Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1838-03-07
MORAL REFORM.

IVA " ~ IA ~ H II ~ IA
From the Advocate of Moral Reform
NOVEL READING.
"A Novel was a book
Three volum'd, and once read & Oft crammed full
Of poisonous error, black ming every page:
And oftener still Of trtling second hand
Remark. and OLD, diseased. putrid thought,
And miserable incident. at war
With nature: with itself and truth at war.
POLLOK.
If the above description of a novel is
correct, what fruitful source Of corrup-
ton must be found ia the shoal OF similar
publications which are daily issuing from
the press The man, or woman, who
can do nothing else, who is too proud to
dig and ashamed to beg, can, at least,
compound tie standing ingredients which
constitute novel, and send it out to the
world to serve as a stepping stone to fame
and fortune. True, most Of these ephem
eraI productions die as soon as they see
the light. but their place is instantly sup
piled with others, 80 that the market is
kept constantly full.
TO the rejecting mind there is some.
thing extremel Y painful in the rage for
fiction that every where prevails. From
the child in the nursery, who is reading
with delight the wonderful adventures of
The Scottish Orphans" to the man Of
grey hairs. who is inteutly perusing Bull
wers last novel," hundreds and thousands
in every walk Of life are daily wasting
their brief and precious hours in thi,
worse than useless employment. AL
most every department OF literature is af'
fecteI by the universal mania; for book
will stand but little chance of being read,
unless it par:akes 10 some degree of this
style of writing. Works on science, lit
erature. and religion, if not written in the
popular style-that is, the thoughts so d.
luted as to require no mental exertion.-
are thrown aside as insufferably dull and
tedious. The effect Of this state Of things,
on intellectual eminence is most disas-
trous The reasoning faculty is weaken
ed, the memory impaired. the habit OF
close thinking destroyed, and the mind
becomes unable 10 graspany subject which
requires close search and accurate inves-
tigation. 1t may we'll be said of novels
and their admirers, in the words Of the
prophet, He feedeth on dshes-a deceiv-
ed heart hath turned him aside'
But the effect of novel reading on the
intellect is by no means the worst feature
OF the case. 1t poisons the fountains OF
moral feeling, and corrupts the heart
breaks down the strongest barriers Of vii =
tue, and prepares the way for every crime
The charge may seem harsh to many,
but we are well prepared TO sustain it.
All novels, we are aware, are not alike
injurious. One generic fault, if we may
be allowed the expression, that ofconfound.
ing truth with fdlsehood, is common to
them all but the specific differences are
very great. There is the historical nov
81, which may be free from immortality
but which so distorts and caricatures the
facts of history that real and unreal ina,
ges are all blended together in the micd.
There is the yeltgious novel, which has
stolen the livery of Christ to do the work
of the prince of darkness; and there is
the domestic novel, which comes so d.
rectIy home to our hearts and hearths that
we can hardly disapprove its character, in
consideration of its object. But there is
still another class of novels, for which we
can find no distinctive appelIa'ion, that will
convey an adequate idea of their poison
Gus and corrupting character. Those
who have read Bulwer's novels will know
at once to what we aIIule; but to those
who are happily ignorant Of them, we
despair OF fully conveying our meaning
for we shrink from polluting our pages
with specimens Of their revolving impuri
ty. Indeed, RIGHTEOUSNESS and its kindred
vices are so interviewer into the very tex
ture Of these works (which are going the
round Of the fashionable worldly that i,
would be far easier to extract the unex'
ceptionable passages than those which are
openly and decidedly immoral. His he
roes are all either cool philosophisiug wiz
aims, who rob and murder with the Ut
lmost sang froid, or sentimental dreamers.
who talk eIoquentIy of virtue while they
are practising the grossest vices. Every
moral obligation is tranpled under foot by
his imaginary characters, who are all ap.
parentIy drawn from one great model
that of the being who " has power to trans
form himself into an angel Of light"
1t seems to US impossible that this man
and others of his class, can have any idea
OF what female rirtae really is. They
evident y regard woman as the mere play
thing Of the other sex, and her excellence
consists in the flcuhy of loving to distrac-
ton. and her willingness to sacrifice eve,
ry thing dear or valuable in character and
), prospects to the object beloved A Ma
hometan paradise would be just suited to
1.-THE men and women who figure 10 these
pages. though the morality they inculcatt
o. falls below even that Of tbs Koran.