A Short View of the Immorality, and Profaneness of the English Stage: Together with the Sense of Antiquity on this ArgumentCollier, Jeremy
General
A Short View of the Immorality, and Profaneness of the English Stage: Together with the Sense of Antiquity on this Argument
Collier, Jeremy
Theater -- England -- Early works to 1800; Theater -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Early works to 1800
And here I can't imagine how we can reconcile such Liberties with our
Profession. These Entertainments are as it were Litterally renounc'd in
_Baptism_. They are the _Vanities of the wicked World, and the Works of the
Devil_, in the most open, and emphatical Signification. _What Communion has
Light with Darkness, and what concord has Christ with Belial._[505] Call
you this Diversion? Can Profaness be such an irresistable Delight? Does the
Crime of the Performance make the Spirit of the Satisfaction, and is the
Scorn of Christianity the Entertainment of Christians? Is it such a
Pleasure to hear the _Scriptures_ burlesqu'd? Is Ribaldry so very obliging,
and _Atheism_ so Charming a Quality? Are we indeed willing to quit the
Privilege of our Nature; to surrender our _Charter_ of Immortality, and
throw up the Pretences to another Life? It may be so! But then we should do
well to remember that _Nothing_ is not in our Power. Our Desires did not
make us, neither can they unmake us. But I hope our wishes are not so mean,
and that we have a better sense of the Dignity of our _Being_. And if so,
how can we be pleas'd with those Things which would degrade us into Brutes,
which ridicule our _Creed_, and turn all our Expectations into _Romance_.
And after all, the Jest on't is, these Men would make us believe their
design is Virtue and Reformation. In good time! They are likely to combat
Vice with success, who destroy the Principles of Good and Evil! Take them
at the best, and they do no more than expose a little Humour, and
Formality. But then, as the Matter is manag'd, the Correction is much worse
than the Fault. They laugh at _Pedantry_, and teach _Atheism_, cure a
Pimple, and give the Plague. I heartily wish they would have let us alone.
To exchange Virtue for Behaviour is a hard Bargain. Is not plain Honesty
much better than Hypocrisy well Dress'd? What's Sight good for without
Substance? What is a well Bred Libertine but a well bred Knave? One that
can't prefer Conscience to Pleasure, without calling himself Fool: And will
sell his Friend, or his Father, if need be, for his Convenience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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