Does the perusal of works of fiction act favourably, or unfavourably, on the moral character? : autograph manuscript signed : [London], [1836].

Being an eight-page autograph manuscript signed which, according to the bookseller's description, "was intended as a criticism of the ultra-Evangelical point of view, according to which the reading of the works of such authors as Walter Scott, Bulwer-Lytton and Cooper was very sinful and sure to lead to perdition;" according to Cook and Wedderburn, "This was presumably a theme set by Dale; or possibly it was a task undertaken by Ruskin spontaneously, in protest again views to which his tutor lent authority (Ruskin, ed. Cook and Wedderburn, I, p. 357).