Christianity is ever shaken by the vices of its professors, you give
a decisive proof that it does not rest on the legitimate evidence
which is offered in confirmation of it. Christianity claims a Divine
origin, and she adduces irrefragable arguments in confirmation of
it; but the consistent conduct of _all_ her professors is not one
of them. Judas was a traitor, but his treachery did not weaken the
force of evidence which the miracles of Jesus Christ supplied in
favour of his Divine mission; and though it is very common for us
to look for an exact correspondence between the life of a Christian
and the purity of his professed faith, yet if all who profess to
believe in the Christian religion should become as licentious in
their manners as the most notorious libertines, their profligacy
would not weaken the evidences on which Christianity founds her
claims to our belief. They would be convicted of the crimes of which
they are guilty; but by what process of fair argumentation could you
bring the verdict recorded against them to disprove the divinity of
a system of religion which is supported by the evidence of prophecy,
of miracle, of testimony, its own internal purity, and its more than
magic power in the renovation and transformation of the most impure
and debased of men?"
_Mr. Talbot._--"Well, perhaps I made a slight mistake by saying that
the vices of the clergy tend to shake our confidence in the divinity
of our faith. It would have been more correct to say, they have a
tendency to make us mistrustful of the integrity of the clerical
character. But will you not admit that they have a most pernicious
influence over the popular mind--more especially on young men who
are just entering into active life?"
_Mr. Falkland._--"Yes, Sir, I readily concede that the vices of
the clergy have a more pernicious effect on the morals of society
than the vices of players, because the clerical character is held
in higher estimation, and because the clergy have free access
to families who would feel themselves degraded if a player was
to be introduced into their company. The clergy who support the
dignity of their profession, as the great majority of them do,
are esteemed and respected--their friendship is highly valued and
assiduously cultivated; but players are doomed to neglect when off
the boards--they are shunned in the ordinary intercourse of social
life, and kept in a state of exclusion, which is something like an
instinctive evidence, pervading all classes, with a few exceptions,
that they must be kept aloof from the sacred precincts of the family
circle. And it is to this sensitive abhorrence, which the virtuous
part of society feels, against any familiar intercourse with
players, that we are to attribute the comparatively trifling injury
which the profligacy of their private character does to the morals
of the public; but if ever this safeguard should be broken down--if
ever the line of demarcation which estranges us from them should be
removed, and they should have free access to our homes--allowed to
associate with our sons and daughters, they would introduce amongst
us a degree of moral corruption which no authority could check or
influence subdue."
_Mr. Talbot._--"But, Sir, I have known some players introduced into
the highest intellectual circles of London and Edinburgh. Why, it is
a well-known fact, that the Kembles and Siddons, Bannister, Young,
and many others, were often guests at the mansions of some of the
most virtuous and accomplished of our nobility."
_Mr. Falkland._--"I admit, Sir, that the intellectual eminence of a
few of the profession has procured for them an admission into the
society of literary men; but a virtuous public, and even that part
of the public which admires the drama, with few exceptions, will not
receive them into its private or social friendship. And in the case
of the few exceptions into whose circles they have been received,
shall we find no husband or father who has not had occasion to rue
the day when he consented to call an actor his friend? It would be
invidious to give names, or I could, from my personal knowledge,
mention some instances of the lamentable results of intimacies
with players. Enough was brought before the public to justify the
remarks of the _Times_:--'The conduct of persons who appear on the
stage has never been the most irreproachable; and it may be doubted
whether such a mass of living vice, as the actors and actresses but
too generally present in their private lives, is not more injurious
to public morals than the splendid examples of virtue which they
exhibit in their theatrical characters are useful.'"
_Mr. Talbot._--"And, Sir, has no unsuspecting family had occasion to
rue the day when they received into their friendship the ministers
of religion? Have _they_ never broken down the fence that guards
the sanctity of domestic virtue? Have _they_ never been publicly
convicted of crime?"
_Mr. Falkland._--"Yes, Sir; but when you compare the relative
numbers of the two professions, you will be compelled to admit that
there are but very few of the clerical order who trample on the
decencies and virtues of social life, and yet continue to discharge
their ministerial functions. Only let a clergyman be suspected, and
he is shunned; but let him be convicted, and he is disrobed, and
held in abhorrence, not only by the public, but by his brethren.
And though the light and trifling spirits of the age are fond of
traducing the reputation of the ministers of religion, and often
impute to them crimes of which they are not guilty, yet I fearlessly
assert that, with rare exceptions, they are an ornament to society,
and are not surpassed, if equalled, by any order of men, for
sobriety, chastity, benevolence, and all the virtues which bless and
adorn social life."
