NOVEL READING AS A VICE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 348, 31 December 1875, Page 4

NOVEL READING AS A VICE.

- , ■'■ '■-'■ o?r pm the Saturday Review ) The pleasure which we receive from reading a novel, for example, is due only in part to the indulgence of sympathetic emotions. When wo read " Waverly," we have the pleasure, it is true, of weeping over the sorrows of Flora M'lvor, and of feeling a glow of loyalty to the unfortunate Preteuder. But we a!eo imbibe, with more or- less - v -■■■'. - - coDßcioQ3o«es, ScottV theories about man and nature. We learo to appreciate the beauties of lake and moor. We look through his eyes at manly and simple characters, or we come to understand what were the passions which really moved human beings a century and a half ago. Id other words, though Scott is cot intentionally didactic, he unconsciously impresses upon us certain psychological, moral, and aeUhetf c views as distinctly as though he were preaching a series of propositions, instead of setting before as a number of symbols. It would be easy enough to translate his pictorial representations into logic, 9dd to work out the process by which Scott's romances, when assimilated by other minds, were I transmuted into a set of definite philosophical or theological theories. In tbia sense even a more trivial novelist than Scott may become a more effective preacher thao any official expounders of doctrine. By placing ourselves at his point of view we loam to adopt his theories; we associate ■ certain characters with the sentiments which he attributes to them; we regard certain typical figures with reverence or ridicule, as the case may be, and find ourselves in possession of a whole body of prejudices and consequently of the code of opinions which they im.plx,» ; b.efore we have drawn aoy explicit inferences, or gone through any^onscioas mode df reasoning whatever. By" such meaps the most purely artistic writer, the? man who has no intention of inculcating any definite moral whatever, may. ia fact be a most potent preacher; and nobody who considers the influence, exercise*), by the greatest literary names can doubt that the artistic embodiment of a given set of ideas has oftej^M^aJar more effective than the p!§HhhHJN analysis of logicians. In taa9BK|herefore, there is no di(scult«9Bß«-etanding how the study of ficn^HHEpave a powerful moral in&imßßßzfrfe do not of course mean tbsHßgp fiction which is read nierelysH^Rßpiew to killing time. But tljSßlß&of any of the greater-'- wt-iter <Bßffl^| strengthen cr weaken cer tai MMjilßßin t associations ' ef'ideas; to taa||feS||§pard truly nobla types of caa H|B£§||u affection, or look upon thealilij||pj|plous or repulsive. The DD £ilg|iߧj|g oeß lessons as effectually as j||jg^Bp9 physician, the moralist, or f^^^gKr.al economist, though in 'HsHhhl terms. There ia-no more difSBBmSB^ uaderstandiog why the fituJßgHaßgi books should produce a Koa|^Rflßßnoral effect than i or under stac d|HßHßßKhe study of any art or pbilosflHPpJPy be effective, though divorceafrom immediate practice. We may learo in general terms what is good and evil, and what are the penalties and rewards of vice and virtue, without simultaneously applying the doctrine in facts. . The emotion does. not immediately expend itself in work, hut it raises the mind to that temperature at which impressions may be indelibly stamped upon it. In this wasf therefore, though a man may not be stimulated to any defiant) good action by his reading:, .(.hough hs may not immediately rash out to volunteer io a good cause to put down a handsome subscription to a benevolent society, his moral nature may be enricbel and stimulated. He gains a new set of associations with objects previoasly uninteresting. The scenery w^ich has been dumb and inarticulate begins to talk to him with the voice of] Scott or Wordsworth. He learns pre-j eisely as he would learn from the society of l an intelligent companion who poiute out objects of interest previously nnl noticed. But it may still be askea whether a further' result may ncft occasionally follow! There is thb famiUr case of the lover who liked to be parted from his mistress in ordar that he might have the pleasure of writing sentimental letters about (He pangs of separation. In like manner, when Dickens was making ail Eoglacii weep, over^ the wrongs of workhouse boys, or the victims of Yorkshire schools, it alight be doubted whethir hia renders learnt to be practically benevolent, or to expeud ail ; their little sentiments upon imaginary wo*. The question is one rather as to tie 'use made of fiction by the reader thin as to the intention of the writer. The good tendency is obvious enou°jh. Life is apt to be a prosaic baeioesa Jin the main. Nine-tenths of the human race are doomed to spand moat of thlir waking hours in a wearisome round of petty drudgery. Even those whlae energy is really devoted to some gidat purpose have to make the unpleas nt discovery that much of their ucttv ty will have* to be consumed iv eie routine of pkty detail*.". So far as Ibe writer makes them conscious of ihy more poetical side of daily life, op< ne their eyes to tfae Borrows aiu] joys of prosaic people, enables them to widin f beir sympathies, or to be more Beng|i-tiv-3 to the great issues which f'e bidden under ihe surface of ordinal affaire, be; is rendering ' them X essential service. If for tr tinA they venture ia to dream laud under) hia guidance, , wmaj&jng of Ibe

magic coloring may remain when (hey return to ordinary daylight. Though be preaches uo moral of instantaneous application, ho may modify their whole conception of life aid ita issues. But U must be admitted that it is possible to make a poiaou or an opiate of what ought to be a medicine. The ideal world into wbi;h we go for relief from our daily drudgery may reflect light upon ordinary things or may be an enervating region of periodical lotuseating. Some people might thiok that their sympathy tor Oliver Twist excused them from caring about any flesh-and-blood sufferer. Others might be enabled to see more vividly sorrows which they had previously passed over because embodied iv commonplace outsides, It is impossible to lay down aoy precise rales upon such questions; everybody has to learo for himself what is the discipline which best suits bis own case; and the wisest general maxims are of very little service. Yet, without referring to individual cases, there are some marks sufficiently characteristic of the school which fosters the morbid tendeocy. Art, which is 100 much divorced from reference (o the actual world, shows its sicklineßs by unmistakeable symptoms. It suffers from the blight of sentimental ism or sensationalism. When people begin to pet and pamper their fine feelings, and to take delight in weeping for the sake of weeping, we may be pretty sure that they are losing a proper hold upon a world in which there ie always sufficient cause for melancholy without creating artificial misery. When they delight in descriptions of the horrible or the nauseous, it is plain enough that such dramdrinking implies a depraved appetite, or, in other words, a hardening of the ! natural emotions. When such tendencies are strongly marked, aa is generally the case with declining schools, we cannot doubt that the pleasure is of an enervating tendency. The emotions are not being refined and strengthened by occasional retreats into the ideal world, but are regarded as sources of luxurious enjoyment instead of being used for daily life.