Sentiments of Pious and Eminent Persons
James Dodson
ON THE
Pernicious Tendency
OF
DRAMATIC ENTERTAINMENTS,
AND OTHER
VAIN AMUSEMENTS;
WITH
A FEW REFLECTIONS ON THE SAME SUBJECT SUBJOINED.
By LINDLEY MURRAY.
A NEW EDITION.
Be wise to-day; ’tis madness to defer:
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is push’d out of life.—YOUNG.
London:
Printed by William and Samuel Graves, Sherborne-Lane;
for the TRACT ASSOCIATION of the
SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
1821.
No. 18. 3rd Ed.
iii
Introduction.
IN this age of extreme refinement and pleasurable pursuits, it appears to be almost hopeless, and may, by some, be deemed presumptuous, to attempt to draw the public attention to any strictures, or to the sentiments of any persons whatever, against the favourite and much frequented Entertainments of the Stage.—But, as we live in times of free inquiry, and when candid examinations of all opinions, decently advanced, are recommended, perhaps the following sentiments of several great and good characters, on the dangerous nature and tendency of dramatic Amusements, may be perused with some degree of patience and attention. As, from the weakness of the human mind, its attachment to ancient opinion, and reverence for authority, there is wisdom in freely investigating some long established notions; and the result has often been a dissipation of error, and an establishment of truth; so it is of equal, if not of superior importance, to examine, with impartiality and care, many of our modes of practice, and established indulgences in life.
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There is the greater necessity for this scrutiny of conduct, because action, more than speculation, forms the character; and because our passions, depravity, and love of the world, peculiarly dispose us to an attachment to pernicious and pleasurable habits, supported by the authority and practice of numbers around us.
Encouraged by these considerations, the Compiler has ventured to introduce the sentiments and testimonies of a few virtuous characters, against some indulgences which at present meet with general approbation. The subject is far from being here largely discussed; a few only of the most interesting views of it are simply spread before the reader: yet, it is presumed, that, if justly delineated, they are of such importance as to claim the most serious attention. To such an examination they are readily submitted; under a hope that, if conviction of their propriety should be the result, no attachment to former conduct, or present pleasure, will preponderate against the dictates of conscience, and that peace of mind, which is, beyond all comparison, a higher enjoyment than the most refined amusements of the world can bestow.
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EXTRACTS,
&c.
FROM THE GREAT PASCAL.
“THERE is nothing more capable of letting us into the knowledge of human misery, than an enquiry after the real cause of that perpetual hurry and confusion in which we pass our lives. The soul is sent into the body, to be the sojourner of a few days. She knows this is but a stop, till she may embark for eternity; and that a small space is allowed her to prepare for the voyage. The main part of this space is ravished from her by the necessities of nature, and but a slender pittance left to her own disposal; and yet, this moment that remains, does so strangely oppress and perplex her, that she only studies how to lose it. She feels an intolerable burden in being obliged to live with herself, and think of herself; and therefore, her principal care is to forget herself, and to let this short and precious moment pass away without reflection, by being amused with things that prevent her notice of its speed. This is the ground of all the tumultuary business, of all the trifling diversions amongst men; in which our general aim is to make the time pass off our hands,
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without feeling it, or rather without feeling ourselves; and, by getting rid of this small portion of life, to avoid that inward disgust and bitterness, which we should not fail to meet with, if we found leisure to descend into our own breasts.
Having no infallible remedy against ignorance, misery, and death, we imagine that, at least, some respite, some shelter, may be found, by agreeing to banish them from our meditation. This is the only natural comfort which mankind have been able to invent under their numerous calamities. But a most miserable comfort it proves; because it does not tend to the removal of these evils, but only to the concealment of them for a short season; and because, in thus concealing them, it hinders us from applying such proper means as would remove them. Thus, by a strange revolution in the nature of man, that grief and inward disquiet which he dreads as the greatest of sensible evils, is, in one respect, his greatest good; because it might contribute, more than all things besides, to the putting of him in a successful method of recovery. On the other hand, his diversions, which he seems to prize as his sovereign good, are, indeed, his greatest evil; because they are of all things the most effectual in making him negligent under his distemper; they do but amuse and beguile him; and, in the conclusion, lead him down blindfold into the grave. It is, indeed, one of the miracles of Christianity, that, by reconciling man to God, it restores him to his own good opinion; that it makes him able to bear the sight of himself; and, in some cases, renders solitude and silence more agreeable than all the intercourse and action of mankind. Nor is it by fixing man in his own person, that these wonderful effects are produced; it is by carrying him to
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God, and by supporting him under the sense of his miseries, with the hopes of an assured and complete deliverance in a better life.”
