Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/68

hardly be affirmed. Its use is fully understood and admitted. But there is great danger of enervating the mind by improper reading. For a young girl to indulge much in novel-reading is a very serious evil. Few of the popular novels of the day are fit to go into the hands of a young and imaginative girl. Apart from the false views of life which they present, and the false philosophy which they too often inculcate, they lift an inexperienced reader entirely above the real, from whence she has too little inclination to come down; and whenever she does come down, she is unhappy, because she finds none of the ideal perfections around her, with which her imagination has become filled, but is forever coming into rude contact with something that shocks her over-refined sensibilities. Her own condition in life she will be in great danger of contrasting with that of some favorite heroine of romance. If she do this, she will be almost sure to make herself miserable. A young lady who indulges much in novel-reading never becomes a woman of true intelligence. She may be able to converse fluently, and to make herself at times a very agreeable companion, even to those who are greatly her superiors: but she has no strength of intellect, nor has she right views of life.