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 AMUSEMENTS 
 
 FOE YOUTH. 
 
 A LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED BT2F0RE THE 
 
 YOUiXG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 
 
 HALIFAX, DECEMBEB, 1857, 
 
 BY 
 
 '*a 
 
 HEV. ROBERT SEDGEWICK 
 
 4 
 
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 A|PUBUSM«tO BY REQUEST, 
 
 tiAMES BARNES, 179 HOLLIs ^TREET. 
 
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 AMUSEMENTS FOR YOUTH. 
 
 A LECTURE. 
 
 yU\ K 
 
 i> Td X 
 
 Gentlemen, — 
 
 This is the third time I have come among you ; and 
 what will you, now that I hav* come, that I say unto you on 
 the confessedly diflScult but all important subject which has been 
 assigned to me ? Whatever I may say I claim credit for s'\m- 
 plicity of aim and earnestness of purpose in furthering the ob- 
 jects of this Association, and I solicit alike your attention and. 
 your candour. 
 
 Probably some of you may be expecting that at least dW 
 truths will be presented in a new dress, it may be seemly or it 
 may be grotesque ; or some of you perchance may be imagin- 
 ing that the sour-faced Presbyterian whose features scarce dare 
 clothe themselves with the bland or the cheerful, or glow with 
 the smile of hearty geniality, will assume the air and utter the 
 words of some stern censor of public morals, and prevent with 
 his scowl all approach to the lightsome and the lively^. My 
 dear young friends, this be far from me. I had rather by eve- 
 ry just means in my power make the human being happier and 
 his means of rational manly pleasures a thousand fold nioro 
 
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 abunaant and a thousand fold more accessible, rhcrc ^ cno gh 
 of the Lard and the l^^^vy God wot.m th.s bur den^^^ 
 cnoucrh of the hibcrious and exhausting in this toiling ate , 
 enou^d. of the sorrowful and heart-wringing in hi« valley o 
 tear ° without attempting to les.en by one nil, the tune, and 
 renio'tc' that river of pleasure which still flows through i. and 
 wS with its glad waters ministers to the enjoyn.ent ofthehu- 
 man heart. 
 
 God has made us with a capacity to enjoy. Many proofs of 
 this mijdit be furnished from all the departments oi our mnure, 
 and ^om the agreeableness of these to the works of God with 
 whichTe are surrounded. It is indeed foreign to the cksignof 
 This Lecture to enter into a discussion of those states of the in- 
 teect and those combinations of the affection, which have been 
 caUed plTasureable, and of the adaptations of the externa world 
 ?o ho'^e sJates and combinations ; but it is right we shou d know 
 ond ^f^^^^^^^^^^ the truth, that just as there are light and colour 
 to meet and satisfy the eye, and sweet sounds to please the ear 
 aiicUe iSul smd^ legale the nose, just as there are eon- 
 tinctu ef of the beautiful to charm the fancy and masses of the 
 iubime to elevate the imagination, and freaks of the abnormal 
 T T\o the crotesque, just in a word as the humorous in the 
 li^ finds is'ountipir; in the unasserted but obvious rese^n- 
 banees which objects the most diverse nevertheless furnish --bo 
 i rSpossible ti resist the conclusion that it is the will of God 
 1 s3d be happy, and that this striking correspondenca be- 
 Uveen the constitudon of man and the constitution of things is 
 a proo*" that such is his will. 
 
 \nd notwithstanding the Fall, this capacity to enjoy rernains. 
 -eVhapsTt is that peculiarity of the human being which has 
 :uffS least f om the introduction of sin, at all events it is that 
 ± iarity n human nature which, when brought under the pow- 
 er of he grace of God. is most instrumental in rMsmg up man 
 into rmeSg of his first estate ; so that he becomes the image 
 of the mr bfessed God. This capacity moreover is early de. 
 vllooed The infant enjoys. Not only is it the business of the 
 NurK but her skill consists in pleasing and amusing the child. 
 
 «' Behold the child by nature's kindly law— ^^ 
 rieased with a rattle tickled with a straw. 
 
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 T/ie boy enjoys. "U'hut more charming picture than the 
 Prophetic poet paints when forecasting the happiness of the 
 Church in these last times :— " Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, 
 there shall yet cM men and old women dwell in the streets of 
 Jerusalem and evciy man with his staff in his hand for very age ; 
 and the streets of the city ,-hall be full of girls and boys playing 
 in the streets thereof." Indeed boyhood is just another word 
 for amuscment._ It is the period for fun and frolick ; the period 
 when the capacity to enjoy is most inventive and most powerful. 
 It throws a charm over the most common place objects and in- 
 vests with a value not easily computed the most indifferent things. 
 What a mysterious worth do buttons possess in their estimation ; 
 and what diligent collectors of the most antique and rarest spe- 
 cimens ! Your modern button, bone or pearl, of the diameter 
 of a seven-penee-half-pcnny, or the tiny cross thing which glit- 
 ters in the breast of your would-be dandy, is put down in his 
 estimate at the value of n?ie, but your antique specimen which 
 was wont to grace the wristband or the lappells of his grand- 
 father's marriage coat, of the breadth of a dollar with its bur- 
 nished disc and its mysterious superscription, why that stands 
 for six or it may be a dozen. " I say aunty," said a young 
 rogue whom I have often dandled on my knee, a boy as lovely 
 as he was frolicksome, •' I say aunty how many buttons do 
 you think are there?" holding out in his hand some half dozen 
 of the more ancient and rare specimens; " Six," replied his 
 nurse, •' six, John ;" " Six." exclaimed he, in perfect amazement ; 
 " six ! aunty there are thiity six" ! And a jack-knife ; what a 
 treasure ! especially if it has two blades. And does he not 
 hold himself some two or three inches more than straight the 
 first time he discusses its qualities with his favourite schoolmates, 
 who are each most anxious to test the purity and temper of the 
 steel hy marking the rate of the dissolving vapour which they 
 had just breathed on it. And how could a boy get on without 
 twine ! It is one of his necessaries. It is essential to his plans. 
 He can no more do without it than his mother can do without 
 pins. It is in daily requisition, and sorely, sorely, is that house 
 lacking of one of the first elements of comfort, which has not a 
 regular supply of twine. But then this must never be known. 
 Did he suppose he could get it ad Ubitiivi, just as much and as 
 often as he thought proper, he would regard it as worthless. It 
 is the scarcity which makes it so valuable in his own eye, and 
 
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 WiSIHI 
 
 6 
 
 the possession of it such a privilege in the eyes of his fellows. 
 And what with the buttons, and the knives and the twine, and 
 the marbles, why there are materials of pleasure and amusement 
 within hk command which constitute the ultimatum of all his 
 wishes. It is in the game however that the zest of boyhood for 
 amusement is most keen and exciting ; especially in those games 
 which require adroitness and skill, and the losing of which incurs 
 a penalty. It is a study to watch a game at marbles, or of hot- 
 tie, where the knuckles or the palm have to pay the forfeit. 
 Nor did Napoleon or Wellington exult more joyously over van- 
 quished fields than do those boyish conquerors as they make their 
 bowls plunk off the knuckles of the beaten, or the well aimed 
 ball rebound from the swollen palm. It may be worth while to 
 notice that much of the amusement of boyhood consists in mu- 
 tual effort in furthering some great work. How are their hopes 
 excited and their resources calculated, and what wonderful re- 
 sults do they expect from their labour. On the issue of the^r 
 undertaking they are as bent as Franklin in attempting to ex- 
 plore the North West passage, or Morsk to encircle the globe 
 with Electric Telegraph. In such expeditions there are the nas- 
 cent Franklin's and Morse's— the men in embryo or rather in 
 miniature who are in their day to enlarge the capabilities of man 
 for the enjoyment of life, and to increase indefinitely the means 
 of enjoyment. 
 
