| Citation |
PJ.766.022
31 Jul 1766:11 (1234)
. . . [Essay, signed] E.F. It is not a more certain truth,
that "a serious mind is the native soil of every virtue"
than, that "a land of levity is a land of guilt" and what
will infalliby, soon, or late, be the reward of a guilty
land, as well as a guilty man, is pretty generally
acknowledged, even by those, who are now pleading for an
increase thereof, which I think no one will have the
impudence to deny all are doing, who are endeavouring to
fill the minds of ancient people, with the follies of those
of sixteen, and to make the young of both sexes go wild, and
perhaps make many an honest parent's heart ache, the sure
effects of all gaming houses, midnight dances, public shows,
and especially the head and crown of them all playhouses,
which tend to draw people's minds from everything that is
profitable, here or hereafter, and tho' they pretend to lash
and expose every vice and folly, they take care to do it in
such a manner, that (young) people (especially) gradually
and imperceptably, become anamoured with those very vices
they pretend to expose. . . . we shall acknowledge that
plays may be to you serviceable; but then for shame abuse
not the name of Jesus Christ . . . They for sooth are going
to build a playhouse at Philadelphia.
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