Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-01-23
From the Georgia Home GazeLte.
Reading.

= 81
While, perhaps, there Is no means of acquiring
knowledge equal in importance to reading, there
is no source of information more abused and per-
.verted from what should be its greet object and
, end Reading is resorted to for amusement and
instruction. There can be no reasonable ohjec-
ztion to the frst where pleasure and profit are
combined. There are many works, however,
which when read afford no instruction. OF
course, the time devoted to them, IS utterly
thrown away. But when in addition to lost time
is superadded false impressions, dangerous excite
ments, and improper tendencies, the Importance
of guarding the young mind by judicious Sc
lection of authors is too plain to be overlooked.
=. We. called the attention not long since, to
those who had the control of youth, to the ne
cessity of protecting them against the effects of
vicious books 1t is not our object, now, to treat
upon the same subject. 1t is rather to offer :;
few reflections upon the best methods Of improve
ment by reading. Whatever culti"ates tn"
taste, enriches the fancy, enlarges thought, i'm
proves the Judgment and stores the mind with
useful facts, is not admissible into our libraries,
but worthy of being placed in the hands of the
Young. Some of our best writers have so min.
gled injurious fiction, doubtful morality, captiva
ting vice, into their pages, that they are only
proper for those whose morals and jud gments
have been natural. Such persons can separate
the good from the evil. They think for them
selves, and are not liable to b" mised. With
them the passions sleep beneath the power Of
controlling truth. But such is not the cas-" with
the young. They cannot experience the vivid,
graphic, and soul-stirrng descriptions Of love and
hate, of revenge and despair, of passionate s@nt-
ment and dreamy romance, SO common n nov
els, and the various works Of fiction, without be-
inr misled or captivated by them. But the
young and susceptible mind, unguarded by cX-
perience and npened observation and reflection,
drinks in their wild and corrupting scntimcntnij-
tv, and becomes often biassed for life into forbid
den paths of thought and the baleful gardens Of
corrupt and dangerous imaginations.
As a general rule, indiscriminate novel reading
is injurious to those whose minds are unScaSon-
ed by experience first, because they create Il
.sickly sentimentality incompatible" with vigorous
mental growth and healthy action, and second
", because they invariably destroy or impair a
taste for the pursuit of useful and solid invcst!
cation. History becomes dull and insipid to one
whose taste has been moulded into the channel
of luxurious verse, or the captivating walks Of
seductive fiction. He can see but little beauty
inthe substantial fields of useful facts and lifcs
realities, when a thousand fragrant odorS bnwiI-
der his senses amidst the flowers Of romance.
There are thousands of persons who have read
more volumes than the best scholars and the
most leaned savans, who nevertheless have nci-
ther the accomplishments of the first nor the
useful knowledge of the second. And why BE-
cause history philosophy, moral essays and other
departments of reading and learning, hayr b.
come forbdding in their insipidity, duncss and
difficulty of comprehensoon. What waste Of
time, what a dissipation of mental power, per-
haps Of high intellectual cnlowmcnts.
These are matters ofimportancc. Thcyshoull
not escape the attention Of parents. 1t is not
for us to point out what books should b. ad
by youth and what avoided, but we would cx-
press the opinion that there is more valuable i'll
formation to be derived from those good old vol
umes of the Rambler and the Spectator, than
nearly all the novels put together which crowd
the shelves Of our libraries. Sho';ld it BE- said
that youth must have something t. relieve their
minds from the graver studies, reply that We
can find it in wcll-written histories, useful travels,
pleasing biographies, the classics, modern as well
as ancient, fictions Of judicious selection and in
other branches Of polite and valuable literature.
When confined to these, they afford as many
charms, both from the necessity which exists for
mental food and their abstract and real merits,
as can be found in the less legitimate walks Of
Literature.
We will suppose now that the most suitable