| Citation |
PJ.770.010
1 Feb 1770:31, 32 (1417)
There is not, perhaps, any passion to which the human breast
hath so universal and so forcible a propensity as to it's
amusements; nor any that through a false and vicious taste
produces more inconveniences and evils to men . . . To
answer this desirable purpose, the theatre hath ever been
deemed most likely; being as it were, a glass where human
nature is best featured, and it's secret springs of action
best investigated; where good examples are exhibited for the
imitation, and bad ones exposed to the contempt of mankind.
. . .
[Letter continues for another 1 1/2 columns, including
quotations from Shakespear, ending]
Who now dare call the theatre a school of vice, when so
many noble sentiments and excellent precepts, may be drawn
from a single representation. . . .
[signed] Candidus.
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