 It has often appeared to me the refinement of cruelty, (and I 
 confess with all ingenuousness that I have been occasionally guilty,) 
 abruptly to terminate such schemes and projects of boyish un- 
 dertaking and turn all their plans into confusion. Perhaps if 
 the scheme itself be of questionable propriety, or if the carrying 
 of it out may incur consequences of a disagreeable nature to 
 other parties, or hurtful to themselves, prudence may demand 
 that the whole thing be abandoned. But few such schemes are 
 really of this nature when fairly examined ; and hence instead 
 of hindering or forbiddinjr, they ought to be encouraged by the 
 countenance and aid of their parents and friends. A Father or 
 Tutor but acts in keeping with his high relationship when he en- 
 ter? into thsir plans, and stotoing from his higher level (if he do 
 stoop) make himself for the ti.ie their fellow-labourer and guide. 
 Such countenunce intensifies their interest and invests with some- 
 thincr like sacredness the entire affair ; and the assurance of pa- 
 
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 rental approbation of their plan and of parental reward on its 
 completion stimulates every step of their progress into greater 
 elasticity ; and every hope of success into greater glow. Oh 
 those know little what they do who rudely and rashly interfere 
 with these grave concerns and oblige them to desist at the very 
 time when their hopes were highest and their efforts sturdiest. 
 As was their excitement so is their depression ; as was their in- 
 terest so is their regret. The bitterest grief wrings their heart 
 and blackens their brows, and the catastrophe which has hap- 
 pened is felt to be as great as if a Ministry had fallen, or a 
 Railway Board had been summarily dismissed. The author of 
 their misfortune, no matter who, a heartless Father or an ill na- 
 tured old Aunt, is set down as their enemy, and it is long ere 
 they regain their old place in their hearts. And what is worse 
 than all, such rude interference sours their temper and engenders 
 a feeling of chagrin and bitterness which tinges their deport- 
 ment all the way through life. 
 
 It is of equal importance to notice that in Boyhood the ver- 
 satility of the powers of the mind is signally manifested. The 
 playground is a fit appendage to the school. The exciting game 
 prepares the mind all the more readily for grappling with the 
 intricacies of Arithmetic and the abstractions of Mathematics. 
 The romping boy is the reasoning pupil ; and he whose laugh 
 was loudest and whose foot was swiftest and whose stroke was 
 hardest and whose raillery was keenest whe» mingling in the 
 sports of the field or the parlour is the same who, as if by some 
 divine intuition, can resolve almost at a glance the problems of 
 Euclid or the hMden mysteries of a Bonnycastle or a Thomson. 
 
 When I think on Boyhood in its cares and its carelessness ; 
 on its wild glee and its musing melancholy ; on its fervid hopes 
 ar.d resolute exertions ; on its ambitious plans, skill and schem- 
 ing ; when I think on its hearty friendship and simple lov3 ; 
 on its generous impulses and noble deeds ; on its unselfish spi- 
 rit and magnanimous superiority to all that is spHeful and all 
 that is mean ; when I think me of its oblivion of the past and 
 its hopes for the future none the less pleasing that they end so 
 often in airy nothings and a name ; and of the jocund mirthful- 
 ness and persuasive zest which it contrives to infaso into all that 
 in present ; I am constrained oftentimes to exclaim with poor 
 
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 Byron when musing on the follies and the crimes of his youth 
 and manhood, 
 
 " Who would not be a boy again !" 
 
 The youth enjoys, and it is to this particular period of human 
 life with its exquisite susceptibilities to all that is sensuous (not 
 sensual) whether material or spiritual that the remaining portion 
 of this Lecture shall be devoted. 
 
 It behoves to bo asserted here at the very beginning that now 
 the period of boyhood having terminated with all its earnest pre- 
 paratory labors and all its multifarious pleasures and joys, the 
 period of sober, active service in the great business of life has 
 begun ; the term of responsible exertioii has commenced ; the 
 time has arrived when the claims which society has on us must 
 begin to be answered. It is true indeed that there is a wide 
 difference between youth and manhood so far as these claims go, 
 and 80 far as the responsibilities connected with the working and 
 maintenance of society are concerned ; still the difference is not 
 one in kind, so much as one in degree and position. The Law- 
 yer's clerk is the future Advocate ; the articled apprentice is 
 the future journeyman, or the future employer ; the tyro on the 
 tripod, behind the desk in the dingy counting-room, is the Mer- 
 chant in prospect whose fiat may yet rule the emporium of trade 
 and commerce, and whose generous emprises may spread wealth 
 and happiness all-over the world. 
 
 Think not my young Friends that this is an unwise or a har<l 
 arrangement. Think not that there is any thing wrong in the 
 economy of labor, because that economy makes demands on you. 
 It is a wise arrangement and as good as wise ; and the economy 
 of industry would be altogether defective did it fail to put in re- 
 quisition your powers and capabilities. It is an honor to work. 
 Probably dt ones are of some use in a Bee-hive ; I confess I am 
 not Naturalist enough at present to determine, but one thing I 
 know, drones are of no use in a human hive. They are a posi- 
 tive drawback. Not only are they not useful, they are hurtful. 
 Your lazy fellow, having no place of his own which he cares to 
 keep, is continually in other people's way, and positively hinder- 
 ing the progress and marring the harmony of the movements of 
 Society. It is an honor to work. A working man myself, at 
 labour by night and day continually at the exhausting toil of the 
 
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 Presbyterian Minietry, if by any means I may quicker ♦he en- 
 ergies of my fellow men to labor in that which is convenient, that 
 they may provide for their own wants and have to give to them 
 that need, and that they may give all diligence to make their 
 calling and election sure, I but magnify my office when I pro- 
 claim in the name of n;y Master that it is an honor to work ! 
 Laziness is an abnormal state. It is contrary to law. It is in 
 opposition to the constitution of things. It is in defiant anta- 
 gonism to the course of nature. Inanimate bat organised crea- 
 ion condemns it, for, 
 
 The unwearied sun from day to day. 
 Does his Creator's power display, 
 
 And publishes to every land 
 The work of an Almighty hand. 
 
 The rills and the rivers run into the sea ; and the sea itself, 
 though sometimes it lies placid and splendid as a molten looking- 
 glass, is, nevertheless, ceaselessly at work— its mysterious tidal 
 waves ever on the move ind its gentle mur.nuiing, or its tem- 
 pestuous raging ever ecnoed, by its far resounding shores. 
 
 Animate creation condemns it. The Bee and the P'-ts ;. 
 scowl it out of countenance. " Go to the Ant thou s'i;^g.;id ; 
 consider her ways and be wise ; which having no guide, overseer 
 or ruler, provides her meat in the summer and gathers her food 
 in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, (J sluggard, when 
 wilt thou arise out of thy sleep ? Yet a little sleep, a little slum- 
 ber, a little foldingof the hands tosleep : so shall thy poverty come 
 as one that travellcih and thy want as an arm.ed man." Ange- 
 lic creation condemns it. I know little of the Angelic nature, 
 but aught that I do tells me that laziness is abhorrent to them, 
 and that their joyousness consists in their activity. I know 
 that excelling in strength they do God's commandments, ever 
 hearkening to the voice of his word ; that they are his ministers 
 and do his pleasure ; and that far-reaching as may be the ken of 
 their understanding and purely blazing as may be the affections 
 of their hearts, and awfully overwhelming as may be the hidings 
 of their power, and swift as the lightning's flash may be the 
 speed of their movements, and lofty as may be their station amid 
 the principalities and powers of the universe, and brilliant and 
 grand beyond our conception as may be the greatness and the 
 
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10 
 
 goodness of their character, Oh they deem it an honor to work 
 in the service of their Lord and never, never do they more re- 
 semble and glorify iim than when as ministering spirits they 
 minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. What shall 
 I say more'? Christ after whose name your Association isna- 
 med, and no more honorable title could you assume, Christ Him- 
 Belf condemns laziness. He wrought, aye and He wrought till 
 He had finished His work. He wrought the works of Hira that 
 sent Him. From the period when His youth began down till 
 the OTandest moment in this world's age when having exclaimed 
 in so triumphant a spirit " It is finished" He bowed His head 
 and gave up the ghost, He was never idle. And I know not a 
 faire? example of hearty industry nor a sterner reproof of s ug- 
 oishness and sloth than the reply which he gave to his mother 
 to soothe her anxieties and mollify her motherly disapprobation, 
 " Wist ye not that I must be about my father's busmess. ^v- 
 erv ricrhtly constituted creature in its right place and fulfaUmg 
 its allotted destiny condemns laziness ; and no more fitting emblem 
 can there be of its pestiferous effects than yonder stagnant pond 
 which however it may ingulf the limpid rill or the turgid torrent, 
 sends forth no glad streams from its barren bosom, and irom 
 whose monotonous surface on which there floats the lazy slimy 
 worthless flags, there ascends the foul and pestilential vapour. 
 
