UNPROFITABLE READING. 243 the hours thrown away in the retirement of idle readers. We are the more earnest on this sub- ject, from being in possession of some facts which evince beyond any per- suasions, which confirm beyond any arguments, the perils which we may be thought too warm in deprecating. Among the overflowing number of fictitious writ- ings, not a few are there in the English, and still more and worse in the French and German schools, in which the in- trigue between the already married hero and heroine is opened by means so ap- parently innocent, and conducted so gradually, and with so much plausibility, as, for a time, to escape detection. Vicious scenes are artfully kept out of sight, while virtuous principles are silently, but systematically undermined, till the imagination, that notorious cor- rupter of the heart, has had time to prepare the work of destruction. Such fascinating qualities are lavished on the seducer, and such attractive graces on M
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