THE EFFECT OF LITERATURE ON YOUTH
A GREAT factor in the formation of the
character of our youth is home literature.
Suppose the library, to' which the younger
members of the family have free access, to be
stacked with numerous volumes of trashy
reading, can we not readily conceive a youth
ful character to bear a close resemblance to the
character represented in the library? Impres
sion succeeds impression, until finally, in the
inclinations and habits of those thus situated,
we begin to notice the effects of some ruinous
influence. Like some narcotic, after these im
pressions have once become instilled, it is next
to an impossibility to dislodge them. Almost
daily the papers present to us instances of
boys scarcely in their teens, who hecoming
animated by a desire for some heroic (?) ad
venture, have departed for the wide west or
,the boundless deep, armed with a revolver or
some similar weapon, to carry into effect their
desires. Now are such desires innate, are
they the natural inclinations of the boy? No,
there is something back of them, and this
something can in nine cases out of ten be
traced to trashy literature. Let us if we fail
to realize the importance of pure literature,
look back a few years, and we will behold with
a shudder, the danger to which we were exposed*
while perusing the pages of some very low
grade literature. What our experience has
not taught us regarding its influence, observa
tion has abundantly supplied. We realize that
a few low grade books whose contents are a
disgrace and a discredit to their authors, and
whose value lay in the printing alone, have
been the price of our childrens’ characters-
After we have provided such a library through
our unseeming carelessness, depraved charac
ters are presented, then we realize to our
sorrow, our great error in placing such litera
ture within the children’s reach. Can any pa
rent, desirous of impressing given thoughts or
deeds, more effectually accomplish his purpose
THE FREE LANCE.
than by rearing his children with free access to
an abundance of literature of a given character.
If he be a desciple of Ingersoll, and desire his
children to follow in the parental footsteps,
he tolerates in his library, the presence of a
trashy miscellany. Should he desire them to
become Christians, he places before them works
of a Christian nature. If we would do justice
to our children, we will select for them such
literature as will form only good impressions.
THE PLACE OF CHEMISTRY IN CIVILIZATION AND
EDUCATION.
IN a recent number of The Forum there ap
pears a brief but note-worthy article en
titled the Role of Chemistry in Civilization,
by Professor W. Crookes. The contributions
of chemistry to the list of those creature com
forts with which civilized man delights to sur
round himself, and which may be said to be
the mark of his civilization, are noted among
the bleached, dyed and printed textiles of
which clothing is composed ; • the leather of
shoes, paper of books, and sugar and other
prepared foods; while gun-powder and dyna
mite may be named as powerful agents in se
curing that sovereignty over nature which Pro
fessor Crookes regards as the extent of civili-
The important bearing of chemical
research upon the development of nearly all
our industries is forced very strikingly upon
the minds of all who are in the least acquainted
with them.
zation
Interesting as is the study of the intimate
connection of chemical operations and pro
duct with all that contributes to the material
welfare of mankind, the views which Professor
Crookes gives of the influence of chemical
discoveries and methods upon the most funda
mental ideas of humanity, is especially inter
esting,
Little more than a century ago, ideas of
matter were very vague, and the chemical
changes then observed, were often explained
L., '92