They are of opinion also, that dramatic exhibitions not only tend, of
themselves, to make home less agreeable, but that they excite a craving
for stimulants, and, above all, teach a dependence upon external objects
for amusement. Hence the attention of people is taken off again to new
objects of pleasure, which lie out of their own families, and out of the
circle of their friends.
It will not take much time to shew, that the Quakers have not been
mistaken in this point. It is not unusual in fashionable circles, where
the theatre is regularly brought into the rounds of pleasure, for the
father and the mother of a family to go to a play once, or occasionally
twice, a week. But it seldom happens, that they either go to the same
theatre, or that they sit together. Their children are at this time left
at home, under, what is considered to be, proper care, but they are
probably never seen again by them till the next noon; and perhaps once
afterwards in the same day, when it is more than an even chance, that
they must be again left for the gratification of some new pleasure. Now
this separation of fathers from mothers, and of parents from children,
does not augur well of domestic enjoyments or of a love of home.
But we will trace the conduct of the parents still farther.
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