CANTERBURY CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 11, 4 July 1884, Page 29

CANTERBURY CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY.

Christchurch, June 24, 1884. After the meeting getting through some routine business on Monday evening, including the adoption of the balance-shee*, Mr. R. Dobbin read a lengthy and interesting paper, entitled, " A Few Thoughts on Novelreading." This was an admirable paper as far as it went, and adhered strictly to its title, as it did not go into the question of novel reading generally, but was confined to a class, or at most to a few classes of novels, and their effect 'on Jthe minds of their readers. In a brief and suitable introduction Mr. Dobbin, showed the universality of novel reading, and the consequent need of no apology for introducing the matter. The effects of novel reading, he pointed out, are twofold : for evil and for good. Bad novels are productive of evil, by holding all that is sacred np to contempt ; and by lauding vice and immorality. This is a class that deserves the reprobation of all honest men and should be excluded .from society. Another evil class of novels is that which produces an unsettled state of mind, a restlessness, a craving after the impossible. Charlotte Bronte's novels generally have this effect. Such writers have a wonderful power for good or evil. The evil takes this peculiar morbid form, and cause 3 Ihe mind to neglect present duties, and to seek desires that it has no reasonable hope of attaining. To this may be ascribed many of the blighted hopes of manhood, and the wanton destruction of time that has made such havoc amongst so many young men and women throughout the world. Often, of course, novels have no hand in this but too often it has been the prime cause. Amongst this class also may be mentioned some who develop a taste for solitude and communing with nature ; an excessive and gushing admiration of bleak hills and pine-clad hills ; who mope along by babblieg brooks. This class of individuals always causes an irritation of mind to men who, without professing an indifference to natural scenery or even to be without a spark of poetry, look on man as a being whose mission is a duty to himself and his fellow-man. But who can estimate the good Jthat novelists such as Chas. Beade,|Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Scott, have effected by writing down abuses in the administration of laws and public institutions, thereby meriting the gratitude of their country. The delineations of some of their chpracters, too, are highly edifying, and the reader after perusal finds himself a better man or woman. Such reading as this ought to be encouraged in young people as it engenders a taste for study, which dryer and weightier subjects fail to accomplish, A very hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Dobbin. Messrs. Kennedy, Milner, and Leahy took the opportunity of briefly commenting on the paper in a very favourable manner. The President regretted that this was the last time the Society would be favoured with Mr. Dobbin's papers, as he was about returning to England. He then called on the meeting to give three cheers. Theee were lustily given for Mr. Dobbin, after which he was wished " Bon Voyage," and " Success."