863 Review-The Christian Father's Present to his Children. Of its practical tendency no doubt can be entertained. We consider its merits to be highly respectable, and, as such, wish it an extensive circulation. REVIEW.-The Christian Father's Present to his Children. By J. A. James. 2 vols. 12mo. pp. 236-216. London. Westley. 1824. It is pleasant to peruse a book that contains common sense. Its author appears before us in a commanding attitude, and frequently claims our confidence for positions that are but partially understood, because conviction has followed those which we can fully comprehend. Of this character are the volumes now before us, and in this light Mr. James, the author, must be introduced to the public. His work, though comparatively diminutive in point of magnitude, touches on nearly every topic that can be interesting to man, whether we view him as an inhabitant of time, or a probationer for eternity; and, perhaps, scarcely any medium of communication could be more likely to gain the reader's attention, than this which he has chosen. The primary object which Mr. James seems to keep constantly in view is, the instruction of youth, apparently graduating through the riper stages of their minority; but his observations are equally applicable to" children of a larger growth," advancing to periods in which the character of an individual is stamped with some principles which generally accompany it through life. 864 It is impossible, within the limits allotted to a review of these volumes, to follow the author through the advice, caution, admonition, and warning which he gives to his children, and the children of all whom his precepts may concern. There is one chapter, however, on theatrical amusements, from which our attachment to public morals compels us to select the following paragraphs:— "I do not hesitate for a moment to pronounce the THEATRE to be one of the broadest avenues which lead to destruction; fascinating, no doubt, it is, but on that account the more delusive and the more dangerous. Let a young man once acquire a taste for this species of entertainment, and yield himself up to its gratification, and he is in imminent danger of becoming a lost character, rushing upon his ruin. All the evils that can waste his property, corrupt his morals, blast his reputation, impair his health, imbitter his life, and destroy his soul, lurk in the purlieus of a theatre. Vice, in every form, lives, and moves, and has its being there. Myriads have cursed the hour when they first exposed themselves to the contamination of the stage. From that fatal evening they date their destruction. Then they threw off the restraints of education, and learnt to disregard the dictates of conscience. Then life of virtue and of vice, was made up for the their decision, hitherto oscillating between a latter. But I will attempt to support by argument and facts these strong assertions. "The stage cannot be defended as an amuseThese volumes contain twenty-five ment: for the proper end of an amusement is chapters, to which is prefixed an ad- to recreate without fatiguing or impairing the dress to Christian parents on the im- strength and spirits. It should invigorate, not exhaust the bodily and mental powers; should portance and necessity of giving to spread an agreeable serenity over the mind, their children a religious education; and be enjoyed at proper seasons. Is midof instructing them both by precept night the time, or the heated atmosphere of a and example; and of guarding them theatre the place, or the passionate, tempestaagainst those arts, which, by render-mind, that comes up to this view of the deous excitement of a deep tragedy the state of ing vice fascinating, corrupt their sign of amusement? Certainly not. morals, and strew the paths leading to destruction with flowers. The grounds of his observations are both rational and obvious; and such are their force and application, that many fathers will peruse his strictures with a sigh, and suffer their blushes to betray a consciousness of self-condemnation. Laxity in domestic discipline he considers as injurious to the effects of a religious education; and "But what I wish particularly to insist upon is, the immoral and antichristian tendency of the stage. It is an indubitable fact, that the stage depraved state of society; and that in proporhas flourished most in the most corrupt and tion as sound morality, industry, and religion advance their influence, the theatre is deserted. It is equally true, that amongst the most passionate admirers, and most constant fre quenters of the stage, are to be found the most dissolate and abandoned of mankind. Is it not too manifest to be denied, that piety as instinctively shrinks from the theatre, as hamsa 865 Review-The Christian Father's Present to his Children. life does from the point of a sword or the draught of poison! Have not all those who have professed the most elevated piety and morality, borne an unvarying and uniform testimony against the stage? Even the more virtuous pagans condemned this amusement, as iniurious to morals and the interests of nations. Plato, Livy, Xenophon, Cicero, Solon, Cato, Seneca, Tacitus, the most venerable men of antiquity; the brightest constellation of virtue and talents which ever appeared upon the hemisphere of philosophy, have all denounced the theatre as a most abundant source of moral pollution, and assured us that both Greece and Rome had their ruin accelerated by a fatal passion for these corrupting entertainments. William Prynne, a satirical and pungent writer, who suffered many cruelties for his admirable productions in the time of Charles I., has made a catalogue of authorities against the stage, which contains every name of eminence in the heathen and Christian worlds: it comprehends the united testimony of the Jewish and Christian churches; the deliberate acts of fifty-four ancient and modern, general, national, provincial councils and synods, both of the Western and Eastern churches; the condemnatory sentence of seventy-one ancient fathers, and one hundred and fifty modern Popish and Protestant authors; the hostile endeavours of philosophers and even poets; with the legislative enactments of a great number of Pagan and Christian states, nations, magistrates, emperors, and princes." "Now must not this be regarded in the light of very strong presumptive evidence of the immoral tendency of the stage? Does it not approach as near as can be to the general opinion of the whole moral world? 