The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1858-07-22
Letter from Rrynn.

bRYAN, July ~, lS06
FRrrND HroafNs II have just finished read
ing novel, the first | have perused during
years. After laying down the book, and en-
deovoring by reflection to Gull whatever of good
might have observed in it, my thoughts nvol-
unfairly wandered through other fields and
dwelt upon other themes. My musings were
something like the following:
A great change has taken place within twenty
Ave years, as we'll in the reading taste Of our
people as in the character of the productions is
suing from the press. The latter perhaps has
modified and controlled the former Twenty
fve years ago, such works as tho Brdgewater
Treaties, the writings of Irving, Cooper, Scott,
Byron, Pope, Shakespeare, Milton, Young, Glib
bon. Hume, Rolln, Josephus &c., were popu-
lar and in general demand All these evincod
patient research and profound thought and their
perusal was calculated to expand and nvigorate
the mind and purify the heart. II is seldom
that we now hear either Of these works mention
ed, and some OF them have almost faded from
public recollection. We sometimes find them
IN gentleman's library, but they are not there
to be read. but 10 fill out shelf, or to acquire
for their owner, by their silent presence, repu-
ta,on of literary taste and attainment. They
are purchased by the ignorant-rich to crafty a
silly vanity.
But the mental aiment Of the present day
consists chiefly of newspaper articles, and the
most flimsy and epbemeral productions of fic.
tion. Think, Mr. Editor, and count upon your
fingers, how many Of your acquainances read
even one book in the course of year, requiring
thought and .efeotion to its due comprehension.
Are they not few, very few7 And how small
the number even Of those who have patience to
read an ordinary sized novel; The most of those
who read anything beyond news and business
paragraphs, are content with the little stories
they find on the outside of country news
paper. Each of the stories Of Scott, Marryatt,
Bulwer, Irving, Cooper, &c, were written to
teach some great moral lesson, or to "open new
fountains in the human heart" or to delineate
the habits, manners, customs and modes of
thought of past ages and people, or to effect
if possible some desirable reform in human pur-
suits; and upon almost every page of their
writings we can find evidences Of laborious in
vestigation and deep meditation. We arise
know more than we did when we sat down.
They have opened new vstas to the contem-
plation of the mind, have awakened higher am-
btions i'll the heart, have called new purposes
into being and the reader goes forth resolved to
become greater and better man.
But how is it with the little stories before
alluded TO, and with the more preten,ious nov.
els OF the present day? They are written evil
IDENTIFY, without any great or distinct object be-
fore the mind Of the writer, other perhaps than
desire to make money, and hence we find in
them little beside ilippant, gossipping colloquy
and gaudy yer.strained description. We arise
from the intellectual banquet more unsatisfied
than when we sat down. Yet the reading taste
of our people runs in this direction, content TO
feed on garbage.
Another evidence of this vitiated taste is to
be found in the fact, that so few, very few of
our young men seeking to collect libraries of
useful books, or indeed Of any books There
ara two or three excellent miscellaneous libra
ries in your town, especially those of James
Murray Asher Cook and J. s. Norton, but be-
sides these scarcely know one in N. w. Ohio
There are however many other young men, both
in Perrysburg and other towns in this region
who have the means to supply themselves with
goodly number of choice books, but they lack
the desire to do so their minds never having
been sufficiently aroused and enlightened BY
knowledge They are content with the wishy-
washy stuff found in yellow covers and called
polite literature, and with the Bluebeard stories
and namby painby trash found in the New York
LeGger. But when we see young man gather
ing good books, standard works, and know that
he studies them, we may reasonably conclude
that he will have a future; that he will be
known, but not because his fathers were," and
that he will finally descend, like the shock fully
rpe leaving the world the better for his having
been in it, X.