From these two causes it has happened, that the
contents of a great majority of our novels have been unfavourable to the
improvement of the moral character. Now when we consider this
circumstance, and when we consider likewise, that professed
novel-readers generally read all the compositions of this sort that come
into their way, that they wait for no selection, but that they devour
the good, the bad, and the indifferent alike, we shall see the reasons,
which have induced the Quakers to believe, that the effect of this
species of writing upon the mind has been generally pernicious.
One of the effects, which the Quakers consider to be produced by novels
upon those who read them, is an affectation of knowledge, which leads
them to become forward and presumptuous. This effect is highly
injurious, for while it raises them unduly in their own estimation, it
lowers them in that of the world. Nothing can be more disgusting, in the
opinion of the Quakers, than to see persons assuming the authoritative
appearance of men and women before their age or their talents can have
given them any pretensions to do it.
Another effect is the following. The Quakers conceive that there is
among professed novel readers a peculiar cast of mind.
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