866 seen such a favourite with the public on the stage? Besides, how saturated are both tragedies and comedies with irreverent appeals to heaven, profane swearing, and all the arts of equivocation, and falsehood, and deception! What lascivious allusions are made; what impure passages are repeated! What a fatal influence mast this have upon the delicacy of female modesty. Think too of a young man coming at the hour of midnight from such a scene, with his passions inflamed by every thing he has seen and every thing he has beard; and then having to pass through ranks of wretched creatures waiting to ensnare him, and rob him of his virtue; does it not require extraordinary strength of principle to resist the attack! "I admit that modern plays are in some measure purified from that excessive grossness which polluted the performances of our more ancient dramatists. But who knows not that vice is more mischievous in some circles of society, in proportion as it is more refined. The arch equivoque and double entendre of modern plays, are well understood and applied by a licentious audience; and the buzz of approbation, which is heard through the whole assembly, farnishes abundant proof that the effect is not lost.' Little will go down with the public in the shape of comedy, farce, or opera, but what is pretty highly seasoned with indelicate allusions. Hence it is that even the newspaper critics, whose morality is, in general, not of the most saintly character, so often mention the too barefaced indecencies of new plays. Dramatic writers know very well how to cater for the public taste. "How many sentiments are continually attered on the stage, how many indelicate allu"But let us examine the average character of sions are made, which no man who had any those productions which are represented on the regard to the virtue of his sons, or the feelings stage. If we go to Tragedy, we shall find that of his daughters, would allow to be uttered at pride, ambition, revenge, suicide, the passion- his table. Are not whole passages repeatedly ate love of fame and glory, all of which Chris- recited, which no modest man would allow to tianity is intended to extirpate from the human be read before his family? Nothing but the bosom, are inculcated by the most popular countenance of numbers could induce many plays in this department of the drama. It is females to sit and listen to what they hear at true, gross cruelty, murder, and that lawless the theatre. Were any man to be in the habit pride, ambition, and revenge, which trample of quoting in company the words which are in on all the rights and interests of mankind, are constant iteration at the playhouse, would be reprobated; but I would ask, who needs to not be regarded as a person most dangerous see vice acted in order to hate it? or will its to the virtue of others? And yet these naubeing acted for our amusement be likely to in-seating exhibitions are heard with pleasure, crease our hatred of it upon right principles? As to Comedy, this is a thousand times more pollating than tragedy. Love and intrigue; prodigality dressed in the garb of generosity; profaneness dignified with the name of fashionable spirit; and even seduction and adultery; these are the usual materials which the comic muse combines and adorns, to please and instruct her votaries. This department of the drama is unmixed pollution. How often is some profligate rake introduced to the spectators, furnished with a few traits of frankness and generosity, to interest them by his vicious career; and who so far reconciles them all to his crimes, as to tolerate his atrocities for the sake of his open-hearted, good-humoured virtues. Who can wonder that young women should be prepared by such stuff for any intrigue with a bold and wily adventurer; or that young men should be encouraged to play the good-natured, beroic rake, which they have No. 69.-VOL. VI, when they are heard with the multitude. Can this be friendly to modesty, to virtue, to piety? Must there not be an insensible corrosion going on under such an influence, upon the fine polish of female excellence, and upon the principle of the other sex? Is this avoiding the appearance of evil? Is it in accordance with that morality which makes an unchaste feeling to be sin, and that injunction which commands us to watch the heart with all diligence?" "Add to this, the company which is generally attracted to the theatre. I do not say that all who frequent the theatre are immoral; but I do affirm, that the most polluting and polluted characters of the town are sure to be there. Is it not a fact, that a person who would not wish to have his eyes and ears shocked with sights and sounds of indecency, must keep at a distance from the avenues of the stage? for these are ever crowded with the loosest cha3 I racters of both sexes. Sir John Hawkins, in his Life of Johnson, has a remark which strikingly illustrates and