impersonating in their own minds the ideas of others, and to whom representation is essential. We wonder what the world would be without the Drama to 'hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature;' to show virtue her own features, scorn her own image, and 'the very age and body of the time its form and pressure;' had we no Othello, to warn us against jealousy; no School for Scandal, to ridicule that most fashionable vice; no Tartuffe, to gibbet hypocrisy ; no Iago, to put us on our guard against our honest friends. In this material age and most matter-offact country, the Drama, either in its spoken or written form, is almost the sole intellectual element of our civilization; all else is Fact, sir; hard fact!... The Pulpit is so entirely given over to the exaltation of sect and dreams of the future life, to the utter neglect of all things pertaining to the present existence-deals so exclusively in post-obits—in fact, is so thoroughly polemical and retrogressive, that its power as a purifier and guide is almost naught. The press is, by the necessity of the case, forced to neglect the lighter subjects, and so the Drama is left almost alone as a refining, elevating, and warn

ing medium to that large majority of the world's inhabitants whose lack of time, opportunity, or taste for study prohibits any profound views to originate with themselves, and are, therefore, fain to accept the opinion of some 'guide, philosopher, and friend' to mold their crude views of things into shape and consistence." He further calls the Drama the "prop and mainstay of civilization," and would seem to have looked through one end of his telescope at the Drama, and through the other at the Church and the Press.

M

CHAPTER VII.

SENTIMENTS ADVERSE TO THE THEATER.

ANY of the opponents of the Theater declare

that it is evil and only evil, and that continually; that no one can, under any circumstances, enter the Theater and be a Christian; and that even the desire to do so is ground for a strong presumption, if not a settled conviction, that the individual possessing such a desire is, if he professes to be a Christian, either a hypocrite or thoroughly selfdeceived.

Every statement made in the interest of truth, which is inconsistent with facts defeats its own ends; and those who have for a time been imposed upon are rendered hostile to the truth itself when presented by those whom they have found unreliable. The charge that every play ever put on the boards is evil in matter and manner, cannot be maintained; that no dramatic representation has ever exerted a good influence is equally untenable;

that every actor is thoroughly immoral, is also incapable of proof; and, perhaps, in some instances a virtuous character has been as fully evinced by them as any thing of the nature can be; and to say that there have been no Christians, who have conscientiously supposed themselves at liberty to attend the Theater, is to say that there is no possibility of an error of judgment on this solitary question. Slavery, as an institution, was repugnant to Christian morality; but that good men erred in judgment thereupon will hardly be doubted. So there are different views of the true way to observe the Sabbath. Some hold an extremely rigid view, others are not so strenuous, and a respectable sect of Christians keep Saturday and work on Sunday. Shall we denounce those who differ in judgment from us as not worthy the name of Christians merely for that cause? So, even if it be believed that the Theater is "evil, and only evil, and that continually," let not him who, under that conviction, properly abhors the institution, abhor one who honestly holds a different opinion.

Others believe that there are fine sentiments in many plays; that but the smaller number are wholly

evil; and that a mind thoroughly fortified by religion, observation, experience, and age, might attend certain dramatic representations without injury, and, perhaps, with pleasure and profit. But while they believe these things, they are compelled to believe, with equal confidence, that the character of plays in general is bad, and that the effect of the Theater upon its patrons is evil. They are also convinced that there are insuperable obstacles in the way of its reformation; and that Christians, in endeavoring to surmount them, would exhaust their energies to no good end. They think, furthermore, that in attempting to do so they would be obliged to turn aside from important fields of Christian effort which now call for greater fidelity than ever before, and that they would, by their example, lead many into temptations which they would not, perhaps could not, resist. And in addition to these evil results, and partly as a consequence of them, they think that the attendance of Christians on the Theater, and their attempt to elevate it, would lower the moral and religious tone of the Church, and diminish the influence of religion over the community in which the