Youth is credulous, and accepts
these views of life, which then become part and parcel of the mind; so
that, instead of a merely negative condition of ignorance, you have
positive error--a whole tissue of false notions to start with; and at
a later date these actually spoil the schooling of experience, and put
a wrong construction on the lessons it teaches. If, before this,
the youth had no light at all to guide him, he is now misled by a
will-o'-the-wisp; still more often is this the case with a girl.
They have both had a false view of things foisted on them by reading
novels; and expectations have been aroused which can never be
fulfilled. This generally exercises a baneful influence on their whole
life. In this respect those whose youth has allowed them no time or
opportunity for reading novels--those who work with their hands and
the like--are in a position of decided advantage. There are a few
novels to which this reproach cannot be addressed--nay, which have an
effect the contrary of bad. First and foremost, to give an example,
_Gil Blas_, and the other works of Le Sage (or rather their Spanish
originals); further, _The Vicar of Wakefield_, and, to some extent Sir
Walter Scott's novels.
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