From these two causes it has happened, that the contents of a great majority of our novels have been unfavourable to the improvement of the moral character.

Now when we consider this circumstance, and when we consider likewise, that professed novel-readers generally read all the compositions of this sort that come into their way, that they wait for no selection, but that they devour the good, the bad, and the indifferent alike, we shall see the reasons, which have induced the Quakers to believe, that the effect of this species of writing upon the mind has been generally pernicious.
One of the effects, which the Quakers consider to be produced by novels upon those who read them, is an affectation of knowledge, which leads them to become forward and presumptuous.

This effect is highly injurious, for while it raises them unduly in their own estimation, it lowers them in that of the world.

Nothing can be more disgusting, in the opinion of the Quakers, than to see persons assuming the authoritative appearance of men and women before their age or their talents can have given them any pretensions to do it.
Another effect is the following.

The Quakers conceive that there is among professed novel readers a peculiar cast of mind.