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Books.
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life; for I have always set a greater value on the character of a doer of good than any other kind of reputation; and, if I have been a useful citizen, the public owes the advantage of it to that book." There can be no doubt that the lives of thousands are influenced by the books they peruse at a period when the mind is like an unwritten page, and of wax-like impressibility. A breath from some chance volume may fill the sails of the human ship, just launched on the broad ocean of existence, and give the first impetus towards a harbor of safety or the engulfing maelstrom.

O, how often have the pure lips of maidenhood quaffed from the Circe-cup of an evil book until the entrancing poison coursed through young veins beyond the power of antidote, and the health of the spirit was hopelessly broken! Give us, then, fearless and honest critics, who will distinguish the fair-seeming nightshade from the innocent flowers of fiction. Let the Censor's broad fan diligently winnow away the light and profitless chaff of literature, and disclose the wholesome wheaten treasure beneath, which yields fit nourishment for the expanding intellect. He who performs this sacred duty, achieves a double good, for he surely increases our reverence for books; and can we revere them too much, when our very religion comes to us embalmed in the holy pages of an inspired volume?

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