confirms what I have now advanced. Although it is said of plays that they teach morality, and of the stage that it is the mirror of human life, these assertions have no foundation in truth, but are mere declamation: on the contrary, a playhouse, and the region about it, are the hotbeds of vice. How else comes it to pass, that no sooner is a theatre opened in any part of the kingdom, than it becomes surrounded by houses of ill fame? Of this truth, the neighbourhood of the place I am now speaking of (Goodman's Fields Theatre) has bad experience; one parish alone, adjacent thereunto, having, to my knowledge, expended the sum of £1300 in prosecutions, for the purpose of removing those inhabitants, whom, for instruction in the science of human life, the playhouse had drawn thither.'" "To send young people therefore to the playhouse to form their manners, is to expect they will learn truth from liars, virtue from profligates, and modesty from harlots." "But, my dear children, I have not only arguments to bring in proof of the immoral tendency of the stage, but I have facts. It is useless to contend against these. I am distressed, while I write, to think of the once promising young men, who, to my certain knowledge, have been utterly ruined by resorting to this scene of polluting amusement. I am not allowed to disclose the details, or I could a tale unfold that would shock every right feeling in your hearts. "It was but a few days since, that a venerable and holy man, now the deacon of a Christian church, said to me:- Sir, the theatre had nearly brought me to the gallows. There I found associates who introduced me to every crime. When likely to be prevented, by want of money, from going to meet them at the theatre, I robbed my father, to gain a shilling admission to the gallery.' "Take warning then, and have nothing to do with the theatre. Avoid it as one of the avenues to the broad road which leadeth to destruction."-Vol. II. pp. 31 to 44. This is a fair specimen of the author's mode of thinking, and of the nervous manner in which he expresses his thoughts. The length of the quotation furnishes its own apology, and supersedes the necessity of all further recommendation. trades, be established under a respectable firm. An association of this kind was formed about two handred years since, between Beaumont and Fletcher, whose names and compositions have floated down to us or the stream of time, in the utmost harmony; and what congeniality of sen timent or genius has thus joined toge ther, let not criticism presume to put asunder. But although relief may be thus granted to necessitous authors whe labour under embarrassed circumstances, we do not mean to insinuate that partnerships always imply pover ty. In commerce, the reverse of this appears, in the character of our most respectable mercantile establishments. especially in the Honourable East India Company, the fame of which is known throughout the whole civilized world; and in theology, the sermons of Edmonson and Treffry, should we hazard the intimation, would hurl us from the critic's chair. These discourses are twelve in nunber. The first is by Mr. Edmonson; the second by Mr. Treffry; and in this manner the volume is filled with the alternate productions of their pens. The subjects, though distinct in their peculiar bearings, partake in the general outline of one common character, the substance of which is expressed in the titlepage, and unfolded in detail through the subsequent pages. Acts v. 3-4., is entitled "The Per The first discourse, founded on sonality and Divinity of the Holy Ghost." These points Mr. Edmonson proves, by the application of personal pronouns to the Holy Spirit, by the inspired writers-by the intellectual properties and personal feelings ascribed to the Holy Ghost-by the works he performs-the messengers he sends and by the impossibility of reconciling with common sense many passages in the New Testament, Ghost" implies nothing more than on a supposition that the term "Holy mere energy or power. The author then proceeds to establish the fact, that this Holy Spirit is God. This he It is not often that authors enter into infers from the titles which he bearspartnership; but when the capital of the divine attributes ascribed to him one is too diminutive to furnish a pro--the works which he performs—the per assortment, we see no more rea- equality with Father and Son which son why the art and mystery of book- he sustains-the unpardonable sin making, may not, like many other that may be committed against him REVIEW.-Sermons on the Nature and 1824. and the fate of Ananias and Sapphira. These points are ably supported by a copious appeal to scripture, with which Mr. Edmonson manifests an intimate acquaintance, displaying at the same time a discriminating judgment in his selection of passages, and in the judiciousness of their application. The fourth sermon, by Mr. Treffry, is on "The Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," founded on Matthew xii. 31-32. In the 66th number of the Imperial Magazine we reviewed a volume of sermons by Dr. Chalmers, and in col. 560 quoted a passage expressive of his opinion on this awful offence, "Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost." On this momentous point we now lay before our readers the sentiments of Mr. Treffry. Having made some preliminary observations, he proceeds as follows: If God in the world. Christ meets these vile "We come now to state, that what is called in the text, the speaking against the Holy Ghost; and the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost' consisted in wilfully, and maliciously ascribing the miracles, which Christ wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost, to