 Labor then is the condition of this period of your life, and as 
 it would seem it is an honorable condition. But there are al- 
 ternations to labor, indeed labor supposes rest and recreation, 
 and it is just as natural and as necessary now as when you were 
 boys though not certainly to the same degree that there be in. 
 tervals of labor and that some of these, intervals be filled up with 
 appropriate amusements. 
 
 And here beginneth the difficulty and the delicacy of the task 
 which I have proposed to myself. 
 
 If I could regard the human being as he once was and as he 
 ought to be, if I could regard that wonderful combination ot 
 mechanism and of mind, that mysterious congeries of thought 
 and passion, of energy and action, of power and will which we call 
 a young man, as in a morally and spiritually healthy state, 
 and as having no inherent tendency to run wild amia the pro- 
 fusion of the sensuous, of the beautiful and the true and the gooa 
 
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 11 
 
 with which he is surrounded, I would find no difficulty in bid- 
 ding him revel at will as if amid the bowers and the bliss of para- 
 dise. But I dare not ignore the fact (and you would despise me 
 if I did) that the human being is not what he once was. The 
 present is not his first estate " He fell from the estate in which 
 he was created by sinning against God," and one of the effects 
 of this fall lies in the fact that in regard to the thing we call 
 pleasure his judgment is perverted, I had almost said absolutely 
 perverted, so turned aside at any rate that no matter what au- 
 thority and experience say to the contrary he will call good evil 
 ■ and evil good ; he will put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ; 
 he will insist on it that darkness is light and light is darkness. 
 
 Now with a being so perverted it is most difficult to deal on the 
 question of amusement, not so much as to its amount, as to its in- 
 fluence on the depraved and perverted creature who nevertheless 
 needs it and must have it if its present condition is to be at all 
 desirable. 
 
 There is one obvious remark which at this point must be in- 
 troduced if the subject in hand is to be impartially treated. At 
 all events the obvious nature of the remark ought to appear as 
 soon as it is made. Amusement must be subordinate and sub- 
 servient to labor. Labor is the business, Amusement is the re- 
 laxation ; Labor is the principal, Amusement is the subsidiary. 
 Labor engrosses and tasks. It involves the exercise of the skill 
 and power of the whole man. Amusement is the unharnessing 
 of the toiler for the time and the setting him at liberty so that 
 as the unharnessed horse he may bound at will over the sweep- 
 ing lawn amid the gladsome sheen of the summer sun. 
 
 Now this obvious and most important distinction serves as a 
 stand point whence to apprehend the province and the limits of 
 amusen)ents. The province and the limits, for with regard to 
 the nature of amusement in general or of any specific amuse- 
 ment as right or wrong in itself, he will be a wise man who can 
 settle the question, and he will be a bold one who shall attempt 
 to settle it. I make no pretensions to such wisdom and 1 would 
 shrink from passing a judgment on a subject which with general 
 consent has been left open, and lest I should come under the 
 charge of an Apostle when he saith " Blessed is he who con- 
 demneth not himself in that which he alloweth," 
 
i 
 
 12 
 
 Now the province and the limits of amusement seem to be in- 
 closed within these boundaries, Time, Obligation, Money, Morals, 
 Health, Religion ; and a short but an impartial viev? of the bear- 
 ing of amusement on these several topics will serve to place it in 
 irs proper position and assign to it its due influence. 
 
 Amusement as well as labor requires time; but on the principle 
 already stated nothing can be clearer than that the amount of 
 time to be spent in amusement behoves to bear but a small pro- 
 portion to the amount dedicated to labor. No part of the time 
 which belongs to your employers or masters ought to be spent in 
 amusement at all. It is not yours, and the spending of this time 
 in this manner is neither more or less than a species of theft. 
 We in the country, where after all there is plenty of amusement, 
 although your city folks afiFect to pity us, we are so destitute of 
 pleasure, — we in the country are sometimes vexed at the non- 
 cfialance with which our rural mechanics regale themselves with 
 a spring on the flute when their fingers ought to l;e plying the 
 implements of their craft,the thrifty housewife meanwhile smother- 
 ing her wrath and grumbling out murmurs not loud but deep 
 that such a thoughtless loon is sadly in her way. And it is no 
 uncommon thing for a large portion of the best part of a sum- 
 mer's day to be spent lolling over the fence talking badinage or 
 scandal to some e(iually faithful neighbor, the teams of the two 
 standing side by side. Even in town, and indeed rrore exten- 
 sively, the same thing prevails. The absence of the master or 
 employer is the signal for the reading of some favorite novel, or 
 the sly luxury of a game of draughts, — while his unexpected re- 
 turn covers the culprits with surprise and confusion and often 
 leads to the most ludicrous and grotesque results. 
 
 Where there is time at command which is not properly ano- 
 thersand which maybe disposed of as it suits the inclination, 
 the relative importance of anmscment and employment should 
 regulate the amount which is given to the former. The evenings 
 of our young men who are employed the whole day atford the 
 most favorable opportunity for such recreation. But it would cer- 
 tainly be wrong were every evening so employed even if all other 
 things were favourable, they would in this case enervate them- 
 selves and unfit themselves for their daily duties. But what is 
 worse, such frequent amusement would dissipate the mind as well 
 as the body, it would beget disinclination to regular labor, would 
 
 i 
 
13 
 
 so far as all the higher efforts of man are concerneJ soon reduce 
 
 tlZt '"^ ' Tt ^l'""}' f^^'-'^^P^ ''' ^«"'dbe better to y a 
 blotted blank and the body to an ill working machine. ^ 
 
 There is a class of our young men who be'ong to the upper 
 ranks ,n society of whom ,t may in truth be M thej do not 
 know what to do with themselves. liaised above thrne essity 
 of labor and furnished with an abundant supply of pocket S 
 ney, or it stinted somewhat in this most necessary a rtidedraw^nt 
 somewhat liberally on the credit of their father f why torn Zn 
 
 dl nigh and from night till dewy morn, their lif/i T^t oie 
 round of amusement. Lolling ab.d till my dinner hour and 
 d.oaming of the last night's revel or planning for the next d'v's 
 drive they get up and sipping a cup of your°most rXcl Mo 
 hea, and eating a slice of your thinnest toast, they amusfthem 
 selves wi h whiffing their favorite Havannah and careless y JZ- 
 Jng over he newest of the Novels. But they must drcsf 3 
 what an important matter is this ! It is a great part of tl ; bu 
 siness of their lives. At it however they go^nd th win J astie* 
 
 heir e egant morning gown in which they have lounged, they fi? 
 themselves up according to the most approved style,f nd ha4'^ 
 huishod thoir toilet down to the most precise angle of heir haf 
 and the exact amount of cambric which peers from their brea' 
 pocket hole, they sally forth to amuse themselves with a saunter 
 a ong Barnngton Street, or a game at Billiardsat the Waverly # 
 
 l»ut the dinner hour arrives, after my supper hour is oast nn^ 
 ey must dress for dinner- after all {he lire in drei'ng Xe 
 dinner-yes, dress for dinner. It was no wonder that oW gruff 
 Dr. Johnston exclaimed on encountering one of those fastidimw 
 gents who had just dressed for at least Ihe third tbie t " 
 and on learning that he had changed his linen every time : " \S 
 
 change 
 
 once 
 
 

 u 
 
 week !" But the dressing and the dining over, tvhy they repair to 
 the drawino room to amuse themselves again in small talk to 
 the ladies or it may be luxuriating amid the fascinations of mu- 
 sic and song. But night comes inviting me and my fellow 
 labourers to rest, and promising to invigorate my exhausted 
 powers by 
 
