Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1856-04-12
Books.

Books.
1t is not every book that should be placed upor
the shelves of every school or family library. "AI
ispot gold that glitters," and book is not to be
perused and studied simply because it is such
There is a spurious literature as well as spurious
coin. There may be poison in book as well as in
flower. Nor is there any way in which what is
deadly can be brought to US so secretly, nay, Sc
temptnglv, as in some well written volume which,
throughout shows the power of the writer. Vice
would repel us, could see its real form and its
own native ugliness, and the principle Of false
morality would be repudated by every rght-hearted
man, were they presented as they truly are. But
when what is vile is introduced to u.s. gracefully in
the person Of some gifted woman, figuring as the
chief character in the scene, and acting her part
to admiration, we lose sight of sin, which is
indeed the prma donna in the play, and fall in love
with what is sinful. This is, indeed, just one OBJ
lection to the drama, and to the very many works
of fiction that their prominent characters are either
the impersonation of some cherished vice, or at
least its disguised apologist Popular writer's could
be named whose most admired works are confess
edly the most immoral. No such books should
have place in any school or family library. 1t
matters not that they come to Us commended by
all the graces of aultless style, sparkling with
poetic beauties, or that the hero heroine adds to
all personal accomplishments, the higher charms Of
cultivated and gifted mind. All this is as moth
ing while the book is the offspring Of spirit de-
PRAYED. The more attractive any such book the
more should it be suppressed. The greater the
power Of bad man Of talents, the deeper the OBJ
security that should conceal him, and the greater
the physical discomforts with which he should be
called to struggle.
No one would put into his bosom the Tarantula
because its beauties were golden, when they knew
that its bite was death. The rankest poison may
be gided over Falsehood may be made more
palatable than Truth. Vice may seem more at
tractve in its merorous dress than Morality in its
asserted sternness. Nor can we doubt that the
enemy, finding others attempts but partially sue
cessful, makes trial of vicious literature with
wonderful effect. ...
Nothing, therefore, can be of greater importance
to any community than the morality Of the Gospel
should leaven it's literature. Books, or the men
who conceive, them are, in fact the rulers of soci
ETY.. They carry with them power, and the liv-
ing, burning thoughts they bear make their way
where nothing else can go. Let US but have the
talent to write what the will read and credit
and we will defy the force Of legislative enactment
to neutralize our powers Hence the importance
may be seen Of inspiring our youth not less with a
love for what is pure than loahng for that which
isopposte. Rather send the plague than circulate
volume which robes vice in an attractive dress,
and which panders to the looser appettes of the
human heart.
Open in this town public school library, the
shelves Of which shall groan with the works (phi-
losophieaD of Hume, or of Voltaire, or Fielding,
or James, and no more is needed to determine the
future Of at least portion Of the community. Or
feed your young people with what is purely ficti-
tious, and we pledge you what is vapid and WIS.,
ionary, and valueless, when they are come to ma
turity.
IL 4
we shall have either dwarfs, or men spiritually
deformed by giving to the deathless nature such
food as we have referred to- 1t becomes, then, a
question what books should be allowed place in
public and private libraries. We do not presume
to answer this question but very partially. We
would by no means exclude all works Of fiction.
There is a certain class of minds which absolutely
require these.
We have listened to gifted men in the pulpit and
at the bar whose discoruses were as barren of
images as Henry Ward Beecher's and Theodore
Parkers sermons are Of religion Such minds,
whether young or mature, would gain by reading
what was imaginative. And there are imaginative
works Of which the tendency is good, and the
morality unexceptonable. Such are the tales of
Maria Edgeworth, or Of Charlotte Elizabeth, the
works Of Grace Aguilar, Of Henry Kirke White,
and many others. AL these impress morally while
they please. The emotions they excite have no
affinity with what is sinful. But worse than use
less is most of our modern light literature. Light
indeed it is and hurul at the same time, as pastry
that Is pulled and painted IT'S poison to the mind
Many school directors and parents never for .
moment think what an agency they are introducing
into the schoolroom or family circle in the shape
Of Ebrary-an agency either for extensive good
or equally extensive evil. The influence put forth
cannot be ordinary. You are opening fountain
whose streams must flow either to purify and fer
tilise Or 70 corrupt and desolate. You are setting
in motion series Of causes which shall operate
who shah say how widely and how long: Vice
that i feeble now and anguishing for its proper
aliment may through want Of seasonable caution,
find it in the books Of your selection. Many 4
youth has learned to wander and found out where |
we're the asserted pleasures Of sin, through the
misguided judgment Of men who select food for
the mind. There are noble spirits who spurn con-
tamnation of grosser evil that are charmed by |
the fancies and carried captive BY the brilliant par
agraphs Of some author, whose talents are prosti-
tuted to the service Of infdelity There is no such
earthly heaven 70 merely intellectual and medi
tative man as well stocked library. He hungen