_Mr. Proctor._--"I very much dislike the introduction of reflections
on the clerical order into these discussions, because they are
irrelevant to the question before us, and tend to perplex and
embarrass it rather than to bring it to a fair issue. The question
is simply this, '_Is the moral tendency of theatrical amusements
favourable to the cultivation and growth of private and public
virtue?_' It is admitted that the members of the theatrical
profession are, with few exceptions, loose in principles and
profligate in manners; and our friend has attempted to prove that
their profession has a tendency to make them so. Now, I think if
these amusements are favourable to the cultivation and growth of
virtue, we have a right to expect that the persons who are employed
to conduct them should exhibit in their own character the virtues
which they profess to inculcate. But they do not. This is a fact.
We never think of recommending our sons or our daughters to go
to the actors and actresses of the stage, for models from which
to mould their own character. If we knew that they were forming
an intimacy with any of them, we should forbid it, under a full
conviction that such intimacies would sink them in the esteem of
the more respectable part of society, and expose them to the most
powerful and seducing temptations. Thus far, I think, our friend
has gained his point; but the question is not yet decided. The
players may be profligate, and a close connection may be traceable
between their professional labours and the corruption of their
moral principles and habits; but notwithstanding this, _we_ may
derive great advantage from their theatrical representations. 'Their
business is to recommend virtue and discountenance vice--to show the
uncertainty of human greatness, the sudden turns of fate, and the
unhappy conclusion of violence and injustice'--to expose the folly
of pride, the baseness of ingratitude, the vileness of hypocrisy,
and to prove, by an appeal to the senses, rather than by logical
reasoning, that virtue is its own reward and vice its own tormentor;
and surely, Sir," addressing himself to Mr. Falkland, "you will
not presume to say that the immorality of 'their private lives'
disqualifies _us_ from receiving the moral benefit of their public
labours? This, I think, would be a position which you could not
maintain."
_Mr. Falkland._--"But, Sir, I maintain that the frequenters of our
theatres sustain, with rare exceptions, more moral injury from
the representations they witness on the stage, than they receive
moral benefit. Your friend Mr. Talbot admitted, in an early part of
this discussion, that familiarities of expression and action take
place on the stage which offend modesty, and if so, I appeal to you
whether such expressions and actions can produce any other effect
than an impure and demoralizing one."
_Mr. Proctor._--"But these offensive familiarities are not of
perpetual occurrence."
_Mr. Falkland._--"But they are of frequent occurrence; and when
they do occur they taint a pure mind and inflame a corrupt one. The
following is a just critique on our popular comedies:--'The English
comedy is like that of no other country. It is the school in which
the youth of both sexes familiarize themselves with vice, which is
never represented there as vice, but as mere gaiety.'"
_Mr. Proctor._--"I admit the correctness of this statement to a
certain extent; and will confess that I have at times wished my
children out of the theatre, from an apprehension of the possibility
of their sustaining some injury from what they saw and heard; yet I
still cleave to the stage, for a reason which, I think, you will not
controvert."
_Mr. Falkland._--"And what may that be?"
_Mr. Proctor._--"The stage is a source of amusement--I may say, of
great amusement. It drives away the vapours, raises our spirits,
and gives an agreeable variety to life. I willingly overlook what
is objectionable in expression and action, for the sake of the high
gratification which a good comedy yields; and so do others. To be
candid, we think less about our virtue than our enjoyment. We must
have some sort of excitement to help us to endure the cross purposes
and the ups and downs of life."
_Mr. Falkland._--"I have no doubt but the great majority who
frequent the theatres, enjoy, even to ecstasy, the scenes which are
exhibited, and retire from the enchanting place deeply regretting
that the dull uniformity of life presents no attractions half so
exciting. They smile and laugh, and even chuckle with delight,
when the intrigue of double-dealing has ensnared its victim--when
the lewd debauchee ogles his mistress, and by some sudden spring
seizes her by surprise--when virtue is made to look ridiculous by
the tenderness of her scruples--when the doctrines and precepts of
our holy religion are caricatured by the profane witling of the
stage--and when vice, disgusting and appalling vice, speaks out
its profanity, or acts its part with the adroitness of consummate
villainy. Then it is that 'the feast of soul' is enjoyed, and the
spirits which have been exhausted by _ennui_, or by the monotonous
duties of a long day's labour, are recruited, and the agreeable
alterative of the mind takes place. O yes, the stage amuses! It
is indeed an elysium of bliss; and if it should be closed, many
would weep and sigh who never wept or sighed over a remembrance of
their sins; and deem that life a burden which was given, not for
the participation of such polluting enjoyments, but for the nobler
purpose of deriving pure felicity from the invisible Fountain of all
goodness and excellence."
_Mr. Proctor._--"But, my good friend, must we be always weeping over
our sins, and never allowed to partake of any pleasure but what
arises from religious pursuits?"
