CHAP. Of Novelty. and French presses constantly teem. Most of these compositions have no other merit, than that of relating, in intelligible language, events of familiar life, not quite incredible, nor quite common; and yet the worst of them are constantly read with all the avidity of eager curiosity. 21. Perhaps the feeding and pampering this kind of curiosity, to a degree of morbid restlessness, is the principal, if not the only, moral evil resulting from such reading; and this, it must be owned, is a considerable one: for the habit, which young persons get, of reading merely for events, without any attention to language, thought, or sentiment, so completely unnerves all the powers of application, that their minds become incapable of learning, or retaining any thing. Whatever they read, they read without studying; and merely for the purpose of becoming acquainted with the contents of the book, which they never attempt to analyze, or digest; or turn into nutriment for their own minds; without which, reading is, at best, but a mere innocent and idle amusement. By the vicious indulgence of a prurient appetite, the mind, like the body, may be reduced to a state of atrophy; in which, knowledge, like food, may pass through it, without adding either to its strength, its bulk, or its beauty. 22. Besides this atrophy, arising from the habit of reading without attention, there is likewise a sort of sickly sensibility of mind, nourished, if not engendered, by compositions of this kind; which is equally adverse to the acquisition of all useful knowledge and sound morality; and which is the more dangerous and seductive, as it assumes the name and character of a most amiable virtue; and of one, which constitutes the principal charm of the softer sex. That fluttering and fidgetty curiosity;--that trembling irritability of habit, which cannot stoop to the tameness of reality, or the insipidity of common life; but is always interesting itself in the more animated and brilliant events of fiction, is often mistaken for real tenderness and sensibility of temper; and attributed to what, in the cant language of the times, is called a good heart; whereas it properly belongs to a deranged head. It is nearly of kin to a certain species of charity, (very common in the present age) which interests itself for the calamities of all mankind, except those, which it has the power to relieve. It has been said of another species of charity, that it begins at home; and sometimes ends, where it began: but this is so much in the contrary extreme, that home is the only part of the universe, which entirely escapes its attention. It is continually stretching itself out to the CHAP. III. Of Novelty. CHAP. Of Novelty. east, and to the west, and to the north, and to the south; but always towards objects, which it knows to be beyond its reach. Moral and physical impossibilities sink before it; and even excite instead of impeding its indefatigable exertions; for mere good intentions are neither wearied by labour, exhausted by expense, nor baffled by obstructions; and kind wishes and benevolent professions easily extend themselves to the whole human race; while the rancour and malignity of practice is only felt by the comparatively few individuals, who are within its reach. Conscience, therefore, seldom hesitates in accepting this compromise; which, either faith invests with the armour of grace, or philosophy decks with the trappings of virtue; both equally well adapted to exalt the mind above the influence of natural affection; and teach it to look down, with contempt, upon the plain, simple, unassuming character of common practical benevolence *. 23. Even those writers of novels, whose intention is to expose and ridicule this sickly habit of mind, do, in fact, feed and promote it, as much as any others: for their satire is only pointed against the affectation of it; whereas the reality, in these cases, is much worse than See the admirably drawn characters of Thwackum and Square in Fielding's History of a Foundling. CHAP. III. the counterfeit. The capricious wife, or humorsome daughter, who only acts a fit of Of Novelty. hysterics, or extreme nervous dejection, cannot long escape detection; and when the imposture is exposed, it is cured: but she, who has brought her nervous system into such a state of subserviency to her temper, as to be really disordered and ill, whenever she is thwarted or opposed, appeals to the best feelings of man; and by thus putting her own vicious infirmities under the protection of others' virtues, secures their indulgence; and, of course, their increase. Like those, who by frequently telling a falsehood, become at length dupes to their own imposture, such persons become slaves to their own weakness, by habitually making others slaves to it: for, as this kind of weakness both feeds, and is fed by vanity, it, at first, affords them a specious claim to every selfish and unreasonable indulgence; and, ultimately, excuses, in their own estimation, not only every omission, but almost every violation of the practical duties of their station in society. Like the theories of the philosophical politician, or the calculations of the abstract mathematician, the benevolence of persons afflicted with this eccentric sort of sensibility, is too refined for the ordinary occurrences of life, which are either too insipid to attract their observation, or too coarse to merit their attention, CHAP. Of Novelty. 24. When this nervous effervescence of feeling, or froth of sentiment, is still further sublimated by a dogmatical spirit of devotion, its selfishness becomes still more arrogant, by adding the more exalted pretensions of superior sanctity to those of superior sensibility. Of late this spirit has been much pampered by some of the sentimental narratives in question; the fair authoresses of which, in their zeal for revelation, boldly bring forward their love-sick heroes and heroines into the fields of religious controversy; and, as the same hands wield the weapons on both sides, they find as little difficulty in silencing all the cavils, and overturning all the objections of the fictitious disciples of Hume, Gibbon, and the French academy, as a colonel of the guards does in routing a regiment of fictitious French soldiers, in a review on Blackheath. When victory seems so easily obtained, it is no wonder that many are ready to enter the lists; especially, as the shortest and pleasantest way of becoming a saint is by converting a sinner. According to the Italian proverb, those, who know nothing, doubt nothing; whence it has frequently happened to me of late to hear questions of sacred criticism and philosophy decided, upon the authority of a dialogue in a novel, from which Grotius and Le Clerc, Mosheim and Michaelis shrank in despair, or passed by in timid perplexity. |