WORKS OF FICTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 206, 16 March 1877, Page 13

WORKS OF FICTION.

In this world there is nothing which is incipa,ble of abuse, and but few things, if any, that are unmixed blessings. Of all discoveries which have conduced to the spread of civilization, there is none whose importance is assigned a higher place than that of the art of printing, and yet even this is subject to the general failing, and many times serves as an example of the truth of the ada^e"" corruptio optimi persima." The production and multiplication of good books is undoubtedly a great advantage, but the dissemination of mischievous literature is a drawback that justifies our opening assertion in this particular instance j for the press that supplies the means of publishing the one, affords also facilities for the spreading abroad of the other.

At the present day the minimum price to which all things connected with the issue of printed matter has been reduced,°makes the supply of literary compositions especially abundant, and the mischief occasioned by those which are objectionable must be proportionately great. But amongst these are to be reckoned not only such publications as directly attack religion, or which are of so gross a nature as to fall under the censure of the law, or, at least, to be forbidden by all ordinarily prudent parents and guardians j certain generally accepted classes of works also come under the same heading. Amongst the light reading of the day are to be found numerous tales, the production of aiithora who have attained to literary fame, but which, nevertheless, aim only at awakening an unwholesome excitement in the minds of their readers, claiminosympathy for sentiments and actions which are at best of doubtful innocence, distorting by the contemplation of unnatural characters the just view of life, and suggesting an upright line of conduct to be humdrum and uninteresting, as compared with the questionable adventures and easy morality of feverish heroes of romance.

We are far from desiring to object extremely to the reading of novls ; like most other things this also has its use, and it is frequently a short and easy way of restoring ton.3 to an over wrought mend, so that even a frivolous tale — provided its only fault" be frivolity — may prove a remedy, and thus assume a value it would ii>t otherwise possess; or for mere purposes of recreation such might be perused without harm, should there be no tians^ression of due limits, .Besides which certain master intellects have selected fiction as the means by which to give to the world the results of their study of humanity, and this to human beings must be ever precious. Altogether, then, to forbid the reading of such works would be a senseless act, and one that could only be performed by persons under the influence uf ignorance or stupid prejudices. The unrestricted study, however, of even the higher class of imaginative literature is attended by certain dangers." Uncurbed its tendency is to impair the memory, to cultivate a dislike for graver and more necessary courses of reading, and to form habits of superficial thought. All those, therefore, who are engaged in the all-important task of education, whether as parent ov teacher should bestow due attention on this weighty matter But as we have said, many works which obtain credit at the present day, are an unmixed evil ; the characters they depict are an impossibility, their events unnatural, their morality doubtful, and the time spent in following the highly coloured careers of their various heroes and heroines, if productive of no more immediate evil, is, at leadt, idled away, and expended in inducing a distaste for the inevitable routine of daily life. Such volumes as this should be rigidly withheld from those who are being prepared to struggle with°the world and their wide dissemination may well be regarded as amongst the blemishes that detract from the usef ulaesa of the press. Mbhtob.