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Untitled Article
our national guilt / though we question its being * a zeal according to knowledge . * Without entering deeply into the matter of the suitability of dramatic representation to the moral wants of the community , he comments on the impropriety of the subjects introduced , and selects the opera of ' Robert le Diable , ' as the most flagrant instance;—the plot ( of which we were before
ignorant ) is described as producing a sensation of horror at its * disgusting profanation of spiritual and eternal things / the strongest given proof of which is , in the fact of the heroine taking refuge at the foot of a cross , when pursued by a fiend . The efficacy of the sanctuary , it is said ^ proclaims its re ference . Strange does it seem , that this should provoke the indignation of any one calling himself a Christian !—to us it is a beautiful allegory , proving that the cross is all powerful in protecting the innocent against
the evil , that to those who seek it in the hour of peril , it is an c ever present help . ' If it be asked whether we believe that one half the people who have witnessed the scene of which we speak , would view it in the same light with ourselves—our answer would be , —we fear not—but there was the good for their own minds to achieve , had they been properly constituted , and what possible evil could lurk in this , or indeed any other instance given , we are at a loss to discover . The faults in the minds of an audience
should not be laid to the charge of such a caterer to moral improvement , as we sincerely believe the drama to be . Not the most pious minister of Christ would be safe , were this rule of judgment universally followed . Ridicule too often enters our places of worship , and not the holiest of holies is secure against the workings of an evil mind . How many a sentence has been written , how many a speech uttered , that the low imagination of
its reader or hearer has turned to grossness and impiety ! And thus it is with the drama—instead of taking the whole bearing of a play , sentences are twisted from their places , parts taken instead of a whole , and the consequences are mistake and misrepresentation . Our dramatic reading has been extensive , and we know many works of that description , which show the good
talent of the author ; either in praising virtue , satirizing folly , condemning hypocrisy , or whatever other vice he might select for his arrows to shoot at . There are many evils resulting from the outcry that is kept up against dramatic representation . One of the chief is , the misdirection and waste of power ( power given to be employed , or it would not have been given at all )
which it encourages . How many gifted with fine personal and mental qualities , and , added to them , that high moral feeling , which is essential to the perfection of the art—how often do we see such , if poor , struggling in some inferior and more laborious occupation—if rich , devoting their genius to the few who could better spare it , instead of dedicating it to the greater enjoyment of the many I How often do we see persons possessed with talents
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Archdeacon Glover and the Bottle Imp . 4 O 7
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1832, page 407, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1814/page/47/
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