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They object also to the manner of the drama, even where it professes to
be a school for morals. For where it teaches morality, it inculcates
rather the refined virtue of heathenism, than the strict, though mild
discipline of the gospel. And where it attempts to extirpate vice, it
does it rather by making it ridiculous, than by making men shun it for
the love of virtue. It no where fixes the deep christian principle, by
which men are bound to avoid it as sin, but places the propriety of the
dereliction of it rather upon the loss of reputation among the world,
than upon any sense of religious duty.
SECT. III.
_Theatre forbidden an account of the internal contents of the
drama--both of those of tragedy--and of comedy--these contents hold out
false morals and prospects--and weaken the sinews of morality
--observations of Lord Kaimes upon the subject._
The next class of arguments is taken from the internal contents of the
drama.
The Quakers mean that dramatic compositions generally contain false
sentiments, that is, such as christianity would disapprove; that, of
course they hold out false prospects; that they inculcate false morals;
and that they have a tendency from these, and other of their internal
contents, to promote dissipation, and to weaken the sinews of morality
in those who see them represented upon the stage.
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