CiiaP. XXI.] Liter ar\) Journals. 83 



period before us remarkably correspond with this 

 unfavourable picture, and that the general diffu- 

 sion of superficial reading and scraps of knowledge 

 may be said preeminently to characterise the 

 last age. 



But this is not the whole of the evil. Such are 

 the effects which must result from the general cir- 

 culation of works of this nature, supposing them to 

 be, on the whole, well conducted. Many of them, 

 however, are by no means entitled to this charac- 

 ter. They have often given prompt and willing 

 currency to erroneous opinions in morals and re- 

 ligion. They are too frequently found recepta- 

 cles of such fdth, obscenity, and impiety, as are 

 fit for the perusal of none but the prostitute, the 

 thief, and the murderer. It is scarcely necessary 

 to add, that the e0ect of such publications on the 

 manners, principles, and happiness of society, must 

 be in a high degree pestiferous ; and that this is 

 one among the numerous instances in moderu 

 times, in which literature, perverted and abused 

 under plausible forms, has been found insidiously 

 to undermine the morals and welfare of man. 



Another item in the literary history of the age 

 falls perhaps more properly within the design of 

 this chapter than of any other part of the present 

 sketch. The mode of addressing the public by 

 short periodical Essays, though not wholly peculiar 

 to the eighteenth century, was yet so much extend- 

 ed, and had such a powerful influence in this pe- 

 riod, as to entitle it to be ranked among the re- 

 markable circumstances of the age. " To teach 

 the minuter decencies and inferior duties ; to re- 

 gulate the practice of daily conversation 3 to cor- 



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