_Mr. Falkland._--"I presume, Mr. Proctor, you will admit that we
ought sometimes to mourn over our sins; and ought _sometimes_ to
devote our attention to religious pursuits, unless we reject the
entire system of revelation as a cunningly devised fable?"
_Mr. Proctor._--"I think, Sir, I am as firm a believer in the Divine
origin of Christianity as yourself, though probably we may differ on
some high points of speculative opinion; yet I cannot perceive that
Christianity condemns the theatre, nor am I disposed to object to
its performances _in toto_, because an audience sometimes derives
a momentary gratification from scenes and expressions which a
severe moralist might condemn. I admit that the stage would derive
some benefit by being submitted to a purifying process, but I
would rather retain it as it is, with all its faults, than have it
abolished."
_Mr. Talbot._--"If, as Mr. Falkland appears to contend, the
Christian religion condemns theatrical amusements, and if,
notwithstanding, they are innocent and rational, it then follows
that man was not made for the Christian religion, although that
religion was made for man; the scandal of such an inference, and
its infallible support of scepticism, cannot but make it highly
desirable to prove that the Christian religion does _not_ condemn
them."
_Mr. Falkland._--"If they are innocent! and if they are rational!
But I maintain they are not innocent; and, if viewed as they ought
to be, in connection with our eternal destiny, I maintain they are
not rational. But to avoid anticipating arguments which may be
afterwards adduced, I at once challenge you to bring forward proof
from the Scriptures in favour of these corrupting amusements."
_Mr. Talbot._--"I have no positive proof to adduce in favour of
them, as the Scriptures are entirely silent on the subject; but is
not that silence a strong presumptive evidence in their favour?
Did any of the apostles ever condemn the theatrical exhibitions of
the times in which they lived? but would they not have done it if
they thought their tendency had been at variance with the spirit
and design of that religion which they came to propagate amongst
mankind?"
_Mr. Falkland._--"Then, Sir, because they did not in their epistles,
which were addressed to the converted pagans who had renounced their
former evil customs, condemn the gladiatorial exhibitions of Rome
and of Greece, you think that a fair argument arises in favour of
them?"
_Mr. Talbot._--"Why, if they had considered them unfavourable to the
morals of the people, they most certainly would have condemned them."
_Mr. Falkland._--"What if the persons to whom they wrote had
previously renounced them?"
_Mr. Talbot._--"But we have no proof that the early Christians did
abstain from these sources of amusement."
_Mr. Falkland._--"There, I think, you are mistaken. We have
incontestable evidence to prove that the early Christians not only
abstained from them, but condemned them in the most unqualified
terms of reprobation; and I will now, with your leave, read a
collection of testimonies on the subject, with which I was lately
favoured by a friend:--
"'The Romans,' says Cæcilius, the heathen, in Minutius,
'govern and enjoy the world, while you Christians are careful
and mopish, abstaining even from lawful pleasures. You visit
not shows, nor are present at the pomps; you abhor the holy
games--a melancholy ghastly people ye are.'
"'True,' says Octavius, 'we Christians refrain from the
play-house, because of its intolerable corruptions. We cannot be
present at the plays without great sin and shame.'
"Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, who flourished about the year
170, in his book to Autolicus has these words:--'It is not
lawful for us to be present at the prizes of your gladiators,
lest by this means we should be accessories to the murders
there committed. Neither dare we presume upon the liberty of
your shows, lest our senses should be tinctured and disobliged
with indecency and profaneness. The tragical distractions of
Tereus and Thyestes are nonsense to us. We are for seeing no
representations of lewdness. God forbid that Christians, who
are remarkable for modesty and reservedness--who are obliged to
discipline and trained up in virtue--God forbid, I say, that we
should dishonour our thoughts, much less our practice, with such
wickedness as this!'
"Tertullian, who flourished in the same century, is copious
upon this subject:--'We Christians have nothing to do with the
frenzies of the race-ground, the lewdness of the play-house, or
the barbarities of the bear-garden.'
"Clement Alexandrinus, who lived about the year 200, affirms
that a circus and theatre may not improperly be called the
'chair of pestilence.'--_De Pædag._ lib. iii.
"St. Cyprian, who lived in the third century, has spoken at
large upon the stage, and after having described the diversions
of the play-house, he expostulates in this manner:--
"'What business has a Christian at such places as these? A
Christian who has not the liberty so much as to think of an ill
thing?--Why does he entertain himself with lewd representations?
Has he a mind to discharge his modesty, that he may sin
afterwards with the more boldness? Yes: this is the consequence.
By using to see these things, he will learn to do them. Why need
I mention the levities and impertinences in comedies, or the
ranting distractions of tragedy? The folly of them is egregious,
and unbecoming the gravity of believers.
