recommend them? You may see, perhaps, virtue rewarded and vice punished; but while these necessary acts of justice are painted, you see nothing of the reality of life, none of the characters with which you are acquainted; and it is far from being a safe amusement for young ladies to have their feelings and imaginations wrought upon by the fictions of romance, even though the book should hold up nothing but the fairest sides of fair characters. The mind by these is apt to become too highly toned for the common incidents of life; and the readers of such works are apt to be wound up to such a pitch as to be precisely like those who never enjoy themselves save when they are under the influence of intoxication.

Another bad thing in these books is, that they always bring virtue into trying and critical situations, so that you must have the delineation of vice along with the other, all its modes of attack, and the most insinuating infusion of its poi

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son. Vice cannot be exhibited in detestable colours when the intention of the author is to make resistance meritorious. Where there is no allurement, there is no temptation; and it too frequently happens that the worst character in the piece is the most engaging. It is even uniformly so with the greatest and most accomplished novelist that ever was born; and hence, in the mind of a young reader especially, all the distinctions between virtue and vice are broken down. Think, then, what mischief may be wrought in a youthful female mind by such pernicious representations of character. If the agreeable but wicked hero of the piece be reformed, there is a dangerous desire excited to make proselytes; and if he be punished, the tears which should have been shed for his guilt fall for the misfortunes of the guilty. I recommend, therefore, to your attention those works which give a real picture of such characters as have existed in the

world, and do exist, both for your profit and amusement; for whenever your author loses sight of nature and probability, you lose all hold of him and interest in his work.

It is good to indulge in reading history; for though the incidents are often surprising, and such as one durst not exhibit in a novel, and likewise many of the characters above the capacity of ordinary readers to comprehend, it nevertheless has this to recommend it, that it gives a faithful and true picture of the passions which have agitated mankind, and the events which have resulted therefrom in real life, especially from the ambition of princes and the selfish intrigues of courtiers and flatterers. But in history, though we often see vice successful, it is never amiable; and, from the nature of its composition, and the greatness of its objects, the series of events, the dignity of the actors, and the issue of all worldly events, which it does and must exhibit,

you will review lessons on human affairs well calculated to promote your know

ledge and humility.

rapid decay of all

There you see the worldly grandeur,

beauty, and ambition; so that the whole of history, to a contemplative mind, is one huge memento mori-a good lesson still to keep before your eyes.

Romances, on the other hand, give a transient and false view of human life; the figures are overcharged with colouring, the whole is intended to please, and there is nothing in the background to teach us that all is vanity. The personages of romance are indeed conducted" through most difficult and distressing scenes; their virtue is exposed to the greatest risks, while the art of the author must, at all events, preserve it from contamination. Many delicate sentiments may be introduced, and much heroic love displayed, and, when you least expect it, the seas, and interventions of all sorts, which a little while before seemed alto

gether insurmountable, disappear at once; the stratagems of rivals, and the opposition of parents, are all exhausted; and the marriage of the hero and heroine closes the grand outrageous fiction.

Some of these works may be exceedingly amusing to you, though I confess they never were so to me; but I maintain, that if you read such books, you will never be instructed. What are regarded as fine sentiments are of no use if arising out of unnatural and improbable adventures; and I farther assure you, on the credit of a poet, that I never knew a young lady the better of her reading when she read for excitement alone. Never expect to be deceived into wisdom, nor to find it when you are not in direct search of it. The road lies through thickets of briers and thorns, and there are some steep ascents by the way of so hazardous a nature, that you require some resolution to carry you forward. But if you come immediately into mea