in the way of the
theatre--the fear of moral contamination--it is due to the theatre of
our day, on the one hand, and to the prejudices of our grandfathers on
the other, to confess that the theatre of fifty years ago or less did
need reforming in the audience part of the house. All who have read
the old controversy as to the morality of going to the theatre are
familiar with the objection to which I refer. But the theatre of fifty
years ago or less was reformed. If there are any, therefore, as I fear
there are a few, who still talk on this point in the old vein, let
them rub their eyes a bit, and do us the justice to consider not what
used to be, but what is. But may there be moral contamination from
what is performed on the stage? Well, there may be. But so there is
from books. So there may be at lawn tennis clubs. So there may be at
dances. So there may be in connection with everything in civilized
life and society. But do we therefore bury ourselves? The anchorites
secluded themselves in hermitages. The Puritans isolated themselves in
consistent abstinence from everything that anybody else did. And there
are people now who think that they can keep their children, and that
those children will keep themselves in after life, in cotton wool, so
as to avoid all temptation of body and mind, and be saved nine-tenths
of the responsibility of self-control. All this is mere phantasy. You
must be in the world, though you need not be of it; and the best way
to make the world a better community to be in, and not so bad a place
to be of, is not to shun, but to bring public opinion to bear upon
its pursuits and its relaxations. Depend upon two things--that the
theatre, as a whole, is never below the average moral sense of the
time; and that the inevitable demand for an admixture, at least, of
wholesome sentiment in every sort of dramatic production brings the
ruling tone of the theatre, whatever drawback may exist, up to the
highest level at which the general morality of the time can truly be
registered. We may be encouraged by the reflection that this is truer
than ever it was before, owing to the greater spread of education, the
increased community of taste between classes, and the almost absolute
divorce of the stage from mere wealth and aristocracy. Wealth and
aristocracy come around the stage in abundance, and are welcome, as in
the time of Elizabeth; but the stage is no longer a mere appendage of
court-life, no longer a mere m