Chapter 22

A Few days after the arrival of the Moseleys at the lodge John drove his
sisters to the little village of L----, which at that time was thronged
with an unusual number of visiters. It had, among other fashionable
arrangements for the accommodation of its guests, one of those circulators
of good and evil, a public library. Books are, in a great measure, the
instruments of controlling the opinions of a nation like ours. They are an
engine, alike powerful to save or to destroy. It cannot be denied, that
our libraries contain as many volumes of the latter, as the former
description; for we rank amongst the latter that long catalogue of idle
productions, which, if they produce no other evil, lead to the misspending
of time, _our own_ perhaps included. But we cannot refrain expressing our
regret, that such formidable weapons in the cause of morality, should be
suffered to be wielded by any indifferent or mercenary dealer, who
undoubtedly will consult rather the public tastes than the private good:
the evil may be remediless, yet we love to express our sentiments, though
we should suggest nothing new or even profitable. Into one of these haunts
of the idle, then, John Moseley entered with a lovely sister leaning on
either arm. Books were the entertainers of Jane, and instructors of Emily.
Sir Edward was fond of reading of a certain sort--that which required no
great depth of thought, or labor of research; and, like most others who
are averse to contention, and disposed to be easily satisfied, the baronet
sometimes found he had harbored opinions on things not exactly
reconcileable with the truth, or even with each other. It is quite as
dangerous to give up your faculties to the guidance of the author you are
perusing, as it is unprofitable to be captiously scrutinizing every
syllable he may happen to advance; and Sir Edward was, if anything, a
little inclined to the dangerous propensity. Unpleasant, Sir Edward
Moseley never was. Lady Moseley very seldom took a book in her hand: her
opinions were established to her own satisfaction on all important points,
and on the minor ones, she made it a rule to coincide with the popular
feeling. Jane had a mind more active than her father, and more brilliant
than her mother; and if she had not imbibed injurious impressions from the
unlicensed and indiscriminate reading she practised, it was more owing to
the fortunate circumstance, that the baronet's library contained nothing
extremely offensive to a pure taste, nor dangerous to good morals, than to
any precaution of her parents against the deadly, the irretrievable injury
to be sustained from ungoverned liberty in this respect to a female mind.
On the other hand, Mrs. Wilson had inculcated the necessity of restraint,
in selecting the books