FROM THE PRINCE OF CONTI.
—“The call which men have for diversion, is not by far so great as is thought, and it consists more in imagination or in custom, than in a real necessity. Those who are employed in bodily labour, have only need of a bare cessation from it. Those who are employed in affairs toilsome to the mind, and but little laborious to the body, have need to recollect themselves from that disposition which this sort of employment naturally causes, and not to dissipate themselves yet more, by diversions which extremely engage the mind. It is a jest to fancy that one has need to pass three hours in filling the mind with follies at a play. Those who find in themselves this need, ought to look on it, not as a natural weakness, but as a vice of custom, which they must cure by serious employment.”
—“If the soul abandons itself to false pleasures, it loses the relish of spiritual ones, and finds nothing but disgust for the word of God. When one feeds himself with the vain pleasures of the world, the spiritual senses become stupefied, and incapable of relishing, or understanding, the things of God.—Now, among the pleasures of the world, which extinguish the love of the Word of God, it may be said that plays and romances hold the first rank; because there is nothing more opposed to truth; and the
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Spirit of God, being a spirit of truth, can have no part with the vanities of the world.”
—“Plays and romances not only indispose the soul for all acts of religion and piety, but they give it a disgust, in some measure, to all serious and ordinary actions. As nothing is represented in them but gallantries, or extraordinary adventures, and the discourses are far distant from such as are used in serious affairs, one insensibly takes from them a romantic disposition of mind: the head is filled with heroes and heroines; and women, seeing the adorations which, in them, are given to their sex, have that sort of life so much impressed on their minds, that the affairs of their family and of common life become insupportable to them; and when they return to their houses, with minds thus evaporated and filled with these follies, they find every thing there disagreeable, and especially their husbands, who, being taken up with their affairs, are not always in the humour of paying them those ridiculous complaisances which are given to women in plays, in romances, and in the romantic life.”
—“Those deceive themselves extremely, who think that plays make no ill impression on them, because they do not find them excite any formed evil desire. There are many degrees before one comes to an entire corruption of mind; and it is always extremely hurtful to the soul, to destroy the ramparts which secured it from temptation.”
“One does not begin to fall when the fall becomes sensible; the fallings of the soul are slow, they have preparations and progressions; and it often happens, that we are overcome by temptations, only by our having weakened our-
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selves in occasions which seemed of no importance; it being certain, that he who despises little things, shall fall by little and little.”
“It must not be imagined that the wicked maxims of which plays are full, are not hurtful, because people do not go there to form their sentiments, but to divert themselves; for they do not fail of making impressions, notwithstanding, without being perceived.—For instance, the opinion that the chimera of honour is so great a good, that it must be preserved, even at the expense of life, is what produces the brutal rage of the gentlemen of France. If those who fight a duel were never spoken of but as fools and madmen—as indeed they are; if that phantom of honour, which is their idol, were never represented but as a chimera and a folly; if care were taken never to form any image of revenge, but as of a mean and cowardly action; the resentment which men feel upon an affront would be infinitely weaker; but that which exasperates and renders it the more lively, is the false impression, that there is cowardice in bearing an affront. Now it cannot be denied that plays, which are full of these evil maxims, do greatly contribute to fortify that impression; because the mind being by them transported, and entirely out of itself, instead of correcting those sentiments, abandons itself to them without resistance, and delights to feel the motions they inspire, which dispose it to produce the like upon occasion.”
