The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-10-23
MODERN LITERATURE.
Some Comparisons Made-Are There Any
Demoralizlpg Effects at worke

Some Comparisons Made-Are There Any
Demoralizing Effects at work9
There seems to be a wide difference
now in the tastes of people as compared
with a century or two ago, or even a half
century back. The course of study laid
out for the youth, although good, is too
extensive for many. The Latin and the
Greek are laid aside as unnecessary and
a waste OF time by those who study them.
History has been supplanted by fiction
and that some of the worst sort. Many
who aspire to become authors, study
seemingly for no other purpose than to
be able to produce thrilling love story,
or one filled with bold adventures and i'm
possible undertakings. Hundreds of these
from the pens OF as many authors flood
the market and are eagerly devoured by
a large class of readers who are sometimes
ignorant of the most prominent facts in
the history of their own country. Many
magazines and periodicals have column
after column of these stories, written to
satisfy the popular cravings.
Histories and other valuable works lay
and mold upon the shelves for want of
readers-works, the study of which, fitted
Napoleon for the great work he afterward
the greatest generals and law-givers
of the world. While his companions
at school were indulging in all sorts of
pleasure, he was always alone, engaged
in storing his mind with such knowledge
as he could gain from works produced by
men who had lived centuries before him.
No work of fiction was admitted to his
study. Nothing but the most valuable
books, those containing great truths found
their way into his library. Iii said they
treat of things too remote; that we live in
a different age and ought to confine our
selves to living issues. Who can so well
comprehend and deal with living issues
as those who are familiar with the works
OF Scott, Addison, Irving, Guizot, Hume,
Gibbon, Byron, Milton, Burns, Moore,
Tennyson and Shakespeare Who is more
able to understand living issues than
those who are well versed in the histories
of those countries from their incipiency,
where could be seen every phase OF human
life and almost every form of human gov
eminent?
Much of modern literature or the litera-
ture of the present dav affords but little
means or produces but little material
out of which the statesman, the
jurist, the minister or the mechanic can
build foundation for future usefulness
We'll established laws and certain fixed
principles had their birth ages ago. From
them the present customs and maxims
were derived. From them the basis of
free and independent government were
laid. Fiction had no share in building
the present structure, and it can lay no
claim to the development of the great
minds which established it and have held
it together. Huxley, Darwin, Quiet and
IL. i Al.
few compared to the number who cling
TO works of fiction such as are found
in all book stores and news stands,
on all railway passenger trains, and in all
public libraries. In public libraries the
books mostly in demand can be easily
selected from others from their appear
ance. They are almost worn out and the
leaves are loosened by constant turning
So great is the demand for such literature,
that cheap editions flood the country
which satisfy the readers and will be but
little loss il destroyed. These are pur-
chased, read and then loaned to friend
and then read and loaned again. 1t
matters but little whether the book is re-
turned or not. New ones of the same sort
are bought and 60 through the same proc
ess. There is no thought of establishing
a library at home of standard works for
the benefit OF the younger generation.
They are permitted to read cheap,
worthless literature, which, if any
thing, destroys their taste for the right
kind and units them for taking that po-
sition in society designed for a mind
frightened by good reading. The young
son will secrete himself behind the barn
or in some secluded place away from the
danger OF admonition and read for hours
a cheap, worthless novel, while his
parents are at the same time reading-it
may be-a nicely bound book almost as
worthless in information, a romantic
story, bordering on tale of illicit love.
Many writers of the present day appar-
emily have no other object in view than
TO cater to the wishes and tastes OF those
who read cheap novels. No work tend
ing to instruct and brighten the ideas of
the youth, and which will furnish infor-
nation most useful in after life, ever finds
it's way before the public from their pens,
and one reason for this may be that it is
more lucrative to please this large class of
readers than to attempt to instruct them.
When our youths have finished school it
may be with thorough knowledge OF the
text book they have studied and it may
be with but a faint idea of what they have
gone over, if they are readers; they dive
headlong into work of fiction and read
for hours. They continue this course
until their minds are so crowded and over
whelmed that a strong desire to be par
ticpant in a similar scene in real life over
comes their better judgment. Many of
these novels are written after the style of
the Newgate novelists, who sought for
their heroes among thieves, desperadoes,
highwaymen and murderers, and much
of the French fiction of the nineteenth
century, the substance of which is vastly
immoral. The chiefs of English and
French fiction, Scott, Bulwer, Dickens,
Thackeray, Victor Hugo and Lamertine
have but few copyists. Their works, al
though read and appreciated. find few
readers compared to the number of those
who cling TO fashionable novelists.
PAUL DUNCAN MCDONALD.
Attica, Oct. IL.