 " jNature's sweet restorer balmy sleep,"— 
 
 ard just about the hour when we are surrounding the throne of 
 the Heavenly Grace and committing ourselves to the protection 
 and the care of the ever watchful God, they repair to the Ball- 
 room or the Theatre, or the supper-party, as the case may be, 
 and amuse themselves still again with the reprcsenti^ons of the 
 stage, or the whirl and excitement of the dance and the feast, 
 till grey morning shame them into cessation. And thus pass 
 day by day and night by night, of the men who, perchance, in 
 virtue of their position, or their wealth, are yet to give its tone 
 to society and mould the manners of the age. Surely this 
 is a waste of time, surely this is excess if anything is excess. 
 Surely here is amusement run wild, and the lust of the flesh, and 
 the lust of the eye, and the pride of lire, lording it over the poor 
 slave with imperious and tyrannical sway. 
 
 Amusement must be limited by obligation as well as by time ; 
 it must never be allowed to intefere with solemn and honorable 
 engagement. The sum of what might have been advanced under 
 this division has already been stated ; but in consequence of the 
 place which engagements hold in our social economy and the 
 numerous and strong temptations which amusements furnish in 
 large cities to break them it would be wrong to omit specific re- 
 ference to them. 
 
 In the case of young men coming in from the country and who 
 are presumed to be all but ignorant of city life, the temptations 
 to tamper, in the first place, with the arrangements they have 
 formed and then to break them, through means of amusement, arc 
 very strong and not easily resisted. Accustomed to entire free- 
 dom at home, or all but entire freedom, as to the management 
 of their time, the restraints sit heavily upon them. They have fc 
 a while little idea of being punctual to an hour much less to a 
 minute, and as to the notion ot being obliged to solicit an after- 
 
 
•"•MMmL- 
 
 .i_ 
 
 
 -— «^Mr' 
 
 15 
 
 noon now and again io order that they may eiijoy tbemselvea— 
 why that IS a humiliation to which they cannot stoop and an 
 amount of self denial they are not prepared to endure. The 
 ettect of ail this soon appears. When the opportunity offers of 
 some rare pleasure as they fondly imagine, when their judgment 
 IS blinded and their heart perverted, the enticement urgent, and 
 reason, and conscience, and home, are all driven into a corner, 
 —the ties of obligation are too feeble to hold them, and master, 
 and employments and character and prospects, and the hopes of 
 parents and the happiness of home are forgotten or despised, and 
 not till the amusementhas ceased-leaving a heavy and crushing 
 sense ofunfairness and unmanliness behind, and reflection has 
 returned with its saddening remembrance—does the poor soul 
 leel that for a few hours or a day's enjoyment he has paid a 
 price alas too dear. f » 
 
 Now it is not that there was much wrong in the amusement: 
 It may have been such as to comport with good morals and pi- 
 etv It is not that the time spent was in itself great, or might 
 not ave been spared without loss to the employer or inconve- 
 nience to the establishment. It is not in a word, that there 
 was essential damage done to any party, master or man. But 
 there was the relative damage ; there was the breaking of the 
 engagement, the violent injustice done to the mutual pact • the 
 over-ridmg those rules without rigid attention to which the bu- 
 siness world would run into confusion in a month and our Count- 
 ing-houses and Banks, and Stores, and Wharves, would present 
 a mass of inextricable disorder. 
 
 Amusement must be limited and guarded hj a due regard to 
 MONEY. And here comes the pith and the heart of this solemn 
 tbeme, and where it begins to touch most powerfully on all the 
 higher interests of our social state. It seems to be a condition 
 ?vu"I ^'T'^l^^^^^on that amusement and money are connected. 
 \V hether it is a necessary condition is a question. At all events 
 whether the amusements of a people should necessarily depend 
 on the private resources of a people, is a grave and most impor- 
 tant question, but one which cannot be grappled with now. As 
 1^ i« t,' ere is little amusement for the young, and especially for 
 young men, as amusement is generally understood without being 
 purchased. Amusement is a marketable commodity. It is sold 
 
.-..*.M«,.»kM«iiiiHiiijih 
 
 
 16 
 
 and bought. Indeed *here is no other way of getting it. And 
 there is this peculiarity about this traflBc that in the strict sense 
 of the terms I do not get a quid pro quo. At all events the quid 
 h a remarkably airy reality, an "airy nothing" if even a 
 " name. ' It has little substantiality about it. It is not very 
 palpable. At the best if not at the most it is an assemblage of 
 agreeable colouring associated with a combination of sweet sounds 
 and of fleet and agile movements. Now even though in every 
 other re?pect amusements were what they ought to be, they are 
 generally too dear. It is true there is a graduated rate of 
 prices to suit the contents of the different kinds of purses and 
 the different classes of persons, just as there is corresjjonding ac- 
 commodaticri at the place of sale ; and so there are the frcnt 
 scats fci* the honorable, and the back seats for the canaille and 
 the reserved seats (would you believe it) fcr the very refined and 
 exclusive. But the lowest figure in the scale is by far too high 
 considering the multiplicity of such amusements and the pertina- 
 city with which they are palmed on the public. An apprentice 
 lad could easily spend his weekly wages on amusements alone. 
 A shopman or a clerk would swamp his small salary, long be- 
 fore the year had expired, leaving his Landlady or his Mother 
 to look for the price of his Board and Lodging all the way on- 
 ward to the Greek Calends, while the sums so sunk by the up- 
 per ranks of life are absolutely appalling even to the political 
 economist because of its unwise and impolitic diversion from its 
 appropriate channels. Now the fact is the amusement will be 
 had no matter what its cost, and no matter how the money is to 
 be obtained It were easy, however painful, (and the attempt 
 will not be made,) to tell how in multitudes of cases the money is 
 obtained, but while prudence cautions against unnecessary expo- 
 sure and harrowing details, faithfulness and love urge the asser- 
 tion in the strongest possible terras, that the price of amusement 
 and the race to obtain it, embody one of the most mighty tempta- 
 tions with which the young man has to contend in our large cities. 
 
 Now here again it is not the amusement itself that is the sub- 
 ject of regret and reprobation. It is not that there is anything 
 wrong in itself in hearing Jenny Lind sing, or Signer Paginini 
 play ; it is not that there may not be much ♦o please and in- 
 struct really in some at least of the masters of music and of 
 song ; but it is the expense. It is the extravagance and waste 
 
17 
 
 of the mo.^.ey which cannot be afforded at all or that m.Vht be 
 
 if ?he".v rr'*': '^''"*'«^- '^^'' ''' '^' ^v"' ««d <be Toun 
 ot the evil it is not easy to compute. 
 
