examine the books of
such a library will be able to select the most pernicious ones by the
external appearance. The covers will be well worn and the edges begrimed
with dirt from much handling. Children soon tire of the shallow sameness
which characterizes the "moral" parts of most of these books, and skim
lightly over them, selecting and devouring with eagerness those
portions which relate the silly narrative of some love adventure. This
kind of literature arouses in children premature fancies and queries,
and fosters a sentimentalism which too often occasions most unhappy
results. Through their influence, young girls are often led to begin
a life of shame long before their parents are aware that a thought of
evil has ever entered their minds.

The following words from the pen of a forcible writer[43] present this
matter in none too strong a light:--

"You may tear your coat or break a vase, and repair them again; but
the point where the rip or fracture took place will always be evident.
It takes less than an hour to do your heart a damage which no time can
entirely repair. Look carefully over your child's library; see what
book it is that he reads after he has gone to bed, with the gas turned
upon the pillow. Do not always take it for granted that a book is good
because it is a Sunday-school book. As far as possible, know _who_ wrote
it, who illustrated it, who published it, who sold it.

"It seems that in the literature of the day the ten plagues of Egypt
have returned, and the frogs and lice have hopped and skipped over our
parlor tables.

"Parents are delighted to have their children read, but they should
be sure as to what they read. You do not have to walk a day or two in
an infested district to get the cholera or typhoid fever; and one wave
of moral unhealth will fever and blast the soul forever. Perhaps,
knowing not what you did, you read a bad book. Do you not remember it
altogether? Yes! and perhaps you will never get over it. However strong
and exalted your character, never read a bad book. By the time you get
through the first chapter you will see the drift. If you find the marks
of the hoofs of the devil in the pictures, or in the style, or in the
plot, away with it.

"But there is more danger, I think, from many of the family papers,
published once a week, in those stories of vice and shame, full of
infamous suggestions, going as far as they can without exposing
themselves to the clutch of the law.