter Scou,) upon the minds ofyoung females that they issued edici, forbdding them 10 he read. And many of insanity were meniion- c.~ro shn;r rerusal The nh; nhin