 Leaving this thought it requires to be stated further that 
 a«|^asernentrnust be limited and^arded bj adue regard to mo- 
 
 Amusement to answer its end must be moral. It could bp 
 demcns rated that a. Hoon as amusement degenerates into the 
 immoral it ceases to be amusement. It ceasfs to be a relreati! 
 on. Immorality cannot recreate. It weakens, it wastes [tde 
 strops but It IS not in immorality to recreate. There T^' noth 
 ing of the renovating, nothing of the recuperative, in any of its 
 degrees ; nor does it militate against this statement which may 
 tartle some of you, (would that it convinced all !) that the ScT'p^ 
 tures speak of the pleasure of sin. It does; but bating the dt 
 iinctiou which may fairly be drawn between pleasure and amuse 
 men (taking the strictly literal view of the question) the 1 e- 
 ment may be regarded as the popular and common sLseview of 
 IdveTd '"^'"'^''"'""^'"^'"^^^^ ^-^« aTreldy 
 
 fo.tf *^fu '"'^ ^ ^"f ^ ^' *^^' '^^"« *^ be necessary is mani- 
 fest from the common language » innocent amusements," imply, 
 ing If It imply anything that amusement otherwise designaTedl 
 adeusion and a he. It may seem to partake of its^ nature 
 and to accomplish its ends but in reality it neither partakes cf 
 
 If anything then puts in a claim as an amusement or is na- 
 raded as an amusement by the interested and the mercenary 
 
 f anything is recommended strictly as such or regarded as such 
 by common consent which infringes on the princfples or trench- 
 es on he province of good morals, it ought to be viewed whh 
 suspicion and shunned with aversion as alike an enemy toT^r 
 
 r '"« ^f P»«f ^^V ^nd no matter whether such amusemei [s 
 
 And here seems the appropriate place to advert to those 
 
18 
 
 amusements which the Theatre furnishes and which have of 
 late been occasioning very much anxiety among yourselves ; 
 especially as they affect the welfare of the young. It is right 
 that on a question of this sort "days should speak and mul- 
 titude of years should teach wisdom." It is right too that on a 
 question of this sort days should be heard and the young should 
 learn wisdom at their lips. I am now growing an old man, 
 and God has given me a numerous family, but I declare in 
 the presence of the God of the families of Israel, and in the 
 midst of this assembly, comprising a large proportion of the in- 
 telligence and moral influence of this city, that I would sooner 
 lay the head of my boys one after another in the grave till the 
 whole six were stretched side by side with each other, than 
 that I should witness them forming a taste and manifestin<y a 
 preference for Theatrical amusements ! And my Father felt 
 for his sons as I feel for mine. He was no minister as I am, 
 and only moved for a pretty long life amid thr better class of 
 working men. He was no Presbyterian though I hope a 
 christian ; or if he was, he was likely one of your moderates, as 
 he belonged to the abbey parish and sat under the ministry of 
 the well known Doctor Bogue ; he was an Englishman every 
 inch, and Yorkshire to the back-bone, and I do but justice to 
 his memory when I say though I only knew it from the older 
 members of the family and my mother, as well aa from com- 
 mon report among his contemporaries, that he was an exam- 
 ple of that integrity, and honour, and independence, and indus- 
 try, for which Englishmen of his class are so highly distinguish- 
 ed. The second and the last flogging I ever got from him 
 was for being at the playhouse. How I got there I have no 
 remembrance, but I must have been enticed, for I could not 
 have been more than seven or eight years old. How he knew 
 I was there I cannot tell, but at a distance of more than forty 
 years I feel the misery I endured when with nervous clutch 
 he caught me by the neck and dragged me all trembling and 
 quaking home, and when with his broad and leather hand (for 
 he was a tanner) he laid on in a style worthy the occasion. 
 Am I alone the subject of this anxiety ? — or was my Father a 
 solitary example of unnecessary concern ? Am I not reading 
 in all this a chapter in almost every family history ; and am I not 
 entitled to conclude that there must be something essentially 
 bad about a place, and in the dangers of an amusement, which 
 
 / iv 
 
 1 1 
 
 I 
 
 .L-j' 
 
jflbiiiMM^ 
 
 li have of 
 ur8elvfcs ; 
 t is right 
 jnd mul- 
 that on a 
 ig should 
 old man, 
 eclare in 
 id in the 
 of the in- 
 Id sooner 
 'e till the 
 tier, than 
 resting a 
 ither felt 
 as I am, 
 • class of 
 hope a 
 frates, as 
 nistry of 
 in every 
 ustice to 
 he older 
 om com- 
 n exam- 
 id indus- 
 tinguish- 
 >m him 
 have no 
 [)uld not 
 tie knew 
 an forty 
 8 clutch 
 ing and 
 and (for 
 Kjcasion. 
 father a 
 reading 
 am I not 
 sentially 
 t, which 
 
 19 
 
 ^lls my Father's heart with such bitter sorrow and agonizes 
 it with such fearful forebodings. ° 
 
 I might rest the whole subject of Theatrical amusements 
 iiere and dispose t>f it «s a wrong and an evil because of its 
 antagonism to the holy and happy working of the Family eco- 
 nomy. It may be as well, however that something more be 
 advanced to show that in their very nature, they trench on 
 morality. I do not imagine tlicre is anything wrong in confes- 
 sing to some slight acquaintance in Dramatic Litemture : not 
 indeed with the literature of the stage during the last twenty 
 years, except as it has been learned from our Magazines and 
 reviews. Bat what after all is the character of this literature 
 ^ithm this period ? Why so degenerate has the theatrical 
 taste become that driven to their wit's end the most unnatural 
 and grotesque of the Arabian Nights Entertainments have been 
 dramatized, and the foul and fascinating creatif - of Bulwer's 
 tiackguardism have been dramatized, and tiie . ;ld senseless 
 licentiousness of Byron's Don Juan has been dramatise 1, by 
 the caterers of the stage, and when these palled the diseased 
 appetite by their very grossness and were consigned to oblivi- 
 on, why they have dared, as was never done before, even 
 
 ;r.fiir"nf "^u *"i^"^«"^8«<* by the authority of the Roman 
 catholic Church ; (for she among her other abominations is a 
 patroness of the Theatre, nay, what is her Mass but a mum- 
 Wed show Her Altar a stage I Her priests-priests^-they are 
 no priests! Her priests actors some of them very clumsy, 
 trigged out m gaudy trumpery, and her Mass but a scenic bur- 
 lesqueof the sufferings and death of the Divine Sjlviour -I 
 yes they have dared as was never done before since the dark 
 ages to mvi^e the domain of the Bible and as at this moment 
 m rans imd probably in London, to dramatize the scenes of 
 Cro?& ^ *^^* Mysteries «f Gethsemaws «nd the 
 
 Bat say the Philosophic patrons of the Theatre the legiti- 
 mate Drama is aU right, and sue representations are but a 
 ^prostitution of the stage. The legitimate drama is all right^ 
 And no harm can come of the Theatre when it contents itself 
 with the legitimate drama ! The legitimate drama !~that is 
 aie theme, and it is the favourite phrase, so favourite that I can 
 ^waroe^et rid of it. Well I deny that the « legitimate drama" 
 
^Jk. :M 
 
 1 
 
 to 
 
 h all riclit. I take Shakespeare as the father, or probably as 
 the exponent of the legitimate drama of modern times and I 
 affirm that on the principles of morality as these are now ad- 
 mitted and acknowledged by every Ethical School of any an- 
 thoritv the tendency of Shakspeare's plays even m private 
 reading is immoral, and a thousand fold more bo when acted 
 on the stage. There are passages even in the finest of his plays 
 that should not be read at the parlour table, and which would 
 make a virgin in her purity blush all over even though she read 
 them in the privacy of her own room. He himseli indeed took a 
 very different view of his art when he makes Hamlet say m 
 his celebrated speech to the players that " The end of acting, 
 both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as twere the 
 min-or up to nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn 
 her own image, and the very age and body of the time her form 
 and pressure." This is a mere fallacy founded on the assump- 
 tion that as to virtue and vice man is in equihhno and that 
 nothing more is necessary in order to make man virtuous than 
 exhibiting to him in living form the advantages of the one and 
 the detriment of the other. He is not in egmhhno. There is a 
 fatal bias on the side of vice, and no matter how the play may de- 
 velope the pangs of despised love, the gnawings of green-eyed 
 iealousy, the whinings of cunning artful hypocrisy as these are 
 Been in the wondrous impersonations of the Shakspearian char- 
 acters, and though it cpmpiy with the dramatic canon of award- 
 incr their appropriate fate to each, the playgoer does not learn 
 to%e the less lawless in his loves, nor to be less the victim of 
 this same jealousy and hypocrisy ti>an he was before. By its 
 fruits let the tree be tested. Show me your faith m the pow- 
 er of the legitimate drama tonaake men wiser and better, by 
 example. Where are your converts from th^ grovel ings of 
 covetousness, from the soarings of ambition from the gloa tings 
 of revenge, from the gripings of despair, which your lals affs, 
 and your Macbeths, and your Shylocks and your Lears have 
 ever made. Can any venture to say of the play-goer, what Paul 
 said of the church-goer, "Such were some of you, but ,— 
 I fear me I am going too far and instituting compansons which 
 are bordering on the unlawful. 
 
