hand.

8. NOVELS.

As to NOVELS it is difficult to say what advice ought to be given. At
first view they seem unnecessary, wholly so; and from this single
consideration. They interest and improve just in proportion as the
fiction they contain is made to resemble reality; and hence it might be
inferred, and naturally enough, too, that reality would in all cases be
preferable to that which imitates it. But to this it may be replied,
that we have few books of narrative and biography, which are written
with so much spirit as some works of fiction; and that until those
departments are better filled, fiction, properly selected, should be
admissible. But if fiction be allowable at all, it is only under the
guidance of age and experience;--and here there is even a more pressing
need of a friend than in the cases already mentioned.

On the whole, it is believed to be better for young men who have little
leisure for reading, and who wish to make the most they can of that
little, to abandon novels wholly. If they begin to read them, it is
difficult to tell to what an excess they may go; but if they never read
one in their whole lives, they will sustain no great loss. Would not
the careful study of a single chapter of Watts's Improvement of the
Mind, be of more real practical value than the perusal of all that the
best novel writers,--Walter Scott not excepted,--have ever written?

9. OF NEWSPAPERS.

Among other means both of mental and moral improvement at the present
day, are periodical publications. The multiplicity and cheapness of
these sources of knowledge renders them accessible to all classes of
the community. And though their influence were to be as evil as the
frogs of Egypt we could not escape it.

Doubtless they produce much evil, though their tendency on the whole is
believed to be salutary. But wisdom is necessary, in order to derive
the greatest amount of benefit from them; and here, perhaps, more than
any where else, do the young need the counsels of experience. I am not
about to direct what particular newspapers and magazines they ought to
read; this is a point which their friends and relatives must assist
them in determining. My purpose is simply to point to a few principles
which should guide both the young and those who advise them, in making
the selection.

1. In the first place, do not seek for your guide a paper which is just
commencing its existence, unless you have reason to think the character
of