The bad state in
which his body must have been, to have made this wound fatal, would have
been the original cause. In like manner neither the theatre, nor the
ball-room are the causes of the bad passions, that are to be found
there. All these passions must have existed in persons previously to
their entrance into these places. Plays therefore, or novels, or public
dances, are only the sub-causes, or the occasions of calling forth the
passions in question. The real cause is in the infected state of the
mind, or in the want of knowledge, or in the want of a love of virtue."
"Prohibitions therefore, though they may become partial checks of vice,
can never, they believe, be relied upon as effectual guardians of
virtue. Bars and bolts seldom prevent thieves from robbing a house. But
if armed men should be in it, who would venture to enter in? In the same
manner the mind of man should be armed or prepared. It should be so
furnished, that men should be able to wander through a vicious world,
amidst all its foibles and its follies, and pass uncontaminated by them.
It should have that tone given to it, which should hinder all
circumstances from becoming occasions. But this can never be done by
locking up the heart to keep vice out of it, but by filling it with
knowledge and with a love of virtue.
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