—“God does not impute to us the coldness which proceeds from the withdrawing of his light, or merely from the heaviness of this body; but, no doubt, he imputes to us that to which we have contributed by our negligence, and our vain diversions. It is his will that we should
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esteem nothing so much as the gracious gift which he has made us of his love; and that we should be careful to preserve it by giving it nourishment. This command he has intimated to us in the persons of the priests in the ancient law, whom he ordains always to maintain the fire on the altar, and to take care to put wood upon it every day in the morning. This altar is the heart of man, and every Christian is the priest, who ought to be careful to nourish the fire of charity on the altar of his heart, by putting wood every day upon it; that is to say, maintaining it by the meditation of divine things, and by exercises of piety. Now, if those who go to plays have yet any sense of piety, they cannot disown that plays deaden, and tend to entirely extinguish devotion; so that they should not doubt, God judges them extremely guilty, for having made so little account of his love, that instead of nourishing and endeavouring to augment it, they have not feared to extinguish it by their vain diversions: and that he will impute to them as a great sin, the abatement or the loss of their love to him. For if a dissipation of the goods of the world and of earthly riches, by luxury and gaming, is no little sin, what must be judged of a dissipation of the goods of grace, and of that precious treasure the Scripture speaks of, which we ought to purchase by the loss of all the goods, and all the pleasures of this life?”
FROM CHIEF JUSTICE HALE.
“BEWARE of too much recreation. Some bodily exercise is necessary, for sedentary men
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especially; but let it not be too frequent, nor too long. Gaming, taverns, and plays, as they are pernicious, and corrupt youth, so if they had no other fault, they are justly to be declined, in respect to their excessive expense of time, and habituating men to idleness and vain thoughts, and disturbing passions and symptoms, when they are past, as well as while they are used.”
CLARKE, in his Essay on Study, speaking of plays and romances, says——“By what I have seen of them, they are generally very indiscreetly and foolishly written, in a way proper to recommend vanity and wickedness, rather than discredit them; they have a strong tendency to corrupt and debauch the mind with silly, mischievous notions of love and honour, and other things relating to the conduct of life.”
ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON, on the subject of plays, says——“They are intolerable, and not fit to be permitted in a civilized, much less a Christian nation. They do most notoriously minister to vice and infidelity. By their profaneness, they are apt to instil bad principles into the minds of men, and to lessen that awe and reverence which all men ought to have of God and religion; and by their lewdness, they teach vice, and are apt to infect the minds of men, and dispose them to lewd and dissolute practices.”
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ROLLIN, Principal of the University of Paris, and a zealous advocate for the moral and religious education of youth, recites the following passage from the writings of Rochefoucault, with approbation.
“All great diversions are dangerous to a Christian; but of all that have been invented, there is none we have so much reason to fear as plays. The passions, in these entertainments, are so naturally and artfully delineated, that they are excited by them, and imprinted on our hearts, especially that of love; and this more forcibly, when it is represented as chaste and honest: for the more innocent it appears to innocent souls, the more strongly are they disposed to be affected with it.”
THE FOLLOWING ARE TAKEN FROM THE WORKS OF WILLIAM LAW.
——“THE pleasures and diversions of people are certain means for judging of the state of their minds: nothing can please or affect us, but what is according to our nature, and which finds something within us that is suitable to itself. Had we not inward dispositions of tenderness and compassion, we should not find ourselves softened with miserable objects. In like manner, had we not in our nature lively seeds of those disorders which are acted upon the stage, were there not some inward corruption, that finds itself gratified by the irregular passions that are there represented, we should find no more pleasure in the stage, than blind men find in pictures. If impure speeches, if wanton amours, if wild
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passions, and immoral rant, can give us any delight, is it not past all doubt, that we have something of all these disorders in our nature?”
——“You own that God has called you to great purity of conversation; that you are forbid all foolish discourse and filthy jesting, as expressly as you are forbid swearing; and that you are told, to let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth: and yet you go to a house of corrupt communication; you hire persons to entertain you with ribaldry, profaneness, rant, and impurity of discourse; who are to present you with poisonous sentiments, and lewd imaginations, dressed up in elegant language, and to make wicked, vain, and impure discourse more lively and delightful, than you could possibly have it in any ill company. Is not this sinning with a high hand, and grossly offending against the plainest precepts of Scripture?”
