The Fine Arts and Morals. 97 



murder. The improvement is coming when the taste for 

 the fine arts has left. The time will come when the two 

 will unite, as in the case of the religious painters. 



Abstractly we think that good dramas must improve 

 men, but the historic effect there also has been small, 

 whilst the degradation attendant on, we do not say caused 

 by, dramatic effects has been obvious enough. ^Eschylus 

 alone might make a man think how lofty the drama might 

 be. It was then above the age and taught ; now its 

 advocates tell us it is a reflex of the age, yielding the point. 

 Reflecting is not teaching. 



We may be excused for giving our own opinions here 

 in corroboration of the views advocated by the Rev. 

 Samuel Hall and Dr. Falconer ; it is a subject on which we 

 have thought, seeking in history for a sure guide. Yet 

 how frightfully men deceive themselves. They might 

 read of the Greek character sinking when their best 

 statues were made ; the same process had taken place in 

 Egypt, the same took place in Italy. We might follow 

 the same effect everywhere. We are not afraid to go to the 

 frequenters of operas and of our best music cathedrals, to 

 find a similar proof of deterioration in more cases than 

 can give us elevation. Refined music of a class requiring 

 great study as well as talent, seems to be enjoyed by 

 persons of a character most intimately selfish and utterly 

 devoid of the love of man or the fear of God. It may 

 drive even intellect out of the man and make him a machine 

 for the sensual enjoyment of musical vibrations, which, 

 moreover, he cannot understand, because, although they 

 are connected with intellect and character, they cannot 

 take the place of either, and their language is in want of a 

 definite grammar. This does not prevent us from allowing 



H 



