love of excitement and still lower motives, he resorts to the theatre, that fountain of pernicious influences, falsely named a school of morals.

A school of morals indeed! Surely it was not a friend, but a concealed and bitter enemy, who, with grave but cutting irony, called the theatre a school of morals! An institution where the unconscious pupils are but too readily and effectually indoctrinated and disciplined in immorality and licentiousness. If the object were to devise a scheme most efficiently to corrupt and debauch the moral sentiments and habits of young men, we verily believe, no more successful one could be invented than the establishment of the theatre, as it is got up in most large cities, with all its accompanying apparatus to minister to the low tastes and corrupt fancies of the lovers of pleasure; and the more a veil of decency is thrown over it, though, even in the public representation, on which female purity is expected to gaze, that veil of decency is often of transparent thinness, and sometimes is drawn wholly aside, but the more effectually its indecencies are veiled and its unseemly things kept from observation, the worse it is, because more deceptive, and less likely to shock those whom it seeks to ensnare; and the more that respectable people, looking only at what they see, and winking at what they see not, though they know it is there, countenance it and visit it, the more effectually does it accomplish the object of luring the young thither, and of drugging them with its intoxication. Alas, what with sweetening the poisonous draught, and garnishing the bowl, and pointing to the respectable people who are not ashamed to sip from it, can it be wondered that the poor, inexperienced youth goes unheedingly to his ruin, as a bird to the snare of the fowler, and knoweth not that it is for his life! It cannot be doubted that the moral ruin of some of the most promising young men in the land began to be developed amidst the fatally exciting and imposing influences, which are almost always generated by a frequent attendance at theatres.

They, who have visited them but a few times in the course of their lives, and then without thinking of the moral tendencies of the scene around them, can with difficulty perhaps estimate rightly their mischievous effects in a community, and especially the hurt they do to the young. In our apprehension, theatrical representations, as they are conducted in large cities, are from beginning to end, schemes of intoxication; as effectu

ally so as if they were deliberately concerted for that purpose.. The plan is, not merely by alcoholic mixtures, though those are never far off, but by all artificial means and contrivances, to work upon the excitability of human nature, to stimulate it in the pursuit after pleasure to the pitch of intoxication, to create a habitual feverish thirst for those stimulants, and indeed for more and more potent ones, until at last, nothing but the maddening interest of the gambling table can gratify the diseased craving for excitement.

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In too many cases the machinery put in operation produces its appropriate results. Of course, not in all cases; eral rule of this sort is without exceptions. Favorable circumstances, change of situation, remarkable events in providence, some recollections of touching incidents in the experience of early life, some thought of the parent, the sister, the bosom-friend, to be struck down by his fall, tion of the folly and madness of the course he is pursuing, may, in individual instances, come in to the rescue of enfeebled and staggering youthful virtue. In some instances, without supposing any religion in the case, the love of pleasure may be balanced and prevented from running to extremity by the intense pursuit of gain, or by the thirst for popular favor, one form of selfishness checking and controlling another; and yet the character be as destitute of Christian principle, as essentially debased and corrupt, as that of any of the miserable victims of a life of dissipation.

We have dwelt at some length upon the seducements to a life of pleasure, with which young men are likely to be assailed on coming into the great world. But in this case, as in the others which have come under our consideration, the root of the evil is in the prevalence, we say not in the whole community, yet certainly in a very large and influential part of it, of loose and unchristian modes of thinking and speaking in regard to it. One of the most common and hurtful of the wrong sentiments on this subject, namely, that the theatre is a school of good morals, we have combated at considerable length. We certainly wish not to withhold from youth any indulgence that is really innocent; but we cannot believe any institution innocent which, taken in all its influences, is rather a school of licentiousness than of virtue, and which is actually to many young men the commencement of degradation and ruin. Whatever relaxation or amusement leaves no sting of self-re

proach behind, and no stain of impurity upon the heart, we would not condemn. We love to see the light and buoyant spirits of youth pouring themselves out in all innocent ways; but in the mirth of fools there is to our feelings something worse than folly. If there is any truth in religion, or any substance in virtue, the whole of what is called a life of pleasure must be considered little short of insanity.

