Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/121

 before an audience which may, and probably does, contain a considerable proportion of young people sentiments of the most horrible and disgusting nature, to portray at other times vice in its most alluring character; to do all this without reproach because his dress is of the eighteenth century fashion and not of the twentieth: I say that such a theory is monstrous. Sin is sin, and vice is vice in bloom-coloured satin as in black broadcloth, and a lustful heart is no less odious under lace ruffles than under plain linen. So much for the theory of "the Comedy of Manners."

As for the other defence that has been proposed it is even more monstrous and offensive to the common sense of humanity. I cannot conceive how anybody in his sober senses can defend plays such as this because they are supposed to be quite unserious, to treat human nature, both good and evil, as a vast jest. My dear sir, this defence is itself an accusation and a heavy one. Are we sent into this vale of tears to laugh and make merry