 And from the Stage turn to the accessories of the Stage. 
 Everything connected with the Theatre exhibits the baser pas- 
 
 1 
 
 ls:.-Ti^*v» 
 
 1 
 
^^B^^^^^^ 
 
 ■^j - .^ ■ ^^ .,-,^..^ 
 
 
 i 
 
 21 
 
 «1ons of the goul. The voluptuous swell of the music the 
 scanty dunensions of the female costume in t le d^s boxt 
 be gest.cuat.ons of the actors, worse than are Ltircd iX' 
 ascmous dances of the obscene L.diau tribes,Td of wh h 
 \o, rown M.cMacs would not be guilty even in their ^^1^^ 
 and most frantic mood, the lee.-ing of the gent ,'. t e «Yt 
 he uproanous foulness of the godsin the gallery the .^xre^f 
 tlie gas, and the fumes of the ru.n, together wkh a re.'se of 
 heat and pressure a..d the utter absence of any thin, that ig 
 
 irAuhVlrT '^^^ ^^^^ "''^'^ '' ^^- Play^n'wh .lie 
 Tml «n W!o . ""^ ^''?^'''"°' ««"«titute a combination of means 
 
 fee o^^hTe'ar r '1 ' -f ^'"' ^" ^^ "^^'^^"^ « P--"^'^ - 'he 
 lace Of the ear.li. Ig ,t any wonder that Bacchus rears his 
 
 emple .n juxtaposition to Thespis and that Venus ha^ her 
 shrmes in s.gnificant contiguity. Is it any wonder that I^ 
 Ep logoe of he play is the deep debauch and the degrad." ' 
 pollution, and that it is the very mother of the vice which whh 
 her hypocritical cant she professes to uproot. ]V^ fother w-^ 
 right when he flogged me for going to the play ; Jnd you wHl 
 spare your father many an anxiou" hour, and^many a^ wo^rv 
 iiig fear and will fill Inm with confidence and ImneL to your 
 future career, if with manly resolution you shryom- ea^s t^ 
 the vo.ce of th.s charmer, charm she never so wisely 
 
 iZtZ ' ^""^^ °^ amusement is to restore health, or, if 
 kely to give way, to establish and invigorate it. It is w th 
 
 Tthe7J^' "7"'^ '''. ^« °'^^" recomrSen^led to a resWen e 
 on the seaside or to spend some time at some con^^enial water- 
 elf r'the^:' '•"' ''^"•^" ^'^^^ ^« «^"«^ «^ *^ -^d^etal 
 either in the sea air, or m the mineral water but that continui- 
 ty and connection with the sublime and beatiful by which such 
 localities are distinguished and .i.at the minor facilities of en- 
 joyment with which they are furnished, have a wondeSbUy re- 
 storing power on our animal constitution. ^ 
 
 fJ^''\^''^^7'' '' ^^'^ P*^rversity of our nature that what is 
 InL T Jr''^^*'"/"''"^^ ''"*^ ^'^ °««^i«n if not a cause of dis- 
 hful A "^ that dancing as an exercise is conducive to 
 health. As a part of the gymnasia and of the training of our 
 higher schools no 3xercise is better fitted to develop oSr frame 
 and expand it in all its divine beauty and proportion than dar. 
 
 1 
 
mmittmmt 
 
 h. 
 
 \i 
 
 22 
 
 cintr But I believe as well that as an amiisement ?* is Je- 
 structive to health. The Ball room may be a gay -cene and 
 soSmes a gorgeous one ; and there may be found concentra- 
 S^inTueh aVL the very quintessence of the refined and the 
 elegant. Art is made to out-vie nature, and nature herself is 
 rifled of its choieest and rarest riches to impart ze«t and bnlli- 
 ancy and splendour to the fete ; but the ba room is often he 
 pathway to the sick room ; and the bounding waltz, and the 
 Romping reel but hasten the oncoming ofthat fell f '««««« 7/";-" 
 wastes wr beauty like a moth and dries up our strength like a 
 potsherd. It requires no profound research to account for his 
 S, and it might be profitable to expatiate on the connection 
 wh ch ties dancing as an amusement, an.; disease together ; but 
 perhaps it is suffident that the fact be indicated to d.rec he 
 attention of the youth before me, for sure I am that could the 
 histories of our balls be >.ritten simply with respect o their 
 bearing on health they would resemble Ezekiel's roll which 
 was wHtten within and on the backside and whose contents 
 were mourning, lamentation and woe. 
 
 There is oneothersourceof pleasure, (I cannot call it amuse- 
 ment^ which I feel constrained to specify mainly for its bearing 
 on the subject of health. I refer to impurity-to the common 
 breaSi of the seventh Commandment. If it be the endency 
 of immorality generally to weaken and waste and <Jestroy, ve- 
 rily such is the tendency of this pleasure. Now you must bear 
 with ire when I proclaim fornication as the young man s sin. li 
 is the young man's crowning sin. It is the sin which finishes 
 the portrait of the rake, it is the climax and the concentration 
 of all that constitutes a fast liver, a man about town, a roue^ 
 as the French have it, and which brands -ich a man as a mo- 
 ral pestilence. Ambition may be the crime of uusanctified 
 manhood, and griping avarice the sin of old age, and .o gratify 
 the ambilion and nurse the avarice may be the business and 
 the delight of the poor fools together ; but the sin of impurity 
 cleaves 1o th.. jouag a. really and as lamentably as ambition 
 and avarice to ma -by.l and a^ . Now I waive all reference 
 to the effect, ci .his siu whether on the intellectual or the emo- 
 tional parts of our nature, or how it converts the understanding 
 into a recepiable of vile thoughts and the heart into a recepta- 
 ble of vile affections. I waive the fact that it defales the eye 
 
 ? 
 
 s 
 
 / . i 
 
 H. 
 
