e passions with no uncertain voice. Even when such
works do not openly attack faith or the sanctity of morals, they
seek to convey the subtle poison of unbelief or corruption by
covert insinuation, by ridicule, by ignoring religious truth and
supernatural motives as unworthy of consideration, more
effectually and fatally, than they would have done by open and
undisguised assault."[3]

[3] Cardinal Logue, Lenten Pastoral.

There are novels that constitute an unbroken attack, from the
first page to the last, against some divine truth, yet with such
a delicate hand is the insidious poison distributed that you may
be challenged to lay your finger on a single objectionable
passage. Satan has not been studying the human heart for six
thousand years without knowing it well. He takes very good care
not to label his drugs, or present his poison to timid minds in
large doses; hence there is no alarm: but the treacherous danger
of such books is well illustrated by a tree to be found in
tropical forests.

[Side note: The Tropical tree]

In early autumn it is ablaze with sheaves of fairest pink; it
warns you off by no repellant odour; its umbrageous shelter is
most inviting; yet so fatal is the subtle breath with which it
charges the air around that should an incautious traveller rest
his head for one night under its treacherous shade he would wake
no more.

So, the flowery brilliancy of style, the charms and graces of
diction of many a modern novel are fascinating, but the pages
they adorn exhale a deadly breath.

[Side note: A sample novel]

Let us take a sample novel. The foundation of the State is the
family; the corner-stone on which the family rests is the sacred
marriage bond. Dissolve that and you convert social harmony into
social chaos. Yet how many books are there which are covert
attacks on the marriage tie.

The heroine is generally a married lady who discovers that her
husband is not the man she should have married. From this
centre-point the web of intrigue is woven. Mawkish sentiment and
false pity are aroused. A glamour is thrown over the sins and the
sinners. Tears are demanded for libertines and their crimes are
gilded. Virtue becomes a tyranny; the marriage bond an
intolerable yoke, and the divorce court--which is truly a
vestibule of hell--a haven of relief.

It is unnecessary to trace the effects of such degrading teaching
on the lives of the young, whose minds are as wax to receive and
marble t