Page images
PDF
EPUB

Remarks on the Influence of the fine Arts and Works of Fiction, &c. 295

the higher ground, and deposited where they now are, the earth must have been washed from their roots, at least in many instances; but this does not appear to be the case, for the roots in general appear to be full of earth; they have therefore been overwhelmed in or near the places where they are. now found, and most probably by a deluge of water. What a field for contemplation! -a district of many thousands of acres, in which lies buried a former forest, with all its then inhabitants; and as profane history gives us no account of any particular flood of water, may we not consider this as strongly corroborative of the account of the general deluge given by the saered historian?

Beverley, Feb. 1818.

M. T.

REMARKS ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE FINE ARTS AND WORKS OF FICTION ON THE MORAL CHARACTER.

*་བ་་་རབ་

To the Editor of the Northern Star.

I HAVE lately read a paper in one of your Magazines, entitled, "On the Influence of Novel-reading on public Morals." The author of that paper seems to me to have assigned too much influence to this class of writings in corrupting the morals of society: and in endeavouring to show the baneful effects that have resulted from novel-reading, he has forgotten to point out, or has totally overlooked, the benefits, that, under certain restrictions, might flow from the perusal of works of fiction. I shall endeavour to supply what I conceive to be the defect of his paper in this.

I would however, in the first place, make a few observations on the arguments of your correspondent against novel-reading, before I advance any remarks of my own in favour of it.

The objection of your correspondent to Novels and Romances, "that they draw the attention of the mind from the proper business of life," will apply equally to all works of taste and fiction, and would go to the exclusion of poems, plays, and even the higher flights of oratory and eloquence; 80 that, if this argument hold good, we must banish the Muses and the Graces from the walks of life. Shakspeare must no longer be allowed to storm the breast, Milton to elevate or Spenser to delight the imagination, nor Pope and Johnson to inform, by captivating, the judgment. Nay even the eloquence of a Curran or a Burke would be reprehensible for the same reason, because their speeches contain passages which irresistibly draw the attention from the common concerns of life, and carry the imagination away into the sublimest regions of oratory. Is there any art, indeed, which could be tolerated on this principle? Painting and Sculpture, which, by embellishing our temples and decorating our houses, call off our attention from business and commerce, would be necessarily included in the same condemnation with their unfortunate sisters. We must by a public edict, then, banish the orators, the painters, and the poets along with the novelists from the country, as the corruptors of its morals and the subverters of its commerce. Every thing, indeed, that we do not find in the walks of trade,

or that is likely to divert our minds from calculations of interest, must be exiled with the arts. To what a state, Mr. Editor, would the principles of this writer reduce us! Nothing but what is really useful in tending to promote, not the felicity, but the business of life, must be suffered to exist. Beauty must be robbed of her charms or secluded in the shade, where they shall bloom unseen, like the flower whose sweetness is wasted on the desert air, because it allures us to pleasure; music must no longer be permitted to warhle from roseate lips, in unison with instrumental learning, because its strains are seducing; even love must be expelled from scenes of domestic enjoyment, because we are in danger of dallying too long in his silken fetters, and of wasting in the bosom of our families that time which a severer principle would lead us to devote entirely to business, to posting our account-books or enlarging the number of our customers. What a nation of merchants would this system make us!

I confess, Mr. Editor, that I prefer the present state of society in England to that which the principles against which I am now speakin would introduce among us. Trade would be a curse rather than a blessi if at its shrine we must sacrifice all that makes existence sweet and delightful; for wealth, of which it is the channel, is only desirable as it tends to smoothe and embellish the path of life, to flow over it like a refreshing stream, covering it with verdure and flowers. An exclusive attention to trade would not only destroy the pleasures, but also interfere with the proper business of life, which in my opinion consists in acquiring habits of virtue and benevolence. But the arts contribute greatly to the formation and support of these habits. The noble moral sentiments we meet with in the works of our poets and orators improve the heart as well as delight the imagination. Painting and Sculpture, by delineating the forms of our friends or of the great benefactors of mankind, and preserving their features on canvass or in marble, long af ter their removal from these sublunary scenes, serve to keep alive our admi ration of the virtues and excite our emulation of the excellencies for which they were distinguished. The same arts, by directing our attention to the works of the Creator, and bringing their grandeur or their beauty more directly before our eyes in the elegant or sublime copies which they form of them, have a strong tendency to excite devotion in the heart.-But what can be urged in defence of Music, which has been frequently accused of rendering the mind weak and effeminate; or can it be shown to exert benefiany cial influence on the soul? Yes: music softens our afflictions and soothes our cares; it is one of those grateful accomplishments which delight us in woman, and which Love and Hymen employ to draw us into their bonds. Its moral effects on the mind are well described by our immortal dramatist in those celebrated lines which are in every one's mouth:

-Nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,

But music for the time doth change his nature.

