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    t&ey show themselves adepts—too old to be eaught ? The brogue and vagabond ' shakes hands with the ' gentleman-pendioner * over the dead form of Refinement , and drinks a prurient toast towards its speedy change to corruption , and to the long life of each other , that they may continue to revel and hold orcie in the " painted sepulchre" and transmit the unhallowed spirit to future age £ . We have said that the theatres are the most influential of

    our public establishments ; we thmk this must become apparent when we consider how much more frequently and numerously they are visited than any other establishments , how entirely optional those visits are , and the consequent sincerity with which people lay themselves open to the ingress of natural impressions from the objects and sentiments addressed to the mind , and presented to the senses ; and that these impressions are excited in a class which forms

    the vast majority of all theatrical audiences , i . e . those who have no time or inclination to read and pursue any consecutive trains of thought . Above all , the living , and active impersonation of characters , and the actual utterance given by those characters to their own most inward and important thoughts , passions , affections , and subtle springs of action , gives to the

    stage , when properly applied , a balance of power over every other means of influence and practical instruction . An eloquent orator has more influence over his hearers , than an equally eloquent book on the same subject ; except with the very slow of apprehension , the blind , or the deaf ; because he stands as the living representative of his cause , and makes a strong" personal appeal to the feelings of his auditors , simultaneously exciting the imagination , the reason , and the will . In like manner the fine actor exercises his powers , and with far greater means than the orator , because the former has all the additional circumstances of life , — the dress , the scene , the

    light and shade , besides the effect of music , and the " stirring presence " of the other characters . If it be true , as we think it is , with scarce an exception , that even the most intellectual and imaginative men experience a stronger excitement in seeing a tine acting tragedy finely acted in all its parts , than in reading it , how much more likely is it that such a play should affect the vast mass of the people , more deeply than

    any disquisition , lecture , sermon , or speech , on abstract subjects ; or to put the question close home , even on the same subject . The address to our reason , our imagination , in short , to any of our faculties and feelings will always be the strongest when it is made through the medium of the corporal senses . Hence the stage possesses the greatest means of influencing ociety and inculcating true morality and philosophy of life and happiness Whether the stage he a teacher of morality ,

    Untitled Article

    9 & 6 Indestructibility cf the Drdma *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/8/