——“There is no doctrine of our blessed Saviour that more concerns all Christians, or is more essential to their salvation than this:——“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”——Now, take the stage in its best state, when some admired tragedy is upon it; are the extravagant passions of distracted lovers, the impure ravings of inflamed heroes, the joys and torments of love, and refined descriptions of lusts—are the indecent actions, the amorous transports, the wanton address of the actors, which make so great a part of the most sober and modest tragedies—are these things consistent with this Christian doctrine of purity of heart?”
——“As prejudices, the force of education, the authority of numbers, the way of the world, the example of great names, may make people
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believe, so the same causes may make people act, against all sense and reason, and be guilty of practices which are utterly inconsistent with the purity of their religion.”
——“All people who enter into these houses of entertainment, or contribute the smallest mite towards them, must look on themselves as having been, so far, friends to the most powerful instruments of sensuality, and to be guilty of contributing to an open and public exercise of splendid impurity and profaneness. When we encourage any good design, either with our consent, our money, or presence, we are apt to take a great deal of merit to ourselves; we presently conclude, that we are partakers of all that is good and praise-worthy in it, of all the benefit that arises from it, because we are contributors towards it. A man does not think that he has no share in some public charity, because he is but one in ten thousand that contribute towards it; but if it be a religious charity, and attended with great and happy effects, his conscience tells him, that he is a sharer of all that great good to which he contributed. Now, let this teach us how we ought to judge of the guilt of encouraging any thing that is bad, either with our consent, our money, or our presence. We must not consider how much our single part contributes towards it, how much less we contribute than several thousands of other people; but we must look at the whole thing in itself; and whatever there is of evil in it, or whatever evil arises from it, we must charge ourselves with a share of the whole guilt of so great an evil.”
——“People of fashion and quality have great advantage above the vulgar; their condition and education give them a liveliness and
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brightness of parts, from whence one might justly expect a more exalted virtue. How comes it then, that we see as ill morals, as little religious wisdom, and as great disorders among them, as among the most rude, uneducated part of the world? It is because the politeness of their lives, their course of diversions and amusements, and their way of spending their time, as much extinguish the wisdom and light of religion, as the grossness and ignorance of the dullest part of the world.—Any way of life that darkens our minds, that misemploys our understanding, that fills us with a trifling spirit, that disorders our passions, that separates us from the Spirit of God, is the same certain road to destruction, whether it arise from stupid sensuality, rude ignorance, or polite pleasures. Had any one therefore, the power of an apostle, or the tongue of an angel, it would be well employed, in exposing, and dissuading from those ways of life, which wealth, corruption, and extreme politeness, have brought among us. We, indeed, only call them diversions; but they do the whole work of idolatry and infidelity, and fill people with so much blindness and hardness of heart, that they neither live by wisdom, nor feel the want of it, but are content to play away their lives with scarce any attention to the approaching scenes of death, judgment, and eternity.”
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FROM HANNAH MORE’S “STRICTURES ON THE MODERN SYSTEM OF FEMALE EDUCATION.”
“I would take leave of those amiable and not ill-disposed young persons, who complain of the rigour of human prohibitions, and declare, “they meet with no such strictness in the Gospel,” by asking them, with the most affectionate earnestness, if they can conscientiously reconcile their nightly attendance at every public place which they frequent, with such precepts as the following: “Redeeming the time?”—“Watch and pray?”—“Watch, for ye know not at what time your Lord cometh?”—“Abstain from all appearance of evil?”—“Set your affections on things above.”