 j-i^p^i 
 

 ^ I V 
 
 23 
 
 and polhites the tongue. I waive the fact though T am sorry 
 to do HO that It depraves and brutahzes the ideas and ZZ 
 ments of young men regarding the place and the Wion, of 
 aZTZr-T r;^ """'^ ^•^'^'^ «"'» ^'^'"««"«^ them fo" the 
 
 u and h ;1^^ h '«^^',^7""'- vile sensualist would teach 
 
 nf^r ^^ '^ "'""'"''^ '"•'*«^^« '"^eed to find your syste- 
 
 sTw th'. r' "' '^'"•' ^r'*^'^ ^'•'^^"^"^^^ «^ the brothel and the 
 stew the companion of the baud and the slave of the whore a 
 
 w th tt I'"'' " 7r ""' 'i''"^ ^'^^»'-' -"*-t and sartieS 
 with the ple^asures of home. But I press you to K)ok at this 
 
 picture on the score of health, on the auf ifority of your mo t 
 
 S"l f^^^".? ««'-^^^' I "'^-•'•^ --en though it we^e JZ^Zed 
 
 tution T '^r/^ *^T"'^ ^'''^''' it undermines the con U- 
 
 iit.on Associated as the practice is with deep drinkin- and 
 
 irregular repose, untimeous meals ard hours; Connected as the 
 
 pract.ce .s w.th everything which has the effV^.t of e:^^!:^^ 
 
 ltd :n^"nTvitJ;•.'^""f "y '!f -«"-P""g« -nife itselfare 
 uned up and vitality reduced and weakened ; the functions of 
 
 he several organs of the body refuse to work, «.nd disorder and 
 
 lability necessarily ensue. Hence the crow toes round about 
 
 the eyes now sunken in their socket. These same "crow toes" 
 
 are an infidlib.e sign of fast living in a young man, and the 
 
 blanched cheek, and the palsied arm, and the toUering unsteady 
 
 Shmirnr'^'^'^' indescribable air of broken'^down-ism 
 ^^hlch many of your young men carry about with them, and 
 which, in defian.e of all that fashion and frippery cansuCst 
 and apply, it is impossible to hide. °° 
 
 of violILT.h?''';^^'''?"* ^." '^'' *^P'^ ^''' I might be accused 
 ot vio ating the rules of good taste, but I will venture to speci- 
 fy and condemn what I regard as one of the chief incentives to 
 icentious indulgence. Quackery in anything is most abhor^ 
 v!v u- ''i ''f «lt.ng as ,t IS ridiculous, and it is ruinous as it is 
 ev ol ing ; but quackery in crime is the most ruinous and revolt- 
 ng of all quackery. The quack however must have a medium 
 
 ZTI 7\T^ *" r'^^'"^ '^'^ ^''•^"^^ «^ his catholicon and 
 thereby fa ten on the popular gullibility. Quackery would be 
 a poor business after all if it were not for the newspaper; and 
 Had way and Holloway, and this and that, would find their oc 
 eupation gone, were it not that this is the age of cheap adver- 
 
 •=a»f" 
 
i 11 
 
 24 
 
 tisements. Are not the quack advertisements on the secret 
 infirmities of youth a most gentle description ? You see it 
 would never do for the quack to call ugly things by their right 
 names. Arc not these advertisements a black foul blot on our 
 newspaper press ? And are not the newspaper proprietors 
 guilty of a wrong in inserting or allowing the insertion of such 
 vile trash in their pages ? Advantage is taken and I know it, 
 I know it even as respects »ny own comparatively secluded 
 part of the country, from these advertisementr,, ot yielding to 
 sensuality in the hope of escai)ing the consequences with impu- 
 nity or of an easy and speedy deliverance from them ; and thus 
 is the evil perpetuated through the very means which are, shall 
 I say it ? — falsely and hypocritically alledged to remove it. 
 I confess I have often trembled when on the newspaper being 
 laid on the parlour table and the flaring half column, with all its 
 vile and specious blarney, flashing in the fsice of my little fellows, 
 lest their curiosity should prompt questions which I dared not 
 answer. I know not why the privacy of my fireside should be 
 invaded and endangered by such insidious poison. I have a right 
 to something better for my two or three dollars ; and as the guides 
 of public opinion, and to so great an extent the guardians of 
 public morality, 1 call on the proprietors and conductors of 
 the newspaper press to cease hereafter from this most question- 
 able means of making their concerns pay. You are assuredly, 
 as the fact now stands, partakers of other men's sins, and whether 
 you acknovt'ledge it or not, you afford encouragement to and pan- 
 der to one of the giant evils of the day, and lessen to an immea- 
 surable extent your good influence in society. The leading 
 journals in the old country, be it spokon to their praise, refuse 
 insertion to all such communications ; let us hope that the lead- 
 ing journals in this^country will imitate the example. 
 
 Amusements should be limited and guarded by religiox. 
 This is so obviously true that to some it miiy seem a truism ; 
 but it is so vastly important that I have reserved it till now. 
 I have ventured the remark already that as soon as amusement 
 degenerates into immorality it ceases to be amusement. But 
 if so, much more is it true that so soon as amusement degen- 
 erates into irreligion it ceases to be amusement. The spirit of 
 religion should limit and guard it, and go should its forms and 
 institutions. Now if this be admitted, and surely no man, at 
 
 ^ 4. i 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
-t»--^ 
 
 ''■■fc^ii ..JpiiM»'' 
 
 z A i 
 
 25 
 
 of course the ohuJ^^^ ^^'^-^ oi a God and 
 
 an institution of fSn ^If^ ^ ^""^^^'^ '« 
 
 have a spirit as we'lfnTv^ ^^ ^ ^-^ality, if it 
 
 which I get at t he th.W nn/n T 'f-^''^ '"^^^""^ through 
 ever it b., binds mebv/^"i*."'^"S^' ^^'"^'' ^'^« ^'eJigion, what- 
 
 want you so to view iti is not' thT^"'^ ^" '•''' ""'P'"' ^''^"^^ ^ 
 ableness of SabbaX, av L" • ^"^^"gi-uity and question- 
 
 tJ, at once apparent Is the S IT^f ' ''^" ''^^ ^^^^^ ^'•''«'"-'^>i- 
 tlirough which as ror.nf. ^^V^^^^an institution ofrehgion 
 
 "ear t"o God Ld IZ "''hi^ T1 '"^ ^'^^Pon-'We, I d°aw 
 Then unless we confonn^ I' Vu^ I'T""-^ '^^"^^^ '« ^is «J"e ? 
 est distinction; n^s ".^^.^i: ^,tV'w" ? ' '"'"f ^^^ P^'^'"" 
 devotion, unless we hold .Z. • ^^. ''''' "P' ^"'^ recreation 
 one phases of pLrsure^Tr^^^ ^''?^ ^"*^ the thousand and 
 
 se. of GodlineSrobvious t aMhe^t^^^^^ '\'^''''- 
 
 son to be so pm,>l„„„j . ' "® '"iwalli is not the sea- 
 
 a grand elmn4. of thpTf ' *'"'"' '^ S™"'' '■'.''nsmnte.-, 
 
 toserveofbrin«-ir.r^.„! , J"?'' P"n'oses it is intended 
 <o me, a,°d o"S„Tl^T^ 1°!;^,' ""'I »f bringing God near 
 ■I willadd in the mW°,tTffh-n, •'•'■'' """■' "'"^'y <» ''im. 
 ner saved byK™" it can„ 't' »"'"?■ ^«*°™"»n. as a sin- 
 the nKTc and„wit ? /"°™ "* '"'""'" secularities as 
 The eompik"; o?o r cS ' '""™ °' ""' ''"'"o"' »"""■"• 
 region of' „au,>-a and r^„ l'"? ST-'''"""^ "' '"""« '" Ihi^ 
 k/ow thei,. Zt b arings "'^bS'S'i^f-, "^'' "'" '"'y 
 
 as are U, on^l^l^d^t^a^^fX-rirr^H 
 
~\ 1 
 
 •••'*ftr'nil 
 
 2e 
 
 the public and private exercises of God*s worship, except so 
 much as is to be taken up with the works of necessity and 
 mercy." 
 
