quences to get the better of your good sense, when you denounced the chess-board and the bagatelle as the necessary instruments of evil.

66 Are you not aware, Sir, that our young people must have some source of amusement; and what can be more innocent, what more gratifying, what more conducive to the improvement of their mind, in the habit of deep reflection, of profound caution, of quick perception, than a game of draughts? and if the same observations are not equally applicable to the bagatelle, yet that is no less interesting and amusing. We cannot expect from them, while young, the gravity of age; nor imagine that it is in our power to controul propensities, which, we may hope, time and reflection will subdue; and I fear, if we do not fall in with the current of their disposition, we shall force them to a resistance that may destroy the mound of our domestic happiness. You will, therefore, permit me to hope that you will reconsider the questionview it in all its bearings and, in the next edition of your work, obliterate, or qualify those censures which you have pronounced against one of the principal sources of family amusement.

"Your humble Servant,

“T. H."

MADAM,

"You may perceive by the publication of your anonymous communication, that it has been received; and as it has led me to review my opinions on the moral tendency of some of the popular amusements which prevail amongst us, I will, as a compliment to the amiable spirit which it breathes, assign the reason why I cannot expunge them, in the event of publishing another edition of the Rambler.

It is admitted by the wisest and the best of men, that the influence of habits is progressive; and that it will require more fortitude, and a greater sacrifice of feeling, to eradicate them when once established, than to guard against their adoption. It is on this generally received fact, that I found my objection to private dancing; and to an occasional attendance on theatrical amusements. You say that you do not approve of the pomp, and parade, and expensive dresses of the

ball-room, &c.; but have no objection to a private dance when young people meet together. Now, Madam, suppose one of your daughters should excel in the gracefulness of her steps, and should acquire a passion for that bewitching mode of displaying her figure and her action, can you suppose that she will court the shades of privacy to make the exhibition, when the voice of the public is inviting her to a more elevated and commanding station? Will she be contented with the parlour, when the assembly-room is open to her? and be satisfied with the society of a few select friends, when she may excite the admiration of the thronged multitude? And though you may suppose that her regard for your authority, would keep her from stepping on boards, on which the gay and the dissipated tread, and too often in immodest attire; yet is it an act of wisdom on your part to give birth to, or to cherish, a propensity, which, by the strength of the fascinating temptation, may place her subjection to your controul in jeopardy? If you allow her to dance in a small circle, what reason can you assign why she may not enjoy the same pleasure in a larger? and then the circumstance of appearing in the costume of the order comes as a matter of course. If then, you wish your children to be kept free from the seductions of fashionable life, be on your guard, lest, by leading them into the slippery path, you entice them to the evil you are anxious they should avoid.

"As a virtuous man may pass through the contagion of evil, which abounds in society, uncorrupted by it; so you imagine a pure mind may occasionally attend a theatrical performance without sustaining any material injury. But in what state must this pure mind be, at the time of such attendance, to feel any other emotion than disgust, at the scenes which must be beheld-than abhorrence at the profane and irreverent use which is made of the name of God-than the tenderest pity, overflowing into the deepest anxiety, on account of the moral character and condition of the regular frequenters of the drama? If these emotions are not excited by such an attendance, and if they do not absorb all others, this mental purity is as much opposed to that purity of heart, which distinguishes a renovated mind from one

that is unrenewed, as the grossest indecencies of the stage are repugnant to the feelings of the most sensitive modesty. A pure mind, (taking that expression in its scriptural meaning,) will walk with God-will commune with him, not only in its periodical seasons of devotion, but in its habitual aspirations-will dread an approach to the dwelling place of evil, as the spot from whence his approving presence is excluded, and rather forego the highest gratification of its literary taste, than come in contact with any scenes of description or exhibition, which will have a tendency to create any anti-christian or defiling associations of thought or of feeling.

