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judging, the illusions of fancy may amuse for a moment, 

 they may even sometimes transport, but they can gain no 

 ascendency. It is therefore for the young and inexperienced, 

 for the ignorant and the idle, that we are interested in the 

 present enquiry. Nor is it so much to the higher classes of 

 SMiciety that we are to look for the ill effects of fictitious his- 

 tory — as it cannot be supposed that much additional injury 

 can be sustained by persons who read of follies, dissipation 

 or vices, with which they are perpetually conversant. It is 

 the middle and lower classes that suffer most by publications, 

 through the medium of which, they are introduced to man- 

 ners they would otherwise have remained strangers to. If it 

 were not for the circulating libraries of the neighbouring 

 towns, the daughters of farmers might remain contented and 

 happy in the humble circle of domestic enjoyment, which 

 Providence had allotted them ; but the comparison they are 

 taught to make between their own homely occupations, and 

 the brilliant glare of fashion's fascinating pursuits, frequently 

 leads to the most lamentable consequences, which every 

 day's experience too sadly proves. Hence— deluded by the 

 seducer, who held out the hope of treading those paths 

 which fancy had learned to delight in — the simple girl, 

 after having forsaken her aged parents, and her home, 

 finds every thing too true that she had anticipated in the 

 scenes of dissipation, except the ideal happiness supposed to 

 be inseparably connected with them. Another cause which 

 diminishes the influence of fictitious histories in the present 



VOL. XII. ' M 