The depraved state of the public sentiment, tolerating and justifying such habits of selfish dissipation, and sanctioning such fountains of licentious influence, calls rousingly upon young men to be soberminded, rightminded on this subject, true to the elevation and spirituality of the habitual thoughts, feelings, and purposes of their hearts. It calls on them to set out in life with a determination to avoid all the forms of artificial stimulation, by which men have insanely endeavored to create an unnatural appetite for self-indulgence. It calls on them to take the ground of total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks; to give their name and influence to carry forward the great change which is going on in the public mind in regard to the use of such drinks; a change which, it can hardly be doubted, is to be productive of incalculable good to those that shall come after us. It calls on them, in consistency with this principle, to shun all places of resort and amusement, which are designed to allure, to fascinate, to intoxicate, and which, in their general action upon the characters of those who attend upon them, are fatally pernicious. A single visit possibly might not sensibly injure a young man; - but if he means to be guided by principle, he will not by a single indulgence of curiosity, give his countenance to an institution which on the whole he believes to be bad. In a word, let young men resolve to give the whole weight of their character and example in favor of right and of truth. Let them resolve never to be stumbling-blocks for any weak brother to fall over: - but rather to live so that whoever shall walk in their steps shall never have reason to be sorry for having done it, but shall in future worlds look back with joy unutterable upon the influence received from them.

R. F. W.

ART. V. The Miscellaneous Works of HENRY MACKENZIE, Esq. Complete in one Volume. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1836.

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It has been remarked by Sir James Mackintosh, that "every work of genius in every department of art and polite literature, every poem, every oration, every picture, every statue, is an experiment on human feeling, the grand object of investigation by the moralist; and in proportion to the influence which these works have upon mankind are they worthy of examination. They are repositories of ethical facts, furnishing to the moral philosopher the most valuable materials of his science. Polite letters allure into the sciences of mind and morals; they form the channel through which moral science has a constant intercourse with general feeling." Coinciding with these views, we have turned to the examination of a work, formerly much read, and we trust not yet forgotten, Mackenzie's Man of Feeling, a work purely sentimental, touching the sympathies of human nature, and awakening a tone of moral pathos which appeals strongly and directly to the heart.

Mackenzie has been termed the "Historian of Sentiment." All his works have the same tendency, the same object; they all seek to touch the heart, to excite the deep and kind and holy sensibilities. This is a province in which strong talent, purity of feeling, and delicacy of taste are essential to success. Sentiment in ordinary hands is apt to degenerate, to lose its spirit and freshness. We see the attempt to play with our feelings, and we resist. But Mackenzie warms his own heart, and ours catches the glow; he details the incidents which excite his own sensibilities, and on reading the simple and faithful record ours also are awakened. So natural are his pictures of life, that we forget the painter in our deep interest in the scene.

"The Man of Feeling" was the first of his works, and we give it much the preference over his later productions. It leaves a more pleasant impression than "The Man of the World," and "Julia de Roubigné" perhaps too painfully affects the feelings. One such work is sufficient for his reputation; this appears to us to be the bold and strong sketching, which afterwards subdued into a more perfect picture has less power over us.

The Man of Feeling is a collection of incidents, not a de

tailed story. It purports to be the publication of a mutilated manuscript, a large part of which had been used by a country curate, when on shooting excursions, as wadding for his gun. Of course it appears imperfect, is without plot, and has no other aim than to exhibit the power of incident over the heart. To use the author's words, "It is no more a history than a sermon; it is a bundle of little episodes put together without art, and of no importance on the whole, with something of nature and little else in them."

Harley, the hero, is a man of extreme sensibility. His education was such as developed strongly the moral sentiments; he is represented as benevolent even to excess, ardent in his feelings, yet reserved and contemplative. Living almost secluded in the country, he was preserved from a knowledge of the pollutions and the duplicity which darken the mart of busy life. Possessing a moderate income, a few friends, with a heart alive to the beauties of nature, his desire was to shut out the world, and to pass his days in seclusion; his ideas of pomp and grandeur only serving to endear the state which Providence had assigned him. But this tranquillity was not destined to continue.

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"There are never wanting to a young man," says our author, some grave and prudent friends to set him right if he need it, to watch his ideas as they arise, and point them to those objects which a wise man should never forget. Harley did not want for some monitors of this sort. He was frequently told of men, whose fortunes enabled them to command all the luxuries of life, whose fortunes were of their own acquirement.'

These prudent friends urged him to apply for the lease of some crown lands which lay contiguous to his little paternal estate, thereby to increase his property. He had not much relish for the attempt, but he could not resist the torrent of motives which assaulted him. He was furnished with a letter of introduction to a certain Baronet, "who had a good deal to say to the first Lord of the treasury," and he commenced his journey to London without any heart in the business, and with very much the feeling of the child who submits to hard necessity and turns to school, leaving the sunny fields and glassy brooks, when he would gladly linger still.

A few incidents of the journey, the effect of London scenes on his simplicity and ignorance of the ways of the world,