and the grandeurs of the world are not always true goods, when it shews on the theatre a queen so unhappy as Hecuba, deploring with that pathetic air, her misfortunes in Euripides.-Comedy, which is an image of common conversation, corrects the public vices, by letting us see how ridiculous they are in particular instances. Aristophanes does not mock at the foolish vanity of Praxagora, (in his Parliament of Women,) but to cure the vanity of the other Athenian women and it was only to teach the Roman soldiers, in what consisted true valour, that Plautus exposed in public the extravagance of false bravery in his braggadocio captain, in the comedy of the Boastful Soldier."* ARCHBISHOP SECKER, in his sermon on the text, "Lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God," says:t "Another considerable ingredient in the fashionable amusements of the world, are public spectacles, and provided regard be had to time and cost, they might be allowably and beneficially frequented, if they were preserved from tendencies dangerous to virtue." And again, in the sermon on the text, "Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded," he says, "the other sort of pleasures especially dangerous to young people, are gay amusements. Love of pleasure is undeniably one part of * Rapin, Reflexions sur La Poesie, sec. x. Sermon x. vol. i. p. 220. our nature; but sense of duty, and concern for lasting happiness, are as evident and much more important parts; therefore allow yourselves in fit instances of pleasure, at fit seasons, to a fit degree, and enjoy them with a merry heart; but never let the thought of living to pleasure get the least possession of you." Here is ample allowance of all that we contend for, and which Christianity permits, a moderate indulgence in rational amusement; and that Archbishop Secker did not mean to exclude the Theatre from that definition, is evident from his sanctioning it in the first sermon, and not excepting it by name in the second, when he speaks of "gay amusements." The discipline of the present day is so totally opposed to this spirit of mild indulgence, that amusement of any kind is almost proscribed as sin. But is it certain that these rigid teachers are "wiser in their generation" than their forefathers? And is there not danger in this extreme severity of doctrine, lest, in rooting out from the heart every inclination to gaiety, we should, at the same time, expel from it the kindly feelings of charity, and supply the void with narrow and gloomy selfishness. It remains yet to be proved, whether a harsh interpretation of the Christian code will increase the happiness of mankind, and render the world in reality more religious. Archbishop Secker thought otherwise, and his opinion is worth attending to, ás re N corded in the following words: "The opposite extreme (of straining the duties of religion too high) hath seldom done good, and often harm: hath deterred weak spirits from taking the burden of religion upon them, entangled scrupulous tempers with endless perplexities, and made rigid ones uncharitable and superstitious: given the enemies of Christianity opportunities of declaiming against it, as unnaturally severe, and tempted the careless professors of it, after rejecting, as they well might, the over strict sense of such phrases, not to take the pains of looking for any other, but to go on unrestrained by them, to live as they please!"+ DR. BEILBY PORTEUS, Bishop of London, in his sermon preached before the lords spiritual and temporal on the General Fast, February 10th, 1779, says, "Let parents, in fine, when they are so anxious to embellish the manners, and improve the understandings of their children, pay a little more attention than they have done to the cultivation of * Sermon, x. vol. i. page 220. "To be righteous over much, and to be righteous over little, are extremes equally distinct from that golden mediocrity, which in all human transactions, public and private, is the best principle of conduct, and which is recommended to us by the example of our Saviour himself, who occasionally mixed in convivial intercourse with publicans and sinners, and taught the hypocritical Pharisee, that the subbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."-Bishop Watson's Sermons, vol. i. p. 539. their hearts; and let those grand corrupters of their unguarded innocence and simplicity, licentious novels, licentious histories, and licentious systems of philosophy, be for ever banished from the hands of our youth." Here again is sufficient evidence, that this truly Christian prelate did not agree with those who consider the Theatre as the high road to perdition, or he surely would not have omitted it in this very appropriate place, and in this carefully expressed caution. Again, in a sermon on the favourite and most salutary text, "Lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God," he says, "At present I shall confine myself to that sort of pleasures which are usually styled innocent, and in a certain degree and under proper restrictions undoubtedly are so; I mean the gaieties and amusements of life. Here then is the precise point at which you ought to stop. You may be lovers of pleasure; it is natural, it is reasonable for you to be so; but you must not be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. This is the true line which separates harmless gaiety from criminal dissipation." Here is the spirit of Christian moderation again powerfully expressed, and the utmost indulgence allowed that any reasonable mind can require, but among the harmless gaieties of the world, permissible in fitting time and place, the Theatre is not excepted, either here or in any other of Bishop Porteus' discourses. If he had considered it an institution opposed to Christianity, he would scarcely have omitted these opportunities of expressing that opinion. ARCHDEACON PALEY, is his "Sermon addressed to the young Clergy of the diocese of Carlisle," says, "Observe delicacy in the choice of your company and refinement in your pleasures. Above all things keep out of public houses; you have no business there; your being seen to go in and out of them is disgraceful; neither be seen at drunken feasts, boisterous sports, late hours, or barbarous diversions. Let your amusements, like every thing else about you, be still, quiet, and unoffending." But here, there is no total prohibition of the Theatre, no hint or allusion that a fascinating amusement existed, which was in reality a "snare of the devil." I may probably be told that the Theatre is such a monster, that the possibility of any moderately virtuous mind having any thing to do with it never occurred to these eminent divines. Let that argument stand for what it is reasonably worth, but when licentious books, gaming, drinking, and cruel sports are mentioned, the Theatre could not be passed over, if it were considered worse, or even on a level with those excesses. DR. ISAAC WATTS, the author of the Divine Hymns, whose life and character entitle him to respect from men of every creed, in his "Treatise on the Education of Children and Youth," condemns the Stage as dangerous and to be avoided by young people, arguing still like others on its abuses; and many of the plays of his day were sufficiently ob |