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pendent from any other circumstance, whether good or bad, ought to be reckoned among the number of things purely indifferent. Upon due examination you will find it to be the opinion even of Tertullian and St. Cyprian, the two who seem to declaim most against the drama.

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To begin with Tertullian, at the same time that he abominates the infamy of public shows he starts this objection to himself : -“God has made all things, and given them to men, and consequently they are all good, such as the CIRCUS, lions, voices, &c. What then makes them .unlawful ?” To this he answers, “ That it is true all things were instituted by God, but that they were corrupted by the evil spirit : that iron for instance, is as much God's creature as plants and angels : that notwithstanding this, God did not make these creatures to be instruments of murder,

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poison, and MAGIC, though men by their wickedness deprave them to those uses; and that what renders a great many things evil, which in their own nature are indifferent, is not their institution but corruption." -From hence, if we apply this way of arguing to public shows, it follows, that considered in their own nature, they are as harmless as angels, plants, and iron; but that it is the evil spirit that has chang ed, perverted, and spoiled them. You see then that Tertullian has reckoned stageplays among indifferent actions, and what he condemns in them is only the excess.

St. Cyprian speaking of David's dancing before the Ark, owns that there is no harm in dancing or singing; "but yet," says he, "this is no excuse for christians who are present at those lascivious dances and impure songs, which are in honour of idols."

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Whence it is easy for us to infer, that this holy doctor, does not absolutely condemn dancing, singing, operas and comedies, but only those shows that represent fables after the lascivious manner of the Greeks and Romans, and which were celebrated in honour of idols. This is likewise St. Bonaventure's opinion, who says expressly, "That shows are good and lawful, if they are attended with necessary precautions and circumstances." His master, the great Albertus, taught him this doctrine: and the words which I met with upon this subject in St. Antonius, Archbishop of Florence, are so pertinent that I cannot forbear inserting them here. "The profession of a comedian, because it is useful for the diversion of men, which is requisite, is not forbidden in its own nature: from whence it follows, that it is no less lawful to get one's livelihood by this art, &c." And in another place he says, "Comedy is a mixture of

pleasant speeches and actions, for the diversion of a man's self, or for that of another. If nothing is mixed in it either unbecoming or an affront to God, or prejudicial to one's neighbour, it is an effect of that virtue which is called Eutrapelia ; for the mind which is fatigued by internal cares, as the body is by external labour, has as much need of repose as the body has of nourishment. This repose is procured by those kind of diverting speeches and actions which are called plays.” Can any thing, Sir, be said of greater weight in favour of comedy? Yet he who says it, is a man of undoubted sanctity. How comes it to pass that he does not declaim against it, as the ancients did ? It is because the drama grows more correct and perfect every day; and I have observed, in reading the holy fathers, that the nearer they come to our times, the more favourable they are to plays, ben cause the stage was not so liccntious as be

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fore.* Thus likewise we see, that it is not prohibited by the saint of our times, the great Francis de Sales, who might, without dispute, serve as a pattern to all directors. -And Fontana de Ferrara, in his “ Institutes," relates that the pious saint, Charles B rromeus, allowed plays in his diocess by an order in the year 1503, yet upon condition that before they were acted they should be revised and licenced by his grand Vicar, for fear any thing which is immodest should be in them. This pious and learned cardinal did then allow of modest comedies, and condemned only the immodest and profane, as appears by the third council which he held at Milan, in the year 1572.

* I wish our modern correctors would be at the trouble of consulting All the fathers ;-but I presume they stop at the very period when the others become liberal

R. M.

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