The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-10-04
THE NOVEL-READING DISEASE.
From the London Examiner,


Physicians are familiar with o complaint
no name OF Its own. The patient suffers from
an alarming and morbid thirst. and consumes q
perfectly fabulous amount OF fluid, almost al.
ways ofan unwholesome nature. Tea In highly
diluted shape, eau Sucree, raspberry vinegar
and water, soda water, or some other such
abominabe mess, is taken by the gallon, and
the unnatural craving Is stimulated by indul-
rence. Wholesome food is refused; no exer-
else is taken, and the patient finally sinks into
a iabby and sckly condition, which nothing
but severe and determined treatment will
shake of. This dropscal habit Of body finds
its exact analogue In the species OF mental
dropsy which is produced by over-indulgence
In three-volumed novels. This terrible COM
plant is one of the worst evils which modern
civilization has brought with 1t. Its progress
is gradual very insidious, and often
almost lmperceptible. At first all that is noticed
Is that the sufferer Is apt to be found bent
over novel at unnatural hours-as, say, In
The early morning, or In the middle OF beau
tiful summers afternoon. Soon, however, the
disease becomes more pronounced, and IN It's
wo st stages novels are got through at the
at an average, In O severe and chronic case, OF
some two hundred and fifty or three hundred
a year. AT first some discrimination Is exer.
cised, and one writer Is, perhaps, preferred to
another-Mr. Trollope, say, TO Mrs. Ross
Church, or "Oulda" to the author Of "Guy
Livingstone" Very soon, however, the taste
becomes deadened and blunted, aud all power
of distinction and appreciation Is lost. 1n this
stage, the unhappy patient can no more 60
without her novel than can confirmed dipso-
maniac without his dram. The smaller clrcu-
lating libraries, which lend out very second
hand novels indeed at penny o volume, are
put under contribution, and any amount OF
garbage Is swalloWed wholesale. Quality IS
held absolutely Of of8dAimportance, and quanti-
ly lie everything. Yhe very process OF read.
ing becomes more or less mechanical, and
seems to afford species OF mechaniGa! sa
pleasure or satisfaction, novel OF the
ieeblest possible type being read as religlously
from cover to cover, and yielding apparently
as much enjoyment as II 1t we're second
"Romola." It Is no uncommon thing Tor
young lady, in whom the complaint has as
sumed chronic form, to have read the whole
of Scott, the whole OF Thackreay, the whole
OF Dickens, the whole Of Trollope, the whole
of Annie Thomas, the whole of Mrs. Ross
Church, the whole of Miss Braddon, the whole
of Lawrence, and, into the bargain, some four
or FIVE hundred novels by less famous hands.
When the disease Is thus confirmed, the drop
sical habit OF mind becomes apparent. The
conversation OF the patient becomes dabby
and limp. Her interest In all ordinary SUBJ
Iects-exceps, perhaps, The latest fashions, or
the more scandalous portions of evidence In
Princess Beatrice -flickers ieebly in the socket.
and finally dies out. The last stage-that OF
absolute imbeclllty-is now, unless very pow
ertul remedies are exhibited, o mere matter OF
time.
So much for the symptoms or diagnosis of the
disease. It's prognosis depends greatly upon
the natural constitution OF the patient; but is,
nh "
treatment has been adopted, and has appa-
rently effected q radical cure, there is always
danger of q serious relapse. And even Ii the
cure be permanent, the patient Is none the
less permanently enfeebled. and will always
remain incapable OF any severe or protracted
mental exertion. II is, indeed, upon the
whole. unwlse to encourage delusiye hopes of
complete cure. The disease Is as obscure, as
insidious, and as little capable of control as Is
softening of the brain itself; and 1t is doubtful
whether we ever do more than for while to
arrest its course. What Is most sad, Is the self
deception of the patient herself, which Is very
analogous to that of the habltual drnnkard.
She is, as rule, perfectly convinced that her
evil habit is under her own control; that she
never open novel again. She is. indeed,
fruitful In such good resolutions; but If any at
tempt is made to secure total abstinence even
for day, she will resort to sublerluges as pit
uul as those to which dipsomanlac will have
recourse II deprived OF his accustomed dram,
and will tell any falsehoods, or liss any
evasion, rather than struggle with the crav-
ings of her diseased appetite. In such hope
less cases. even the most judiclous 1rmness Is
OF very little avail.
It is too clear, unfortunately, why 1t Is that
30 many women TINS waste their time and rot
their minds They read novels, exactly as
some Young men smoke and drink bitter beer,
for sheer want of something to do. What q
woman needs is an education which shall ena-
HE her to read and follow the parliamentary
debates instead of the police and divorce re-
norts: and. when women are thus educated,
then feeble novels and feeble noveists will
yex our souls no longer to the horrible extent
to which they lrritate US at present Or sucn
an education We may say that 1t Is not to be
got in books, unless, indeed, books can give
sound, healthy common-sense, and wholesome
interest In common subjects. But men can
give 1t by making the women OF their family
their companions; and that they should negleeC
to rive 1t, shows, differ all, how inVeterately
deep-seated is the extraordinary notion tnal
the intellectual difference between men ana
women is one of kind and not OF degree.