Page:Romance & Reality 2.pdf/282

280 —are being rapidly put down. Pleasure is, in one class, a satiety—in another, a want." "Your expression of selfish neglect is a true one. Much may be said against the excesses of fairs; still, I think they might have been restrained, instead of suppressed. One great source of amusement—one peculiarly adapted to those who must be attracted by the eye—is too much forgotten: I mean dramatic representations, adapted to the lower classes, and supported by the higher. They might, in the country especially, be made a means of equal entertainment and improvement." "It is now the custom with many writers to represent the former state of the people of England as one of unmitigated oppression. 'The land groaning beneath the tyranny of its feudal lords,' is a favourite figure of speech; and I doubt not in many instances, justified. Great power is almost always a great evil. Now, the advantage of experience is, that it teaches to separate the bad from the good; and we have too much lost sight of the latter; for kindly feeling and strong attachment must have been generated in the simple fact of amusement being in common. The vassals or tenants collected in the hall for Christmas