Hence there is no greater responsibility
before God than that which man assumes when he wields the pen in the
name of humanity, whether for noble or selfish ends.
A book is a teacher whose doctrine is listened to with a willingness
equal to its degree of conformity to the inclinations of our heart.
It is a friend that gains our confidence, inasmuch as it flatters our
prejudices and passions, and in which we find a reflection of our own
thoughts, the echo of our most secret sentiments. You would not like
to receive a stranger into your house without his being properly
recommended, but you will readily receive a book on the strength of
reports that are often deceitful.
The country is flooded with productions that sap the foundations of
morality, and which bear that _imprimatur_ given by a poisoned
public opinion to such authors as pander to its craven spirit. The
world judges with a depraved indulgence the book in which it finds
its maxims approved and sanctioned, portraying the exact seducing
picture of its vanities. The purest souls and, not unfrequently,
serious minds are too often imposed upon by those popular prejudices,
and, despite their good reason, yield to their influence by reading
the flimsy productions of depraved minds, which, besides all the
other injuries they cause, rob them of a most precious time.
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