The man that hath not music in himself,

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,

Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils:

The motions of his spirit are dull as night,

And his affections dark as Erebus:

Let no such man be trusted.

Remarks on the Influence of the fine Arts, and Works of Fiction, &c. 297

66

These observations will be sufficient, I hope, to show the absurdity of the objection which has been urged against novels, "that they draw the attention from the proper business of life," as the same objection. might be made to every elegant accomplishment and improving art; and it is founded on the erroneous opinion, that the business of life is confined to the counting-house or the shop. But the writer of the paper on the influence of novelreading on public morals," further asserts, that the person who indulges himself in this kind of reading, is not only drawn by its pernicious influence from the proper business of life, but also "forsakes the straight paths of his fathers to imitate the exploded virtues and graceful failings of a favourite hero."

If this, Mr. Editor, were really the fact, I would instantly lay down my pen, an not attempt to write another word more in favour of works of fiction and romance: but experience, I am fully persuaded, does not hear the writer out in this assertion. There are few if any minds so romantic as to fly from the sphere of common life into such eccentric courses, and on such ixotic adventures, as those to which your correspondent alludes: and I have never yet heard of one young man who was influenced merely by novel reading to abandon his home or forsake his business in pursuit of new adventures. The influence which this kind ofreading exerts on the mind, if it delude it at all, does not delude it long; the world soon unteaches us the romantic lessons of our youth in its scenes, the mind, intoxicated by fancy, becomes sober; and those visions which had only cheated us for a moment, disappear like the gilded vapour. That novel-reading cannot have that pernicious influence on the public mind which has been attributed to it by your correspondent is also evident, I think, from this consideration, that novels are read in general as works of fiction. Amongst the numerous class of readers into whose hands they fall, how few are there who look upon them in any other light than as pleasing stories, invented by the imagination for the purpose of amusement, and not as true histories of what has actually taken place in life. Can we, then, suppose that, being considered in this light, they can produce any dangerous influence on the conduct, or lead the reader, however enthusiastic, to imitate the graceful failings of the hero of the tale."

I shall now proceed, as was at first proposed, to point out a few of the advantages which I conceive to result to society from the better sort of novels and romances. The perusal of these works is, I think, décidedly favourable to the interests of morality. The reader's feelings of pity and commiseratien are excited by the sufferings to which the hero and heroine of the story are usually exposed, and his indignation against and hatred of vice by the crimes of their persecutors. There are indeed very few novels in which vice is not made disgusting and virtue amiable: nor can it be denied that amongst the better class of writings of this kind we meet with many excellent moral sentiments and useful reflections. It frequently happens, too, that those little failings in the tempers of mankind, from which so much domestic unhappiness proceeds, are exposed with great art; and the danger of not correcting them, before they become in a manner part of our constitution, pointed out. I shall not fear to mention it as another moral benefit arising

from novel-reading, that the mind is elevated by it above that low and mercenary spirit which it is so liable to eontract in the common walks of busiuess or of trade. Reading, even of this light and amusing kind, imparts a certain degree of delicacy and feeling to the mind, which it might in the absence of it want; and though it may sometimes create what is called a morbid sensibility in minds of a peculiar conformation, this is by no means a necessary or general consequence of it.

The instruction which the better sort of novels convey is not to be despised. They bring us acquainted with life and manners. They give us a more intimate knowledge of human nature and insight into human character. There is, besides, an historical knowledge which some of them convey, not so much a knowledge of the events of any particular period, as of the manners of that period. They show us human nature as it is modified by time and circumstance, and illustrate the influence of education and opinion on the mind of man.

