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"to sentiments which, when read, merely explain the mys→ "terious action of the human heart; but which when thus "uttered, thus accompanied, become contagious and de"structive. These, in short, make up a scene of tempta"tation and seduction, of over-wrought voluptuousness, “and unnerving pleasure, which surely ill accords with "working out our salvation with fear and trembling,' "or with that frame of mind which implies that the world is crucified to us, and we to the world."

In this manner H. More writes respecting the immorality and corrupting tendency of theatrical amusements, of which she herself was once so fond, and from which she cannot now entirely wean herself. Of its voluptuousness, amatory scenes, profligacy, its temptations, its seductions to a thousand follies, wickedness, & even crimes, she writes with all her force, and in the very same introduction or preface to her plays, which she republishes at a time of life when amatory scenes and voluptuousness are supposed to have little attraction, she permits plays to be read; it " does "not appear," she says, "necessary to debar accomplished young ladies." In plain terms," accomplished young ladies," may partake of “ voluptuousness, amatory scenes, and follies," and go to the Devil, for the " preface," she adds, " is not ad"dressed to the gay and dissolute; to such as

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profess themselves to be lovers of pleasure more "than lovers of God;' but it is addressed to the "more sober-minded, to those who believe the gospel

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of Jesus Christ; who wish to be enlightened by "its doctrines, to be governed by its precepts, " and who profess to be seeking a better country, " even a heavenly one."

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Mrs. H. More might have as well addressed the public in this manner, and said, good folks! I have a little ship arrived from the Levant, with the plague on board, but the goods are of an excellent quality; but, nevertheless, as she is mine, and opium and coffee are likely to fetch a good price, though it would be illegal and wrong to suffer any other vessel to unload, and import the pest for the destruction of his Majesty's subjects, I must have my ship immediately delivered, without performing any quarantine.

If H. More really believes in christianity (of which I am persuaded she does not believe a word) and at the same time believes what she so copiously and forcibly declares, the deleterious effects of tragedy and comedy on the morals of the people, even the most serious, what other epithets than diabolical and hypocritical can be applied to her name, who advertiseth, selleth, and publicly administereth the poison. But perhaps for the criminality of this act, as well as for the rest of her transactions, there may be some salvo reserved for her conscience in the non-descript system of christianity. We know that most crimes are remissible to those who profess sincerely their species of orthodoxy. She must have some mode of satisfying her mind in her GRAND-SCHEME; for they make higher pretensions to the keys than even the Vicar of Christ himself.

The writer of these remarks will be happy if he shall discover that he has misunderstood his author, for he would have believed it on no other

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evidence but that of his own senses, the book being now before him, in proportion as he laments the discovery of a female of great and noisy pretensions, but whose mental character till now has not been known, acting with so much duplicity and on so depraved principles. The clergy once censured Pope for his Essay on Man, doubting the sincerity of his faith; what will they now think of Hannah More, whose principles are so ambiguous and secret, and who is detected in a GRAND-SCHEME of creating a schism in the church.

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It is always pleasant to see the wicked repentant; to see a sinner the apologist of virtue. But there are strange, false, temporary conversions in the modern world. It is reduced to a system, directed by rules, taught as an art. They talk of their grace with vanity and pride, and of their conversion as of a change in their circumstances, a prize in the lottery, or the succession to an esBut publicly to vend the balm of Gilead, and poisonous and deleterious drugs from the same shop, and praise and dispraise both, proves that the seller loves money above all things. If she wishes to be considered as an honest person, acting in any way consistently with her professions, as making any distinction between virtue and vice, impudence and modesty, she will immediately cancel that preface and her dramas, or, preserving them, renounce her supererogatory professions of religion. "Sell, inadam, all that thou hast," buy them up and burn them, otherwise

thy name, as it does now, will continue to stink in the nostrils of all consistent, honest persons, and be what you seem so desirous of appearing, a saint; or continue what, from this act and your former and late conduct, you seem really to be, more plausible than sincere.

Fathers! Mothers! Guardians! Governors! and Governesses! H. More descants on virtue and piety, writes against the stage, players and play-wrights, as wicked and destructive of religion and morals, ruinous to the souls and bodies of those who write, read, act, and see the spectacles; and yet she has written, seen acted, and now in her old age republisheth her own plays! Whether H. More's writings are calculated to do more good than evil, is a question of no great solvable difficulty.

After displaying all her eloquence and ingenuity in condemning all dramatic works whatever, she directly insults the human understanding, by justifying the perusal of them in the closet; as if that which she calls a poison, taken publicly, would be a salutary and safe medicine swallowed in private. "The passing over vir"tuous plays," she says in page 42, " merely be

cause they are in a dramatic form, would be an "instance of scrupulosity, which one might ven"ture to say no well-informed conscience could "suggest." It is much to be feared, from many of her transactions, that her conscience is very elastic,

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"Women especially, (she tells us) whose walk in life is so circumscribed, and whose avenues of information are

so few, may, I conceive, learn to know the world with "less danger, and to study human nature with more ad"vantage, from the perusal of selected parts of this in"comparable genius (Shakespeare) than from most other ❝ attainable sources."

What are we to infer from all this? That women with great caution should have a selection of dramatic works, because more is dangerous to their mental and bodily purity; to their minds by reading them in private, to both mind and body in the representation. Are we, or are we not, to consider her mind, in whatever state her body may be, as contaminated? Has she not written dramatically, seen her own and other people's works acted, been behind the scenes, associated with the histrionic faculty? Has she not, to use her own words (p. 44) conceived, imagined, and represented in private, all possible ideas, situations, actions, and attitudes, which " make up a scene "of temptation and seduction, of over-wrought voluptuousness, and unnerving pleasure, which " surely ill accord with working out our own sal"vation with fear and trembling?" Her who thus describes her own knowledge, and tells us she has so experienced it, we must consider, like Solomon, to have "chosen wisdom," and to have gone through all situations and scenes, to attain her wisdom and knowledge. Are we then to be wicked as preparatory to piety and virtue; and is it necessary to do evil that good may come of it? Her knowledge, by her own account, seems not

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