Dr. Wayland says: "He who meditates with pleasure upon pictures of pollution and crime, whether originating with himself or with others, renders it evident that nothing but opposing circumstances prevents him from being himself an actor in the crimes which he loves. Let the imagination, then, be most carefully guarded, if we wish to escape temptation or make progress in virtue."

Hannah More says: "The constant familiarity with works of fiction, even with such as are not exceptionable in themselves, relaxes the mind, that wants hardening; dissolves the heart, that wants fortifying; stirs the imagination, which wants quieting; irritates the passions, which want calming; and, above all, disinclines and disqualifies for active virtues and for spiritual exercises. The habitual indulgence in such reading is a silent, mining mischief."

Charles Skelton, of Trenton, who endowed a library, from which he directed all mere tales and works of fiction should be excluded, says: "Truth is always preferable to falsehood. Life is too earnest and time too precious to be wasted on fictions that give no knowledge. A single great, practical truth is of more value than all the fictions ever invented by novelists."

Published by the Tract Association of Friends, 304 Arch St., Philadelphia.

DEMORALIZING LITERATURE AND ART.

HE advance of modern society in general intelligence,

THE

as well as in the arts and comforts of civilized life, has been steady and rapid. The progress of the United States in these directions has been largely owing to the liberal spirit which pervades its institutions, and their wholesome influence, and the possession of almost unlimited natural resources, have combined, under the blessing of the Most High, to give to our beloved country a rapidity of growth in material wealth and general prosperity unexampled in the world's history.

With the general increase in wealth there has been brought within reach of the great bulk of our people, not only the comforts, but many of the luxuries of life; following these there has been an indulgence in tastes often of a character more or less injurious, and a love of display has been developed which leads to extravagance in modes of living. In order to support a style which is beyond their circumstances, men are thus often driven to an unwarrantable extension of their business, which results in pecuniary embarrassment, distress to their families, and a loss of moral rectitude.

But besides these causes and consequences of demoralization, which all thoughtful men observe and deplore, there are some others which, though hidden in their nature, may well awaken in the true lover of his country deep

anxiety lest, if they go unchecked, the result will in the end prove disastrous to its true interests and highest happi

ness.

With the cultivation of what are known as the "Fine Arts," and through the opportunities which wealth affords, there have been introduced on this side of the Atlantic many works of the acknowledged masters in painting and sculpture, which are commended as models of art, and have thus been accepted as a standard to be followed. Some of these, which are in keeping with modes of life and a code of morals utterly at variance with the pure teachings of the gospel, are tolerated and admired in cultivated society, forgetting that no cover of artistic excellence or stamp of classical reputation counts for anything in the Divine sight as an excuse for that which prompts unholy thoughts; and that, though "to the pure all things are pure," no one will be justified in "putting an occasion to fall in his brother's way."

The tendency of the present day in this direction is to be seen in the character of many of the paintings and engravings exhibited in art galleries or the windows of print stores; in the pieces of statuary introduced into public grounds, or in the ornamentation of public buildings, wherein undraped figures occupy conspicuous places. Has there not also been a growing relaxation of those rules of propriety which were once sufficient to exclude such representations from private houses; and do we not now find in the homes of the wealthy, and even those of professing Christians, specimens both of painting and sculpture whose tendency cannot be in the direction of a high order of purity or virtue?

Emboldened by this laxity of public sentiment, the theatre, the opera, and the circus, too ready to pander to the lower appetites of the community, have of late thrown off much of the restraint which at one time they assumed, and we now not unfrequently see displayed on their pla