In a literary point of view, such novels as those of which I am now speaking are useful. They are, many of them, written in a superior style, and are models of good composition. The student of eloquence will not find his time lost in the perusal of them: they will teach him, without the labour of severer study, the narrative, pathetic, and descriptive parts of oratory.

But independent of these advantages, (which I consider important,) novelreading is a relaxation to the mind after the fatigue of business or of study; and how delightful is it to amuse our weariness by the perusal of a well-told tale! We forget in its fictitious scenes our own cares; even our ill-humours, occasioned by the crosses of the world, are laid aside, and we enjoy for the moment an ideal happiness.

In conclusion, Mr. Editor, I beg leave to say, that these hasty observations are by no means intended as a defence of that promiscuous and accidentai novel-reading which embraces all books of this description, without any regard to their merit, or of that complete sacrifice of time which is chiefly devoted to the perusal of works of fiction and romance. My only object has been to prove that your correspondent " on the influence of novel-reading on public morals," has over-rated the pernicious consequences of it, when that reading is most promiscuous, and omitted to mention the advantages that are likely to flow from it when confined within proper restrictions. Regretting that the subject of this paper has not fallen into abler hands, and that so good a cause has met with so poor an advocate,

I remain, Mr. Editor, yours,

JUVENIS.

SUBTERRANEAN FOREST ON HATFIELD CHACE, &c.

IF the following few observations be deemed worthy of a place in your valu able miscellany, their publication in your next number will oblige me.

"There lies the stubborn oak in sable hue,

The tawny fir, and mournful-looking yew.”

Various have been the opinions relative to the subterraneous wood which is daily found buried below the surface of the earth, in several parts of En

gland, but more especially so in that extensive tract of ground called Hatfield Chace, and the adjoining level, near Doncaster. To examine the different theories advanced on this head, would be inconsistent with my present purposes, and exceed the space allotted for speculations of this kind in a miscellany like yours, whose province is to instruct as well as to amuse a numerous and diversified class of profound and superficial readers; I shall therefore confine myself to such points as have come within my own immediate observation.

The topographical history of any nation or district is at all times interesting to a native, and I presume that information relative to a spot so adjacent to a great majority of your readers, will not prove unacceptable.

The district called Hatfield Chace, with a portion of the adjoining manors of Thorne, Hatfield, Wroot, Epworth, Crowl, Haxey, Finningley, Misson, &c. form an uniform flat, with scarcely a single hill or wood to diversify the prospect; and in some directions nothing but the imbecility of vision bounds the view. This extensive district was rendered a complete level through the effects of a deluge which prevailed in those parts by an overflow of the neighbouring river. It was at one time arable, pasture, and wood land, as evidently appears on clearing away the thin coat of peatearth, which in some places is very superficial. Clear marks of the plough or some such instrument yet remain; and entire hedges are also found unruffled by the slow and gradual approach of periodical floods from the adjacent rivers. Trees likewise are almost every where to be found, more or less deeply imbedded, whose sable trunks are the only portion which the ravages of destructive time have left entire. The whole level also was at some distant period diversified by hill and dale; for in the middle of this vast portion of boggy earth the summits of former hills rear their lonely heads, scarcely overtopping the surrounding plain. In some places a fine red sand, in others gravel, may be discovered within six inches of the surface; while in some parts of the level, the depth of peat-earth has not yet been ascertained. At what period this immense lake was formed is a problem of no easy solution. It is evident from the matter accumulated, that its formation was at distant period, and the original cause which produced the effect continued to operate for a number of years. We have undoubted historical authority for asserting, that the Isle of Axholme was inaccessible to an army so early as the year 1174: for we are informed, that in the 20th of Henry II. Roger de Mowbray unsheathed the sword in young Henry's cause, retired hither, and rendered tenable an old castle, then in decay, which had from its origin belonged to the family; for reducing which, the Lincolnshire men were under the necessity of transporting themselves by boats. After the battle of Evesham also, in the 10th of Henry III., wherein the barons ex- perienced a defeat, they fled hither as to a place of safety. These occurrences, in addition to the quantity of matter accumulated, evidently assign to it a very distant date.

a very

[ocr errors]

Most of the peasantry in the neighbourhood ascribe to the universal de luge the havoc which has been made amongst the trees, &c. in these parts. They foolishly suppose that the velocity of the current has swept from the ad

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »