procured the copies used by the performers in
preparing for their parts, and took pains to ascertain wherein, in
actual use, the actors diverged from the printed copies. They number
over sixty, and, with the exception of a few unprinted plays, include
all that have been produced in the prominent theaters of New York during
the three years now about closing..It is a singular fact, that, with
three or four exceptions, those dramatic compositions, among the sixty
or more under discussion, which are morally objectionable, are of a
comparatively low order of literary execution. But if language and
sentiments, which would not be tolerated among respectable people,
and would excite indignation if addressed to the most uncultivated and
coarse servant girl, not openly vicious, by an ordinary young man, and
profaneness which would brand him who uttered it as irreligious, are
improper amusements for the young and for Christians of every age, then
at least fifty of these plays are to be condemned."

In the first place the theater leads one into bad company. As a class,
the performers are licentious. How can one be in their company, be moved
to laughter and to tears and not be contaminated by them? One who has
studied the theater tells us that the "fruits of the Spirit and
the fruits of the stage exhibit as pointed a contrast as the human
imagination can conceive." The famous Macready, as he retired from the
stage, wrote: "None of my children, with my consent under any pretense,
shall ever enter the theater, nor shall they have any visiting
connection with play actors or actresses." Dr. Johnson asks the
question: "How can they mingle together as they do, men and women, and
make public exhibitions of themselves as they do, in such circumstances,
with such surroundings, with such speech as much often be on their
lips to play the plays that are written, in such positions as they must
sometimes take, affecting such sentiment and passions--how can they do
this without moral contamination?" And we would ask, how can persons
live enrapt with this sort of thing for hours and hours each week, the
year around, and not become equally contaminated, for to the onlooker
all this comes as a reality, while to those who are performing, it is
hired shamming? Therefore, as the pupil becomes the teacher, so the
attendant at the theater becomes like the one who performs. So that to
go to the theater is to "sit in the seat of the scornful or to stand in