A Solemn Appeal - James White

French novels are generally reckoned among
the worst. And they do much to make and keep
France what she is for unchastity.
Look at the young lady with the last novel of
the French school in her hand! You know what it
is, and therefore you know what her thoughts are,
and what her taste is. And if purity, the stainless
whiteness of an angel's breast, is the bosom whose
companionship you seek, you turn from her
society, and seek a friend whose loveliness of soul
has never been profaned by such communings.
Margaret Prior, that fearless friend of the
friendless, says in her journal, "Several instances of
the baleful influences of novelreading having
recently come under my observation, I feel
constrained to lift a note of warning against the
indulgence of this pernicious habit. . . . Nothing
tends more to destroy virtuous principles, or
promote the growth of unholy appetites and
passions. It is a real barrier to all useful
acquirements, and, if persisted in, will effectually
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