And, beside, Madam, if you go occasionally to the theatre, do you not give it your sanction? and what stronger inducement can your children have to visit it? You may go once, and feel no disposition to return; but are you sure that your children will not wish to repeat, and often to repeat their visits? You may go, when some comparatively unobjectionable piece is introduced on the stage; but they may be present when some of the most obscene and demoralizing plays are acted—when scenes are exhibited, on which the eye of virtue ought never to gaze when expressions are uttered, which are inserted in no vocabulary but that which is used by the most depraved of our species-when amorous or libidinous songs are sung, to which no one can listen with delight but the evil spirits of midnight dissipation. Your passions may be in a dormant state, and you may feel on retiring, some regret that you were present at that time; but can you be certain that the passions of your children would not be excited? or that they would feel, when the curtain drops, such regret? Is it not possible, that some object in the scene that some sentiment in the song, may fix on their imagination, and call forth the latent depravity of their mind, and thus set going a principle of action which may not cease its operations till the work of corruption is finished?

As cards, draughts, &c. are games of hazard, in which each party expects to gain either reputation or property, or both, I consider them as liable to all the objections which can be advanced against the billiard-table, &c. with this difference, the former is only the beginning of

a course of which the latter is often the end. I will not say, that the bagatelle necessarily leads to the billiardroom, or that a game of chess, for amusement only, necessarily leads to play for money; but surely you must admit, on deliberate reflection, that it is initiating the young in the art of gaming. The crime of forgery in this country is punished with death; but would you, while such a sentence stands ready to be inflicted on the culprit, accustom your children to imitate the different signatures which may come affixed to your epistolary correspondence? It is true, this might be made an amusing exercise, and the reward of commendation might be given to the most accurate imitation, and no moral principle might, at the time, receive any injury; but who would not censure a parent that would, inure a child to such a dangerous habit? As the chance of crime is in proportion to the ability which a person possesses to commit it, surely you must confess that he is most likely to be overcome who has been initiated into the system; and if so, do not they act the wisest and the kindest part towards others, who resolutely set themselves against the first propensities to evil, instead of calculating on the influence of mature judgment and reflection, to controul and subdue them?

Ånd in addition to all these specific reasons, why I cannot change my opinion on this deeply interesting question, I will assign another which is applicable to all the amusements under consideration. It is our duty as Christians to set a blameless example. As we profess to have renounced the pomps and vanities of the world, ought we not to give some unequivocal proof that we have done it? Are we not commanded to abstain even from the appearance of evil? to keep the garment of our profession unspotted from the filth of the flesh? and to purify ourselves, even as God is pure? If we give the sanction of our example to the initiating games of the world, shall we not embolden the thoughtless to advance to the higher mysteries of iniquity? and shall we not, by such an act of indiscretion, do more injury to the morals of others than we shall ever be able to repair? If we quibble at the principle of a broad and palpable distinction between them that serve God, and them that serve him not, may we not expect to see it contemned

by others? till ultimately, we become so confounded with them in our habits and customs, that no traces of HIS having a peculiar people on earth can be found? If we walk to the brink of the awful precipice, though we may stand secure, yet may not some others, encouraged by our example, stumble and fall? And suppose such a calamity should happen, would the gratification of having gazed on the surrounding scene, be an adequate compensation to us for such an irreparable disaster?

"And though, Madam, I am fully convinced that nothing but an implicit reliance on the atonement made by Jesus Christ for the remission of human guilt, will keep the mind calm in the immediate prospect of entering the eternal world, and animate it with the blissful hope of immortality; yet will it not afford some high degree of satisfaction to be able, in taking a retrospective survey of our past life to say, that it has been our endeavour to avoid trespassing on the forbidden ground of pleasure; and that, if no one has been reclaimed from evil by our persuasions, no one has been seduced from righteousness by our example? Will it afford no consolation, at that awful moment of separation, to be able to say to our children, You know how holily, and unblameably, and unreproveably, we have behaved ourselves amongst you? Will it afford no gratification to have the testimony of our conscience in favour of this great point of excellence, that we have taught them by example, as well as precept, to mortify their passions— to deny themselves indulgencies, which, if carried to excess, would tend to ruin; and to walk in that high way of practical devotedness to God and to goodness, which is no less the duty, than the honour of every Christian? And though this marked separation from the world, may bring down on you the frowns of its displeasure, and often excite against you the bitter sarcasm of its contempt and reproach, yet can you read the New Testament without perceiving that this is one of the collateral evidences by which your character is to be distinguished, and your principles are to be tried? Your Lord and Master was persecuted by the world which he came to bless, not because he neglected to promote its moral happiness, but because he did not conform himself to its maxims and customs; and he has commanded