A DEFENCE OF THE STAGE, &c. &c. PHILIPPIANS, iv. 5. "Let your moderation be known unto all men.” My attention has been directed to the subject I am now proposing to discuss, by a Sermon lately published in Dublin, and preached in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Lower Abbey-street, on Sunday, the 4th November, 1838, by the Rev. Dr. John B., Bennett. This Sermon is entitled, "The Evil of Theatrical Amusements, stated and illustrated." Considered by itself, and with reference to this exclusive title, it may be considered a learned, pious, and temperate discourse, almost entirely divested of sectarian prejudice, eloquently argued, dictated, I have no doubt, by a sincere conviction of the truth of the doctrines it inculcates, and an earnest desire to promote the great ends of Christion instruction. The conclusions arrived at are B startling. It is maintained, that to go to the Theatre, is "to follow a multitude to do evil;" that the patrons and professors of the Drama are flying in the face of Divine command; practising ungodliness, and hazarding the inestimable blessing of redemption, by indulging in a pursuit that Christianity forbids: a pursuit in its nature essentially vicious, and therefore to be "avoided and renounced by all who love and reverence the word of the Creator." These are fearful denunciations, and call upon a thinking man to reflect seriously and solemnly on his position. To review his avocations and his indulgences, so as to ascertain by the clear light of reason and truth, whether or not he is in the predicament ascribed to him. I approach this investigation with feelings suited to the importance of the subject; with an unaffected diffidence of my own power to grapple with it; less imbued with the spirit of controversy, than with the desire of instruction; anxious to learn rather than to dispute; with a profound respect for the zeal and abilities displayed by Dr. Bennett, in his discourse, and desirous of examining his arguments, not with the bias of a "partisan," because he has condemned the profession of which I am a member, but rather in the humble spirit of a Christian, seeking in the regulation of his life not to offend the sacred tenets of the creed in which he has been instructed. An examination of all the various publications which are before the world, on the moral and immoral tendency of the Stage, (from the days of William Prynne and Jeremy Collier down to our own times,) will lead the reasonable inquirer to determine, that the question has not yet been considered in the dispassionate manner, which can alone lead to a satisfactory conclusion. Assailants and defenders appear to have been misled by prejudice, and blinded by enthusiasm. Overheated zeal, on the one side, has been met by unbecoming virulence on the other. Eloquence and learning have been abundantly employed, but mixed up with such an undue proportion of acrimonious invective, so coloured by personal animosity, that reasoning is weakened by the bitterness of controversial excitement, and truth forgotten in the tumult of conflicting assertions. Violence provokes, but does not convince. If an opponent commences his attack, by telling you, you are a sinner, and you retort by calling him a hypocrite, both positions may be true, but neither the one nor the other is proved or disproved by the counter assertion. When men become angry with each other, and exchange epithets instead of examing arguments, it is painful to read, and unprofitable to consider a discussion so conducted. It is in a totally different spirit that I propose to pursue the inquiry, and while I can scarcely hope to appeal to better authorities, or produce more powerful reasoning than other advocates of the Drama who have preceded me, I trust, at least, to avoid the personalities by which their cause is weakened, and the violence by which their pages are disfigured. The greater portion of Dr. Bennett's discourse appears to be founded on the publications entitled, "An Essay on the Character and Influence of the Stage," by the Rev. John Styles, D. D., and "The Christian Father's Present to his Children," and "Youth Warned," by the Rev. J. Angell James. These writers have, in their turn, drawn largely from Dr. Witherspoon, Law, Bedford, and Collier indeed so closely are the same trains of reasoning, the same conclusions, and the same authorities adopted throughout, that the present work may rather be called, a modified transcript of former opinions, than an original view of the subject, now for the first time promulgated. This is satisfactory in a double sense, as it enables me to widen the scope of my defence, and to render my reply general rather than individual; at the same time relieving me from the delicacy I should have felt in using the arguments of others, when I find them sufficiently moderate to accord with my own convictions. A long period of two thousand four hundred years has elapsed since Thespis first attracted the attention of the Athenians, by the novelty of his rude invention. During that time, the Stage has flourished most, and has been most generally upheld in those countries, where taste has been refined, and manners softened by the gradual influence of civilization. This is a fact which its history suffi ciently establishes; but that, from its inherent evil, it has therefore operated powerfully on the degeneracy and profligacy of man, is a sentence of condemnation less easily borne out by evidence. The almost "universal diffusion of the Drama is hailed by its admirers as a 'mighty blessing,' and deplored by its antagonists, as an 'unmitigated curse.”” On the one hand, the Theatre is extolled as a grand source of pure instruction, while on the other, it is degraded as a complex instrument of mischief, more variable in its hues of evil, than the colours of the cameleon, and shifting alternately from a cause to a consequence, in defiance of every rule of logic or law of consistency. All these are extreme positions, and extremes, whether in argument or in action, are equally conducive to error. Men look on them with a suspicious eye, as springing from prejudice, rather than founded on reason. "The middle course is the safest," says the heathen poet and moralist ;* "Let your moderation be known unto all men," says the Christian preacher and apostle. Let us examine the question rationally, with a view to a practical, rather than a theoretical conclusion, and if we should succeed in showing, that to go to the Theatre, as an occasional recreation, is not absolutely "to follow a multitude to do evil," it will scarcely be unfair to * *Medio tutissimus ibis."-Horat. Exodus, xxiii. 2. |