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Untitled Article
they see , also , ^ n encouragement to vice , in the lashing which it receives from scorn ; an induction to falsehood in the ridicule to which it exposes itself , and the censure which whips it ; they discover a lesson of immorality in the unwinding $ ind outspreading to
broad lvght of the tortuous course of villainous deception ; and the branding of moral turpitude with infamy and shame , they insist is a * bad example . ' These are fools , you will say ; granted . But I have heard more railers of this description tlfian of any other ; these are their soundest arguments against theatrical representations . My experience of these railers has told me they are more preceptively than practically virtuous . * They have lots of precepts always at hand . The demoralization is not in the theatrical representation ; I could easily find parallels for illustration of my meaning , but I will let it stand as it is just now ; but let me say I do not include in this list of paerely preceptively virtuous , those who have never entered a theatre . There are hundreds who would pass a rigid ordeal , yet show pure in thought and act , who shrink at the very word theatre ^ apply it how you will ; used figuratively or otherwise , as the theatre of life , ' &c , the sound shocks them ; it is , with them , an unpronounceable word ; taught by habit and education they so regard it . Still I will sayt and I say it
unsneenngly , not unkindly , their judgment is on a par with the religion of these railers , the preceptively virtuous ; it is an accidental circumstance , a matter of latitude and longitude ; they have never inquired into the truth of what they have been told ; they * took it as the vulgar do ; ' and the most thinking of the railers have greatly erred in mistaking effects for causes , less than by attributing effect to other cause than the true one . Even tvitk the preparation of the senses above alluded to ., a sobering , beneficial , and delightfully instructive result oftentimes obliterates the grosser feelings , oblivionizes this preparation . If I can attest the truth of this remark in one instance only , I have a right to infer that the instance is not an isolation ; but I have known it to
occur with others , I have experienced it in myself frequently , and my laid-out plans have been abandoned : straight from the theatre tongueless , home to bed to enjoy there , over and over again , what I had seen and heard ; and this , too , without falling in love with the actresses .
Well : shortly after this my first play-going , I ran away . I have led you to expect a , detail of this freak , which I will give by and by . Now , have you not , readers of the ladies and gentlemen class , ( if you have read so far , ) settled it in your minds that I so abstracted myself for the purpose of turning ' stage-player ? Ay , that you have . The attraction was irresistible ; it was a
de-* Here , once for all , I will declare my creed of moralities . All virtue I sum up in two words , benevolence and sincerity . All crime I comprise in cruelty and hypocrisy . There in cruelty in a smile , sometimes j therq is cruelty in ft cold look j there is cruelty in withholding a kind iconL
Untitled Article
Myjirst Plpy . 487
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 487, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/47/
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