Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/113

 to myself, there is every resaonreason [sic] to fear that the ordinary English play is a thoughtless frivolous production at best, while many are known to be much worse than thoughtless. The scene is laid in gilded halls, in the drawing-rooms of a brainless and effete aristocracy, the dialogue is compounded of idle and pointless jest and repartee; even when the title—such as "The Importance of being Earnest"—promises better things it is to be feared that no real good is intended, that the serious name serves but as a mask to cover the writer's thoughtless gaiety. Why, I thought, should not all this be changed? As one who has seen the lights and shadows of Sunday School life under very favourable conditions, I have often wondered that such a field of intense dramatic interest should be neglected and passed over. Take the career—it is no exceptional one—of a young man who has been long known to me. I remember him as a tiny boy repeating his texts in that shrill clear voice which touches every father's