CHAPTER XVIII. Be Chary of Bad Books

Be Chary of Bad Books

INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER XVIII

BY ANTHONY COMSTOCK

In the heart of every boy is a “Chamber of Imagery.” Practically speaking, this is Memory’s storehouse, the “Commissary Department of thought,” “the Hall of Entertainment.” Bad books, foul pictures and criminal stories are used by the spirit of evil to decorate the walls of this Chamber of Imagery. When once there comes through the doors of this chamber (eye and ear) either one of these influences for evil, the looms of Imagination and Fancy (the reimaging and reproductive faculties of the mind) are started in motion and then the Chamber of Imagery becomes the Hall of Entertainment. Charmed by pictures created by Imagination and Fancy a boy soon becomes a day-dreamer and castle-builder. Led on by these debasing allurements he soon develops into a full-fledged criminal. Thoughts are the aliment upon which the mind feeds. If pure and holy, they are like fertilizing currents flowing through the soul, enriching, ennobling and beautifying character and life. If impure, sensational and sensual, they are equally degrading, demoralizing and deadly in their influence. It is as important that Imagination and Fancy have pure material to work with, as that a stream shall originate in a fountain free from deadly poison. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The heart cannot be pure if the thoughts are defiled.