Reading and its Influence
315
the stories are not true; but this does not do away with the evil results
of their use. The ideas presented in these books mislead the children.
They impart false views of life and beget and foster a desire for the
unreal....
Never should books containing a perversion of truth be placed in
the hands of children or youth. Let not our children, in the very process
of obtaining an education, receive ideas that will prove to be seeds of
sin
[414]
How Mental Vigor Is Destroyed—There are few well-balanced
minds because parents are wickedly negligent of their duty to stimulate
weak traits and repress wrong ones. They do not remember that they
are under the most solemn obligation to watch the tendencies of each
child, that it is their duty to train their children to right habits and right
ways of thinking
Cultivate the moral and intellectual powers. Let not these noble
powers become enfeebled and perverted by much reading of even
storybooks. I know of strong minds that have been unbalanced and
partially benumbed, or paralyzed, by intemperance in reading
Exciting Reading Makes Restless, Dreamy Child—Readers of
frivolous, exciting tales become unfitted for the duties of practical life.
They live in an unreal world. I have watched children who have been
allowed to make a practice of reading such stories. Whether at home
or abroad, they were restless, dreamy, unable to converse except upon
the most commonplace subjects. Religious thought and conversation
was entirely foreign to their minds. With the cultivation of an appetite
for sensational stories the mental taste is perverted, and the mind is
not satisfied unless fed upon this unwholesome food. I can think of no
more fitting name for those who indulge in such reading than mental
inebriates. Intemperate habits of reading have an effect upon the brain
similar to that which intemperate habits of eating and drinking have
upon the body
Before accepting the present truth, some had formed the habit of
novel reading. Upon uniting with the church, they made an effort to
overcome this habit. To place before this class reading similar to that
11
Ibid., 384, 385
.
12
The Review and Herald, November 12, 1908
.
13
Testimonies For The Church 2, 410
.
14
Counsels to Teachers, Parents, and Students, 134, 135
.