UNPROFITABLE READING. 247 in their families abundance of reading, which, to say the least, is not improving, and of which, frequently, this would be too gentle a censure ? Even where the books contain little that is coarse or corrupt, still it must be repeated, the prodigious quantity of life they consume must exceedingly deduct from that which would otherwise be allotted to more wholesome studies, And this is not all.-We hear pas- sages, not the most pure in point of delicacy, and quite unequivocal in point of impiety, repeated with enthusiasm by young ladies, from the works of a noble, but profligate and infidel poet : a poet xich in abused genius, and abounding in talents, ungratefully employed to dis- honour Himwho gave them.-But from the same fair lips, we hear little of Mil- ton and of Spenser, of Cowper. and of Young, of Thomson and of Goldsmith, of Gray and of Beattie, names once dear to every lover of enchanting song. Nor need we look back exclusively to depart- M 4
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