Omit the comedies of Shakspeare, and the Don Juan,
perhaps the Cain, of Byron, though the latter is a magnificent poem,
and read the rest fearlessly; that must indeed be a depraved mind
which can gather evil from Henry VIII., from Richard III., from
Macbeth, and Hamlet, and Julius Caesar. Scott's sweet, wild, romantic
poetry can do you no harm. Nor can Wordsworth's, nor Campbell's, nor
Southey's--the greatest part at least of his; some is certainly
objectionable. For history, read Hume, Rollin, and the Universal
History, if you can; I never did. For fiction, read Scott alone; all
novels after his are worthless. For biography, read Johnson's Lives
of the Poets, Boswell's Life of Johnson, Southey's Life of Nelson,
Lockhart's Life of Burns, Moore's Life of Sheridan, Moore's Life of
Byron, Wolfe's Remains. For natural history, read Bewick and Audubon,
and Goldsmith and White's history of Selborne. For divinity, your
brother will advise you there. I can only say, adhere to standard
authors, and avoid novelty."
From this list, we see that she must have had a good range of books from
which to choose her own reading. It is evident, that the womanly
consciences of these two correspondents were anxiously alive to many
questions discussed among the stricter religionists.
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