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On The Tendency Of The Pagan Morality And Polytheism To Corrupt Young Minds.
There is another fault in the practice of many schools , to which I cannot but object . Young gentlemen are not only obliged to read , on their first initiation into the Latin language , a great deal o £ . absurd and impious fiction , and to exercise their minds full soon , by drawing out into composition the false sentiments they are continually imbibing ; but in many seminaries of education they are compelled to turn and
actors , that they may acquire , I suppose , a theatric air , ( what is worse ) they are absolutely called upon to personate vicious characters . This last circumstance is , doubtless , a most shameful indecorum , % vhich cannot be too severely censured . The licentiousness , for instance , which pervades the Eunuch of Terence , must surely operate to inflame the corrupt appetites of our nature . To familiarize young
people , therefore , to such a play , by oblig ing them to commit it to memory , and represent it , hath so much the aspect of seduction , that one should hardly believe the circumstance to exist in a Christian country , under tlie sanction of grave and reverend Divines . Such , however , is the case . I need not endeavour to prove a fact , so notoriousb particular notice of schools or schoolmasters . Let us
, y any look , for a few minutes , into the play itself . In almost every scene we have an unrestrained exhibition of licentious indulgence . The principal character communicates with his voluptuous Thais . We view him in full . possession of his mistress . A rape is committed behind the scenes . ' The ravisher relates his story . And , in . short * instead of any serious morality to counteract the ill effects of such
transactions , we are presented with the most specious and imposing arguments in defence of sensuality and debauchery . Let the master of " Westminster or Eton , or any " other seminary of polite literature , whether conscious of having introduced the practice I have reprobated , or not , consider the following passage from the Eunuch , ( and the- rest is in the same strain ) and decide on the propriety of its
being impressed on the memories of boys , and associated with those impure ideas and heated affections which now begin to shew themselves , and the indulgence of which , at so critical a season , may de » terrnine their future characters in life :
" — Quem Deum ? Qui templa cceli summa sonitu concutit : Ego homuncio hoc non facerem ? Ego vero illud feci , ac luberis . Interea somnus virginem oppvimit : ego limis specto Sic per flabellum clanculum , et sinml alia circumspecto—Satin' explorata sint : video esse : pessulum ostio obdo . Quid turn?—Quid ? Onidtum ? Fatue ? -7-fateor - Egon ! Occasiont-m—tam brevem—tarn optatam simulabar
Amitterem ? tam pol ego is essem , qui . Sane , hercle , lit dicis . " The conduct of Jupiter , the chief of the gods , was certainly a good excuse for the libertinism of a young Pagan , but not , it may be s . ud , for that of a lad at Westminster . But , considering the situation of Chzerea , who can hesitate to condemn this passage as highly indecent and inflammatory r M « ny exceptionable lines , ' rendered more conspicuous and attractive by marginal asterisms in the Delphin editions of Horace or Juvenal , mig ht as " well , be read . and construed as the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Tendency Of The Pagan Morality And Polytheism To Corrupt Young Minds.
There is another fault in the practice of many schools , to which I cannot but object . Young gentlemen are not only obliged to read , on their first initiation into the Latin language , a great deal o £ . absurd and impious fiction , and to exercise their minds full soon , by drawing out into composition the false sentiments they are continually imbibing ; but in many seminaries of education they are compelled to turn and
actors , that they may acquire , I suppose , a theatric air , ( what is worse ) they are absolutely called upon to personate vicious characters . This last circumstance is , doubtless , a most shameful indecorum , % vhich cannot be too severely censured . The licentiousness , for instance , which pervades the Eunuch of Terence , must surely operate to inflame the corrupt appetites of our nature . To familiarize young
people , therefore , to such a play , by oblig ing them to commit it to memory , and represent it , hath so much the aspect of seduction , that one should hardly believe the circumstance to exist in a Christian country , under tlie sanction of grave and reverend Divines . Such , however , is the case . I need not endeavour to prove a fact , so notoriousb particular notice of schools or schoolmasters . Let us
, y any look , for a few minutes , into the play itself . In almost every scene we have an unrestrained exhibition of licentious indulgence . The principal character communicates with his voluptuous Thais . We view him in full . possession of his mistress . A rape is committed behind the scenes . ' The ravisher relates his story . And , in . short * instead of any serious morality to counteract the ill effects of such
transactions , we are presented with the most specious and imposing arguments in defence of sensuality and debauchery . Let the master of " Westminster or Eton , or any " other seminary of polite literature , whether conscious of having introduced the practice I have reprobated , or not , consider the following passage from the Eunuch , ( and the- rest is in the same strain ) and decide on the propriety of its
being impressed on the memories of boys , and associated with those impure ideas and heated affections which now begin to shew themselves , and the indulgence of which , at so critical a season , may de » terrnine their future characters in life :
" — Quem Deum ? Qui templa cceli summa sonitu concutit : Ego homuncio hoc non facerem ? Ego vero illud feci , ac luberis . Interea somnus virginem oppvimit : ego limis specto Sic per flabellum clanculum , et sinml alia circumspecto—Satin' explorata sint : video esse : pessulum ostio obdo . Quid turn?—Quid ? Onidtum ? Fatue ? -7-fateor - Egon ! Occasiont-m—tam brevem—tarn optatam simulabar
Amitterem ? tam pol ego is essem , qui . Sane , hercle , lit dicis . " The conduct of Jupiter , the chief of the gods , was certainly a good excuse for the libertinism of a young Pagan , but not , it may be s . ud , for that of a lad at Westminster . But , considering the situation of Chzerea , who can hesitate to condemn this passage as highly indecent and inflammatory r M « ny exceptionable lines , ' rendered more conspicuous and attractive by marginal asterisms in the Delphin editions of Horace or Juvenal , mig ht as " well , be read . and construed as the