 It may be all very well then to skim your 1 jautiful harbor 
 of a Saturday afternoon, (and I am about to plead with your 
 masters for that promised half-holiday) but the oar must be 
 quiet and the su i remain furled on the holy Sabbath day. It 
 may be all very well to scour the woods and dance if you please 
 on the verdant sward to the melody of your companions, male 
 or female, till the woods ring again ; but you must keep your 
 feet from the holy Sabbath of the Lord. It may be all very 
 well to go to the social party and reciprocate as you may all 
 the livelier emotions of your hearts, but you must not seek your 
 own pleasure on God's holy day. It may be all very well that 
 you read the exciting tale, or the seraphic poem, and luxuriate 
 amid the gorgeous creations of the sons of imagination and of 
 song, but the Book of Books, the Holy Bible, the Book of God, 
 that Book which a demented and impotent priesthood have da- 
 fed to reprobate and curse, and which to destroy, if they could, 
 they would annihilate the arts of printing and writing and 
 thereby too that Book, — is to be your chief companion on the ho- 
 ly Sabbath of the Lord. Yes you may as you are able and 
 as opportunity offers regale yourselves with whatever is beau- 
 tiful and true and good in the heaven above and in the earth 
 below but on the Sabbath of the Lord, the Lord thereof is to 
 be the chief theme of your thonghts and the chief delight of 
 your heart, His nature, His works. His relations to you, your 
 obligations to him and the mysteries and grace and glory of 
 the plan of Redemption through the obedience unto the death 
 of his own son, these are to command your attention, to feed 
 your devotion to spiritualize your affections and elevate your 
 hopes, and thus the Sabbath will be your renovator, your week- 
 ly restorer from toil and labor, your weekly preparer for duty 
 and work, and thus shall you find that this is the rest where- 
 with God causes the weary to rest. 
 
 There are one or two thoughts still of a somewhat important 
 nature as connected with the subject which deserve to be no- 
 ticed in order to complete the views which have been submit- 
 ted. 
 
 «. 1^ 
 
 ^ A i 
 
27 
 
 One of the strongest incentives to an undb- love of amuse- 
 
 Tf ,"i-^'rr' ^ ^"^ ^^"f "'^^ ^" *^ '"'^^J^ an** "PPer rank* 
 
 of society Ijes m example. There is wisdom in the proverb 
 
 As the auld cock craws the young one learns." And it is noc at 
 
 all surprising, however to be lamented, that the Ball room and 
 
 «f f 3' 'I ^1 ^^^"^ ^'"^"^^ P'««^* '^"^^^ P«sse«« so many 
 a tactions to their mexpenenced and susceptible minds, when 
 
 nflL """"^ that their parents in this respect are under the same 
 
 nfluences and chensh the same predilections as themselves, and 
 
 ^it reasonable to expect that there will in ordinary cases be 
 
 wisdom and moderation on the part of the young, when there 
 
 IS tolly and extravagance on the part of the old ? 
 
 Water cannot, according to the laws which govern it, rise 
 above Its leve , but it descends to a lower plane with a .^peed 
 according to its momentum, and so when our sons seem to pre- 
 fer pleasure to wit and amusement to employment and run at 
 the last into every excess without restraint and with perverse 
 rapidity, we may weep, but we need not wonder, for we ourselves 
 supplied the momentum. 
 
 \J^T^^'' incentive to an undue love of amusement lies in too 
 ong business hours. It is a matter of thankfulness indeed that 
 m this Province the hours of labour are not excessive either ii* 
 city or m countiy At least I believe so except in a very few 
 instances. But the experience of older people should furnish 
 us with a guide as to the regulation of the hours of labour, 
 bociety with us is plastic,~we may mould it as we please. Its 
 plasticity moreover has not yet begun to harden. There are 
 no hereditary prejudices as to labour, to uproot, no habits of 
 iite hoar with the age of centuries to overcome, no vested rights 
 of feudalism to part with. The employer and the employed 
 stand to each other m fresh and healthful and simple relation^ 
 ship, vastly different indeed from what they were till of late 
 
 ^nwn'.-nl-^ '*"^*"^ ^" "" ^^'^ ""^^^^ countries, and which 
 down till this very hour present the hugest difficulties to the due 
 regulation of the hours of labour. We know nothing of all this. 
 We ought not and we shall not if we govern ourselves by the teach- 
 ings of History. Yes, we may yet mould our social state as we 
 please and one of the finest phases into which it can be cast 
 would be short hours of labour for every day, and the half-ho- 
 liday every Saturday afternoon. I plead for this modification 
 
 iWHMIill 
 
26 
 
 on the score of profit to the master in the iirst place, and on 
 the score of health, virtue, religion, happiness to the workman 
 in the second. I cannot wait to prove it, but I am prepared 
 to do so, though it is not in my line, that other things being 
 equal, short hours give more woi-k and better, than long 
 ones. I cannot wait to prove it but I an^ ready to do so, that 
 short hours are every way favourable to all the higher inter- 
 ests of the working classes, and if I lived in this city I would, 
 minister as I am, throw myself into the short hour movement, 
 and plead for it, and reason for it, so long as there was breath 
 in my body, and fight for it if you will, but only with my own 
 legitimate weapons, though in fighting I should fall 
 
 One other incentive to an undue love of amusement lies in 
 the nature of our police regulations. 
 
 Everybody knows that our taverns and rum shops are the 
 scenes of much that is called amiasement. Everybody knows 
 that the amusements themsekes are not always ended when 
 the tavern is emptied, nay, the tap room is left that the frolick- 
 ers may have wider scope for their wildness, as they disturb 
 the dull cold ear of night with their Bacchanal revelry. Ev- 
 erybody knows the meaning of the phrase, drunk and disorder- 
 ly ; and when this phrase finds its meaning in the opinion of 
 the Watchman it implies a night's lodging in the Police cell, 
 and a morning's appearance at the Police Bar. But these 
 houses ear the stamp of Police authority, and are licensed to 
 sell the ery thing that leads to the Police disturbance and the 
 Police mishment. What incongruity in Legislation ! What 
 a libel on tlie exercise of authority ! What a burlesque on 
 punishment ! To license to sell and then punish the poor wight 
 who bought ! To license to sell and yet lecture the raw, inex- 
 perienced, reckless lad, standing with shamed face and dishon- 
 ored name in his humiliating plight against ever being found 
 in such a place again, the place which is kept open and sells 
 its drink by his authority and his sanction. Woukl it not seem 
 that the License is granted to minister to the crime lest the 
 magisterial Bench should want employment ? 
 
 It has been asserted in the whole previous illustration that 
 amusement is con-natural to the young. To prevent such 
 amusement is as rude as to prevent the lamb from gambolling 
 
 
 
 • i 
 
». ■► 
 
 I 
 
 . 
 
 o.her .hero .StbTul'^tllVurirasXr: r''"/" '"? 
 b heard eCry C tirmri f^''''"'" ^''"^' ""'' »' ««»''^ 
 
 tf^k^r f""' ^" ™^ ^^""^ ^"«»^^' ^^ l>e happy you mus 
 
 elements, nay the sure eLnce o^ ii W h fef T ^'^^ 
 possession and fairly dealt by, Oforyou the^ n w I shine S 
 a purer ray and the winds will blow with a softer breath .nd 
 the flowers w.Il wear a richer hue, and the glad waters d.nce 
 with a merrier sound. You will eat vn. S»«of • t • 
 
 tas^e, and drink your drink w7t a llCz^t W wn 1 "''"" 
 work with a ligliter hand amJa h 'hter La^' ' K vn. ^^T 
 you will smile more sweetly, if jou ifu^h y^^^^^^^ '^"'^^ 
 
 joyously, and if you weep a'nd /oung;"eoVe m ^ ^^f^^^^^^^^^ 
 men must weep, yours will be manly teare not f^Vr. if ^ § 
 defiance nor of dark discontent but 'JPe^ll^^^^^^^ 
 will and the way of your Father and Jour God. 
 
 / Tis religion that can give 
 
 Sweetest pleasure while we live, 
 
 '■■T m " 
 
30 
 
 Ti8 religion can supply 
 
 Solid comfort when we die. 
 And after death our joya shall "be 
 
 Lasting as eternity. 
 
 Hv hope is, and my labour will be rewarded, if my hope be 
 realized, that the aspirations of the Poet breathed m those love- 
 ly lines may express the experience ef every young man betore 
 
 me,— 
 
 Live while you may, the Epicure will say, 
 And seiee the pleasures of the fleeting day. 
 Live while you may the sacred preacher cries, 
 And give to God each moment as it flies 1 
 Lord, in my view, let both united be, 
 I live in .pleasure whik I live toihee-1 
 
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