And will a lesson of morality be less serviceable to us,
because it is dressed up in poetry and musically expressed by the human
voice, than when it is conveyed to us in prose? But if, on the other
hand, the words in a song are in themselves unchaste, if they inculcate
false honour, if they lead to false opinions, if they suggest
sentiments, that have a tendency to produce depraved feelings, then
vocal music, by which these are conveyed in pleasing accents to the ear,
becomes a destroyer of morals, and cannot therefore be encouraged by
any, who consider parity of heart, as required by the christian
religion. Now the Quakers are of opinion, that the songs of the world
contain a great deal of objectionable matter in these respects; and that
if they were to be promiscuously taken up by children, who have no
powers of discriminating between the good and the bad, and who generally
lay hold of all that fall in their way, they would form a system of
sentimental maxims, very injurious in their tendency to their moral
character.
If we were to take a collection of songs as published in books, and were
to examine these, we should find that such a system might easily be
formed. And if, again, we were to examine the sentiments contained in
many of these, by the known sentiments of the Quakers on the several
subjects of each, we should find that, as a highly professing people,
more objections would arise against vocal music among them, than among
other people.
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