“And I would venture to offer one criterion, by which the persons in question may be enabled to decide on the positive innocence and safety of such diversions; I mean, provided they are sincere in their scrutiny and honest in their avowal. If, on their return at night from those places, they find they can retire, and “commune with their own hearts;” if they find the love of God operating with undiminished force on their minds; if they can “bring every thought into subjection,” and concentrate every wandering imagination; if they can soberly examine into their own state of mind; I do not say if they can do all this perfectly and without distraction; (for who can do this at any time?) but if they can do it with the same degree of seriousness, pray with the same degree of fervour, and
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renounce the world in as great a measure as at other times; and if they can lie down with a peaceful consciousness of having avoided in the evening “that temptation” which they had prayed not to “be led” into in the morning, they may then more reasonably hope that all is well, and that they are not speaking false peace to their hearts.”
“If this test were fairly used; if this experiment were honestly tried; if this examination were conscientiously made, may we not without offence presume to ask,—Could our numerous places of public resort, could our ever-multiplying scenes of more select but not less dangerous diversion, nightly overflow with an excess, hitherto unparalleled in the annals of pleasure?”
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FROM W. WILBERFORCE’S “PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE PREVAILING RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF PROFESSED CHRISTIANS,” &c.
“I am well aware that I am now about to tread on very tender ground: but it would be an improper deference to the opinions and manners of the age altogether to avoid it. There has been much argument concerning the lawfulness of theatrical amusements. Let it be sufficient to remark, that the controversy would be short indeed, if the question were to be tried by this criterion of love to the Supreme Being. If there were any thing of that sensibility for the honour of God, and of that zeal in his service, which we show in behalf of our earthly friends, or of our political connexions, should we seek our pleasure in that place which the debauchee, inflamed with wine, or bent on the gratification of other licentious appetites, finds most congenial to his state and temper of mind? in that place, from the neighbourhood of which (how justly termed a school of morals might hence alone be inferred) decorum, and modesty, and regularity, retire, while riot and lewdness are invited to the spot, and invariably select it for their chosen residence; where the sacred name of God is often profaned; where sentiments are often heard with delight, and notions and gestures often applauded, which would not be tolerated in private company, but which may far exceed the utmost licence allowed in the social
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circle, without at all transgressing the large bounds of theatrical decorum; where, when moral principles are inculcated, they are not such as a Christian ought to cherish in his bosom, but such as it must be his daily endeavour to extirpate; not those which Scripture warrants, but those which it condemns as false and spurious, being founded in pride and ambition, and the over-valuation of human favour?”
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CONCLUSION.
IT must be evident to every sober and unprejudiced mind, that the sentiments of these virtuous and enlightened persons, on the corrupting influence, and the fatal amusements, of the theatre, merit the most serious and attentive consideration: and to some minds, it is apprehended, they will appear to be solid and awakening reflections.
If it be true, that many profane, indecent, and irreligious sentiments are to be found in the works of dramatic writers, and these sentiments coloured with the softest names, and recommended on the stage by the most captivating characters and action;—if the senses and imagination are so charmed with the elegance of the scenery, the richness of the dresses, the power of the music, the address of the performers, and the gaiety and splendour of the whole surrounding scene, as to deprive the mind of sober reflection, and agitate it too much for receiving benefit from moral and rational instruction;—if these passionate and fascinating exhibitions injure the delicacy of our best feelings, and gradually weaken our abhorrence of immoral indulgences;—if they frequently break down the ramparts of our virtue, and lay us open to the inroads and government
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of vice and folly;—if they chiefly address the inferior powers of our nature, our senses, imaginations, and passions, and regale them with such high-seasoned enjoyments, as too often vitiate our moral taste, and not only indispose, but give us a disgust to every composition that is not much refined, and especially to the Holy Scriptures, and those sober and religious studies and engagements, which form the great duties of life, and promote our happiness here and hereafter;—if the persons who attend these places of diversion, do neither look for, nor receive, any serious impressions from them, but, on the contrary, often find their minds enervated, and accompanied with a vain and romantic spirit;—if they occupy, in the perusal and exhibition, in the preparation for them, and languor after them, so much of our precious time, as to prevent us from attending to necessary and important concerns; and thus also superinduce habits of indolence and dissipation;—if they abound with flattering pictures of the world, and present, to the youthful mind especially, such highly finished and captivating views of human life and happiness, as are seldom or never realized; and hence, besides an aversion or indifference to the ordinary duties and affairs of mankind, not unfrequently produce deep anxiety, disappointment, and discontent, through time;—if it be of importance to preserve the principles and manners of the rising generation pure and untainted, to prevent them from being governed by their imagination and passions, and to encourage in them modesty, humility, moderation, and a reverence for piety and virtue;—if religion and goodness must be supported by constant care and vigilance, and our preservation from evil depends on our avoiding temptations, and praying daily
