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Untitled Article
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
by this disquisition . Punch knocks all his scenic associates on the head , it is true , but then we do not believe in the reality even for a moment , as we continually do with very , fine acting on the stage . Besides being too ludicrous in its circumstances , we also know they will all rise again in the next street And the foregoing reflection causes me to relent a little , as the
conscientious recollection of how often I have been amused , in spite of myself , by this unique fellow , compels me also to relax something of my severity , at parting . Although Punch has no wit , no reason , no imagination , and no friends ; although he is always vicious , and his vice always triumphant ; although at the very last , he thrusts his quarter-staff up the black calamanco
petticoat of the Devil—twirls her about his head—flings her into 'thin air /—and then advances complacently and bows to the applauding audience ; still it must be admitted that some sort of poetical justice is rendered in the progress of the piece , which sets one ' s scruples at rest at the time ; for certainly if he is always doing wrong and knocking folks on the head , there is a fine running commentary throughout in the ringing blows received by his own tall pate in return .
Instead of abolition , therefore , we have to propose a reform in the play . We shall duly submit our view of the measure to one of the least liberal members of the House of Commons , who may wish to get up a name for liberality in reforms at the least expense of more enlarged abuses . My plan will not at all turn upon making Punch * respectable / for that would be to put an end to him altogether . Going on just as usual : —with
the omission of killing his wife and child-- —1 sh ^ li merely propose that in the final result his vices shall not be seen to triumph so joyously over both man and devil . And thus the moral world need not fear any circumscription of pleasure in its progress towards enlightenment , and may be permitted to enjoy a ' well-regulated' Punch , according to a strong and enlarged philosopny of Art , so that we may philanthropically coincide with Milton , that" He who of those delights can judge , and spare To interpose them oft—is not unwise . " '
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Some weeks have now elapsed since I said " good bye" to a host of youngsters after a visit to them of fourteen days * duration . That my " good bye " was sorrowful in its tone may be conjectured from the fact that , at that moment I thought I never had passed fourteen consecutive days in so much plea-
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Fourteen Days at School . 117
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FOURTEEN DAYS AT SCHOOL .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/70/
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