the agency of the devil. That this is the sense of the text, the preceding verses most explicitly determine. Christ had been followed by great maltitudes, and he healed them all: Then,' said the Evangelist, was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb, -who could neither see nor speak. Many would have thought these were natural infirmities, arising from some defects in the organization of the body, but the inspired writer ascribed them to the real cause, which was demoniacal possession. Christ, without hesitation or difficulty, cast out the devil, so that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.' Amazement seized the multitude, and they exclaimed, Is not this the son of David?' in other words, Is not this the Christ, who was to be of the seed of David according to the flesh? How prevalent is truth in unprejudiced minds! How readily would the common people' have received Christ, had they not been swayed by the slanderous speeches of their superiors! How pestilential is the influence of authority, when listed on the side of sin! The Pharisees, envious at the growing popularity of him, who had so pointedly preached against their vices, said, 'This fellow Having thus stated the nature of doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the this unpardonable sin, Mr. Treffry prince of devils.' How full of malice and all next inquires, " By whom this crime That devils had been cast out by Christ is ta- may be committed?" and to the imcitly acknowledged: the facts were undenia- portant question he gives the followble; no attempt is made to invalidate the evi- ing answer;-" Those only commit dence by which they are supported, but the this sin, who know Christ-who hate agency by which the miracles are achieved, is him-who publicly scandalize him as ascribed to a cause the most improbable. an impostor-attribute his miracles What a monstrous absurdity, that the prince of devils' should lend his aid to the Prince of to diabolical agency-and make his peace,' for the benevolent purpose of alleviat- followers and his religion the subjects ing the miseries of men, circumscribing his of secret hate, and open defamation." own dominion, and advancing the honour of -pp. 107. uncbaritableness is this unfounded assertion! The subjects discussed in this volume are at once deeply interesting and awfully important. They enter into the essence of vital Christianity, and indisputably prove, that without the Spirit of Christ we are none of his, and that without his sacred influence we can do nothing. Without being controversial, they are strongly argumentative; and on the character, operation, influence, and evidence of the Holy Ghost, semi-sceptics and doubting Christians will find much to give them satisfaction, and to fortify their minds against the cavils of assailants. It is scarcely needful to say, that the dramatis personæ, introduced into this scriptural drama, are those mentioned in the sacred writings, where the speech of each is already formed, though not moulded into English verse. The poet, therefore, has no conversations to invent, and no peculiarities of character for his genius to embellish, the whole being already matured, and placed before him. Hence, not to deteriorate from the grandeur of his great original, must, on a subject like this, constitutes his highest praise. But even in this negative department, it is not always that Mr. Howard has been successful. His expressions REVIEW.-Joseph and his Brethren, a too frequently abound with expleScriptural Drama, in two Acts. By selected, wanting both dignity and tives; and many paragraphs might be H. L. Howard. 8vo. pp. 260. Lon-life, to correspond with the interesting don. Whittaker. 1824. THE Scripture narrative of Joseph and his brethren is, perhaps, without any exception, the most simple and pathetic that has ever appeared in any language. It disdains all assistance from the poet's art, and every attempt to heighten its beauties disfigures it with deformity, by presenting it in an unnatural, because an artificial dress. As a subject full of interest, the author could never have found one more true to nature, in which the various passions and emotions that mark and diversify the human character, appear in all their unpruned luxuriance and variety, chastened by simple truth, and exhibited without disguise. With the narrative itself, every person acquainted with the Bible must be quite familiar; and even those who disbelieve its doctrines, must be charmed with the unvarnished beauty of the affecting incidents with which this historical relation abounds. We have therefore no occasion to notice the events which arise in regular succession throughout the detail, the sacred writings being in every hand. It must be obvious, however, that this is dangerous ground for a poet to attempt to tread. He can scarcely hope to be successful, in any description which his own language, however powerful, can give; and he may think himself highly applauded, if he can be so fortunate as not to merit censure. No painter can give new charms to a ruby by any application of his art, or embellish a sardius with vermilion. occasion. In the whole narration, a more affecting scene cannot be found, than that in which Joseph makes himself known to his trembling brethren. We are, therefore, naturally led to expect this part of the drama to abound with vigorous thought, and with tender sentiment, delivered in language sufficiently nervous to convey, without impairing it, "the energy divine.” The following is Joseph's speech, at this momentous crisis, which we give without note or comment, and thus take leave of the author and his work : "I am Thy brother-lo! behold!-'tis I am be.- |