"'As I have often said, these foppish, these pernicious
diversions must be avoided. We must set a guard upon our senses,
and keep the sentinel always upon duty. To make vice familiar
to the ear is the way to recommend it. And since the mind of
man has a natural bent to extravagance, how is it likely to hold
out under example and invitation? If you push that which totters
already, whither will it tumble? In earnest; we must draw off
our inclinations from these vanities. A Christian has much
better sights than these to look at.'
"St. Cyril, who lived in the fourth century, in his Catechism
for the newly baptized, has these words:--
"'You have said at your baptism, I renounce thee, O Satan; I
renounce all thy works and all thy pomps. The pomps of the
devil are the diversions of the theatre, and all other the like
vanities; from which David begs of God to be delivered: 'Turn
away mine eyes,' says he, 'that they behold not vanity.' Do
not then suffer yourself to be led away by a fondness for the
entertainments of the stage, to behold there the extravagancies
of plays full of wantonness and impurity.'"[17]
[17] The author is indebted to the late Rev. Mr. Simpson for these
testimonies.
The discussion between Mr. Talbot and Mr. Falkland was here broken
off, but shortly afterwards resumed, as follows in the next chapter.
THEATRICAL AMUSEMENTS.
PART II.
"These quotations which you have read from the ancient fathers,"
said Mr. Talbot, "merely express their private opinion on the
expediency of not attending such scenes of amusement; but as they
were not endowed with the spirit of infallibility, their opinions
may be submitted to the ordeal of examination no less than your own."
_Mr. Falkland._--"Nay, Sir; these quotations do more than express
the private opinion of the historians from whose works they are
taken; they record the fact that the primitive Christians did not
attend public places of amusement, because they knew that their
moral tendency was unfavourable to the cultivation and growth
of virtue. They also prove that the stage undergoes no moral
change--indecent and profane in the olden times, when amusing Greeks
and Romans; indecent and profane still--_semper eadem_."
_Mr. Talbot._--"But, Sir, do not the expostulations of these
writers, and the arguments which they employ against an attendance
at the theatres, lead us to the conclusion that some of the early
Christians did attend them?"
_Mr. Falkland._--"No doubt, Sir, that some of the early Christians
did attend them; but their attendance was considered as the first
step to the abandonment of their religious principles--as an act
of inconsistency, which subjected them to the censures of their
brethren--an approximation to the customs of the votaries of
paganism, which, if persisted in, was visited by an exclusion from
church-fellowship. This, I think, you must admit to be decisive of
the opinion which the pure part of the primitive Christians held
respecting the lawfulness and tendency of theatrical amusements."
_Mr. Talbot._--"But, Sir, waiving the opinion of the ancient
fathers, allow me to ask you one question: If the moral tendency of
such amusements be unfavourable to private virtue, how is it that
there are no express prohibitions against them in the writings of
the apostles?"
_Mr. Falkland._--"But, Sir, do you believe that the apostles
approved of every practice which they did not _expressly_ condemn?"
_Mr. Talbot._--"Why, yes, Sir, and I think there is strong
presumptive evidence in favour of such an opinion. Were they not
employed to furnish us with a code of laws for the government of our
conduct? and is not that code perfect? If, then, there be no law
to condemn our attendance at such places of amusement, are we not
at liberty to believe that their silence is a tacit, though not a
positive sanction?"
_Mr. Falkland._--"If, Sir, we adopt the principle for which you are
now contending, we shall be reduced to the necessity of admitting
that every modification of evil, which is not expressly condemned by
the sacred writers, is actually sanctioned by them. The absurdity of
such an opinion is not more flagrant than its tendency would prove
pernicious to the welfare of society. Is the crime of gaming, or
bull-baiting, or of forgery expressly condemned by the Scriptures?
and yet, Sir, would you venture to appeal to the silence of the
Scriptures as a tacit sanction of these vices? Some of the vices to
which human nature is addicted, in every age and in every country,
are expressly condemned, while others, which spring out of local
customs, and casual temptations, are condemned only by implication.
As a proof of the correctness of this assertion, nothing is said in
Scripture against the savage custom of exposing children; nothing
against slavery; and nothing expressly against duelling. But is not
the exposing of children condemned in that charge against the Romans
that they were 'without natural affection?' Is there not a strong
censure against slavery conveyed in the command to 'do unto others
as you would have them do unto you?' and against duelling, in the
general prohibition of murder contained in the sixth commandment?"
_Mr. Talbot._--"I admit the validity of your argument, in its
application to the crimes which you have mentioned, because they
are the more refined modifications of crimes which are expressly
condemned; but permit me to say that I do not recollect any passages
in the sacred volume, which by a fair implication, really condemn
theatrical amusements."