Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/117

 guarding instinct against the violation of the mind. I make no fight for prudery, but I stand for cleanliness and decency, and there are certain dark places into which I would never have my children introduced. And yet, let us consider one of the so-called "classics" of the English Stage, a piece which, I am sorry to say, seems to enjoy an infamous immortality. Its plot (I do not care to name it) turns on the unsavoury topic of an old man married to a young wife—a theme which, as I daresay you are aware, has always been a favourite with the purveyors of indecency and moral garbage. About these two unhappy persons revolves a crowd of dissolute, idle, and luxurious people of fashion, whose only employment seems to be the circulation of ill-natured and preposterous rumours about each other. The dialogue, I may add, is written in a style which is evidently intended to be brilliant, but which strikes me personally as most unnatural. I may say that my social opportunities have been rather larger than is general; I have known