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for Divine assistance against it;—if many great and good men have borne public testimony against the pernicious tendency of these amusements; and if numbers of serious and worthy characters of all denominations, have been convinced of the evils connected with them, and thought it their duty to avoid and discourage the attendance and support of them;—if Christianity teaches us to consider ourselves as strangers and pilgrims, travelling towards a better country; and admonishes us not to love the world, nor to be conformed to its vain customs and fashions, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and to maintain a steady self-denial against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;—if these are the common effects and consequences of dramatic entertainments, and truths which cannot fairly be controverted, can we hesitate to acknowledge, that they are of the highest moment, and that it is incumbent upon us not to expose our principles and virtue to the influence of temptations, which are the more dangerous, as they are highly pleasing, little suspected, and seldom opposed?
What advantages can they yield us, that will compensate the loss or hazard of interests so important? All the pleasures, and all the refinements which their warmest votaries have ever found in them, are indeed a poor recompense for the corruption, extravagance, and misery, which they have too frequently sown the seeds of, and produced in human life.
It becomes us then, as rational beings, as Christians, who are called to renounce the vanities of this transient, precarious state, and who have a permanent and better world in view, to assert the dignity of our nature, and to act con-
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formably to the importance of our destination. A few fleeting years will bring us all to the verge of an awful scene, when the vain diversions and pastimes, which are now so highly prized, will appear in their true light, a most lamentable abuse of that precious time and talent with which we have been intrusted, for the great purpose of working out our souls’ salvation. At that solemn period, the great business of religion, a pious and virtuous life, dedicated to the love and service of God, will appear of inestimable value, and, in the highest degree, worthy of the concern and pursuit of reasonable beings. Happy will it be for us, if we become wise in time, take up the cross to all insnaring pleasures, for the few remaining days of our lives, and steadily persevere, under the Divine aid, in fulfilling the various duties assigned us, and in making suitable returns to the Author of all good, for the unmerited blessings which he hath bountifully bestowed upon us. In these exalted employments we shall experience the noblest pleasures, and feel no want of empty and injurious entertainments, to occupy our minds, or to fill up our time. In the scenes and productions of nature, and in the useful works of art; in the faithful narratives of human life, and the descriptions of interesting objects; in the endearments of social and domestic intercourse; in acts of charity and benevolence; and in the pleasing reflections of an upright and self-approving mind, we shall perceive also abundant sources of innocent refreshment and true cheerfulness, as well as the means of enlarging our understandings and improving our hearts.
May those persons, therefore, who have doubts respecting the propriety of indulging themselves in theatrical amusements, and indeed, may all
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who read these lines, seriously consider the hazard of such indulgences, and give the subject that attention which its importance demands. May those especially who are convinced of their dangerous nature and tendency, reject with abhorrence the solicitations of appetite and pleasure, and the fallacious reasonings, which are often adduced in their support. May we never be imposed on by the common, but delusive sentiments, that moral and religious improvement is to be acquired from such impure mixtures; and that the literary merit, and accurate knowledge of the human heart, which are displayed in many parts of dramatic works, will atone for the fatal wounds which innocence, delicacy, and religion, too frequently suffer from these performances. But being convinced that depraved nature will ever select what is most congenial to itself; and that the pleasures derived from refined composition, and the exhibitions of taste and elegance, may be purchased at too dear a rate, let us resolutely and uniformly oppose what we believe to be evil, however it may be arrayed; and do our utmost to discourage, by our example and influence, those powerful and destructive engines of dissipation, profaneness, and corruption.
THE END.
William and Samuel Graves, Printers,
Sherborne Lane, London.