Novel-Reading by Sel.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 14, 1871

Novel-Reading.

By Sel.

It is generally conceded that some of the finest fruits of the finest minds are found in this field of literature, encumbered, it is true, with ponderous heaps of the most vile trash. One in a thousand of these volumes may, perhaps, be read with some profit, and no serious injury, while four hundred and ninety-nine of the residue are so frivolous as to render their perusal a criminal waste of time. The other five hundred will be found positively injurious in various ways.

Habitual novel-reading is detrimental to health and vigor of the body. Nature will not be robbed with impunity of a requisite amount of food, air, rest, and sleep. Reprisals are always made where the hours of night are devoted to the exercise.

The nervous system, moreover, being intimately connected with the brain, becomes the predominating system during the period of youth, because this predominance is necessary to the proper development and increase of the body. Now that strong excitement of the feelings, occasioned by works of fiction, has a tendency to produce such a predominance of the nervous system as permanently to generate the most afflictive nervous diseases.

Novel-reading prevents a strong symmetrical development of the mental powers. In young ladies especially, do the sensibilities and imagination need to be repressed rather than stimulated, while the understanding and judgment require the most assiduous cultivation. Hannah More says truly that youth need more ballast. The education, however, which is afforded by works of fiction, consists in crowding more sail than the craft can carry.

An eager perusal of light literature destroys all taste for solid reading. Control over the thoughts is lost, while the bewitching scenes of romance are floating through the mind. Historical, scientific, and especially religious works, become insipid and dull. The habit of receiving pleasure, without any exertion of thought, by mere excitement of curiosity and sensibility, may be justly ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel-reading. It cannot but be injurious to the moral mind never to be called into action. Under circumstances of perpetual inaction, it wilts and withers like the muscles of an arm which is always unused.

Novel-reading tends to inflame the passions, pollute the imagination, and corrupt the heart. Moral sense is weakened by the false sentiments they inculcate. Even the better class are wanting in true religious principle. They may not oppose, or directly denounce, religion; but they make it appear unnecessary, by exhibiting a virtue sufficiently perfect without it. They delineate the most pious characters, and represent them under the most affecting circumstances, passing through the most trying scenes, till they enter joyfully the eternal state without the sustaining power of vital godliness. The sentimentalism of romance presents no motives to action so pure and exalted as the teachings of Christ. On the contrary, the viler class of novels actually teach and commend the most glaring vices. A recent author has truly said, “They paint for our imitation, humane murderers, licentious saints, holy infidels, and honest robbers. Over loathsome women and unutterably vile men, is thrown the checkered light of a hot imagination, until they glow with infernal luster.”

Novel-reading is objectionable, because it creates an unnatural and morbid taste. It frequently becomes an inveterate habit, strong and fatal as that of the drunkard. In this state of mental intoxication, great waywardness of conduct is most sure to follow. Even where the habit is renounced, and genuine reformation takes place, the individual often suffers the cravings of former excitement.

Novel-reading lays the foundation for sad ruptures in the domestic relations of life. The lady who revels in fiction, may possess the power, through fancy and feeling, to attract, to interest, to please, to charm, to win; but her reign over the affections will generally be short, because her character affords no solid basis of trust and confidence.

In conclusion, the practice of which we speak is to be deprecated because it raises extravagantly high expectations in the youthful mind, and then dooms them to utter disappointment. The novelist paints beauty in colors more charming than nature, and describes bliss more ecstatic than man ever tastes. Thus the young are taught to despise the good which God has mingled in their cup of blessings, while they sigh in vain for a beauty and a happiness which never existed in a world that is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. The world of romance differs so essentially from the real rough and stormy world of life, that few can dwell for years in the enchanting fairy elevations of the one and then cheerfully descend to the dull, dusky, and discordant scenes of the other. —Sel.