A Solemn Appeal - James White

A sickly sentimentalism is thus formed, and their
minds are sullied with impure desires. Every
fashionable young lady must of course read every
new novel, though nearly all of them contain
exceptionable allusions, perhaps delicately covered
over with a thin gauze of fashionable refinement;
yet, on that very account, the more objectionable. If
this work contained one improper allusion to their
ten, many of those fastidious ladies who now
eagerly devour the vulgarities of Marryatt, and the
double-entendres of Bulwer, and even converse
with gentlemen about their contents, would
discountenance or condemn it as improper.
SHAME ON NOVEL-READING WOMEN! for
they cannot have pure minds or unsullied feelings,
but Cupid, and the beaux, and waking dreams of
love, are first consuming their health and virtue.
" 'Not that I impute the lest blame to those
respectable editors and publishers, who fill their
coffers by feasting this diseased public appetite,
especially of the ladies, even though they pander
to, and increase, this worst vice of this our vicious
age and nation; any more than I blame grog-sellers
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