23 



" Novels also frequently train persons to general habits 

 of reading. One who has read ' Kenilworth' will naturally 

 inquire a little further concerning Queen Elizabeth ; the 

 person who has read the ' Last of the Mohicans' will look 

 with interest on the various authentic details of Indian life ; 

 Miss Bremer's readers will refer to travels in the north ; — 

 and thus the way is smoothed from an exciting Novel, per- 

 haps not of much importance, to a book of travels, or of 

 history, or of biography. I cannot but think that the great 

 taste for reading which the Waverley Novels undoubtedly 

 excited, had much to do in accounting for the multitude of 

 cheap periodicals and magazines for which our days are 

 distinguished. This view receives corroboration from the 

 the fact, that in some public libraries novels are now far 

 less in demand than formerly, and books of general utility 

 are more frequently called for. 



" Nor must we omit to notice the mere pleasure derived 

 from perusing works of fiction, as one of the advantages to 

 be derived from them. They afford us, at one instant, the 

 pleasures of memory, of imagination, and of hope ; we 

 admire each as a production of genius, and we contemplate 

 it again, and again, as we would a finished picture, or a 

 beautiful statue. And cold must be the heart of that man 

 who has no sympathy for such a reader — who cannot re- 

 joice when an innocent smile lights up the cheek — or who 

 cannot be inwardly thankful to witness the cultivation of 

 intellectual enjoyment, instead of sensual, which is one 

 important circumstance that distinguishes man from the 

 inferior creation. 



" But the present state of things is not unattended with 

 danger and disadvantage. There is danger, that as one 

 particular kind of diet injures the digestive organs, so the 

 limitation to one particular kind of mental food may 

 destroy the mind too. I do not allude to that mawkish 

 sensibility which will permit a young lady to weep for an 



