The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-26

Dickens, not to speak of lesser lights. must be read with some allowance for ccloring predelections and prejudioes. Scott Is not just to the Covenanter. in our judgment, and Dickens religious characters are uniformly hypocritical. A fad of the day is the writing and reading of novels representing some historical pe- riod and it's characters. Skillfully and correctly written, they are wholesome and valuable and helpful for by the aid of the authors imagination. history becomes a living panorama to the reader: so far from dulling taste from sound reading. thsy have been found to stimulate appe- tite for plain history. But such books should be reda with caution, less romance be taken for history and false views be infused in place of true. There is always temptation in romance to exaggerate the abnormal and slight the normal as dull. and the writer too often takes the liberty of coloring the story with his own political preferences. We found both fI- frustrated in recent so-caiIed historical novel, teaching loose views of the mar riage bond. and of its oath of fidelity by genius. It deals with Washington arad his contemporaries. One cannot read it without the conviction that the writer fs an intense admirer of a purely national government, with States reduced to nom- inal factors; nothing too good can be said of Hamilton, nothing too bad of Jeffer- son But the worst feature of the boAlk is that posing to be a true historical novel. the writer makes the alleged irreg- ularity of Hamilton's birth, an opinion so sienderly supported as not to have been considered worthy of note by historian or biographer. according to Henry Cabott Lodge. the very foundation stone of the book as q work of art, and to change the figure. 1t runs like thread through the whole life story of a most remarkable man. one of the founders of this great republic. The only corrective for such reading is the history of the times at hand ready for reference, read before hand. if not soon afterwards. Especially should religious romances be read with Bible at hand. and previously required religious knowledge accessible. One of these unpardonable Actions occurs Tn q book once very popular. The Prince of the House of David" John is pictured as following our Lord into the Wilderness with food and pressing him to eati
 Then the question of right and wrong had an intimate relation to quantity. In- temperance in this. as in all other snno- cent pleasures and pastimes.fs hurtfui and wrong .and habit of reading oply snch may become immensely injurious, indis- posing to more useful reading, interfer- ring with duties, and leaving the reader in an artificial atmosphere. uniting him or her for practical life The college graduate, mentioned in the outset, was offending by a literary gfuttony which left no time for digestion of style or ef- feet. But there might have been this partial exculpation; he hhd read such works in college terms. and was then resting before taking up the serious busi- ness life. The same excuse was not pleadable by a student known by him. who lay on his back reading fiction and. neglecting his class studies. And to con- clude a work is not to be condemned and eschewed by the Christian because pro- fessedly fiction. if 1t Is true in it's repre- sentation of times and persons in its teachings; and while some works of fc- ton may well be studied for cultivation of style, enrichment of language. cuIti- walton of imagination and realization of history as living reality. most works of fiction should be relegated to the hum bier office of innocent entertainment and should be but sparingly allowed the young: How many parents reading this article make themselves acquainted with the books their children read? They would not allow association with living. vicious characters, yet too many permit associations with villains in pages of un- principled romances.