5566 ON TEE EDUCATION OF YOUTH. Bear with me then while I take thetrt,in order one after another, and briefly give my opinion concerning each of them. 1. Let us begin with the playhouse. It is granted, that a dramatic representation of the affairs of human fife is by no means sinful in itself I am inclined to think, that valuable compositions might be made of this kind, such as might entertain a virtuous audience with innocent delight, and even with some real profit. Such have been written in French, and have, in limes past, been acted with applause. But it is too well known, that the comedies which appear on our stage, and most of the tragedies too, have no design to set religion or virtue in its best light, nor to render vice odious to the spectators: In many of them piety makes a ridicu- lous figure, and virtue is drest in the habit of folly ; the sacred name of God is frequently taken in vain, if not blasphemed ; and the man of flagrant vice is the fine gentleman, and the poet's favourite, who must be rewarded at the end of the play. Besides, there is nothing will pass on our theatres that lias not the mixture of some amorous intrigue : lewdness itself reigns, and riots in some of their scenes : sobriety is put quite out of countenance, and modesty is in certain danger there : the youth of serious religion, that ventures sometimes into this infected air, finds his antidotes too weak to resist the contagion. The pleasures of the closet and devout retirement are suspended first, and then utterly vanquished by the overpowering influence of the last comedy : the fancy is all over defiled, the vain images rise upper- most in the soul, and pollute the feeble attempts of devotion, till by degrees secret religion is lost and forgotten : and in a little time the playhouse has got so much the mastery of conscience, that the young Christian goes to bed after the evening drama, with as much satisfaction and ease, as he used to do after even- ing prayer. If there have been found two or three plays which have been tolerably free from lewd and profane mixtures, there are some scores or hundreds that have many hateful passages in them, for which no excuse can be made. And when all the charming powers of poesy and music are joined with the gayest scenes and entertainments, to assault the senses and the soul' at once, and to drive out virtue from the possession of the heart, it is to be feared that it will not long keep its place and power there. What a prophet of their own says of the court, may with much morq truth and justice be said of the theatre. 10 It is a golden, but a fatal circle, Upon whose magic skirts a thousand devils In crystal forms, sit tempting innocence, And beckon early virtue from its centre." Another of the poets of the town, who made 'no great pre-
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