fellow-citizens, who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief,
that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in
their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just
as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present,
except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables.
General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is
now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has
subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c. &c.; but no details
can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a
newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he
who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with
falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great
facts, and the details are all false.

Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.
Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths. 2nd,
Probabilities. 3rd, Possibilities. 4th, Lies. The 1st chapter would be
very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and
information from such sources, as the editor would be willing to risk
his own reputation for their truth. The 2nd would contain what, from a
mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude
to be probably true. This, however, should rather contain too little
than too much. The 3rd and 4th should be professedly for those readers
who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they
would occupy.

Such an editor too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing
practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the
depravity of taste which this nauseous aliment induces. Defamation
is becoming a necessary of life; insomuch, that a dish of tea in the