Moloch. By Mrs. Campbell Praed. 3 vole. (Chapman and BOO
—Most readers will be a little surprised by the scenes in which they first make acquaintance with Mrs. Campbell Praed's heroine. If this young lady had dropped from the moon, she could not have be more careless of the manners and customs of society. But this surprise. will change to a very different feeling, when they come.** realise the plot of the story. Briefly put, it is this. A man falls in love with and engages himself to the daughter of a woman whom he has taken away from her husband, with whom he has lived for sewers& years, and who has borne him children. Now, this is a very frig' htful story. We can imagine it told, with the utmost gravity anddignity, without a single superfluous word, as an impressive warning againat. profligacy. But it becomes a grave offence against taste, and we may say against morality, though nothing could be further, we are sure, from the author's thoughts, when it is mixed up, as it is here, with the ordinary frivolities of fiction. And for whom, let us ask Mrs. Campbell Praed, as we have asked others on like occasions, for whom does she write ? Does she know who they are that actually read novels ? Does she suppose that they are men of pleasure, or rather young women whom it can serve no purpose to shock, and, we do not hesitate to say, to harm, with such stories as these ? This is really, for a boolethat we quite believe to bare been well meant, the very worst offender that has come under our notice during an experience of many years. Is there no way to teach authors and publishers their plain duty to society in this matter ? Surely, the great libraries, which minister to, if they do not create this enormous demand for fiction, might exercise a censorship which would put a stop to the production of such books as Moloch.
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