they have read in newspapers are just
as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present,
except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables.
General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is
now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has
subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c. &c.; but no details
can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a
newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he
who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with
falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great
facts, and the details are all false.

Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.
Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd,
Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The 1st chapter would be
very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and
information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk
his own reputation for their truth. The 2nd would contain what, from a
mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude
to be probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little
than too much. The 3rd and 4th should be professedly for those readers
who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they
would occupy.

Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing
practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the
depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation
is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the
morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those
who do not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance
to their auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which
should fill a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the possibility
that some may believe them, though they do not themselves. It seems to
escape them, that it is not he who prints, but he who pays for printing
a slander, who is its real author.

These thoughts on the subjects of your letter are hazarded at your
request. Repeated instances of the publication of what has not been
intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political
enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their
own wickedness only,