excerpt from 'The Reform'd Gentleman: Or, The Old English Morals Rescued from the Immoralities of the Present Age, by A. M. of the Church of England' pp. 108-109 (228 words)
excerpt from 'The Reform'd Gentleman: Or, The Old English Morals Rescued from the Immoralities of the Present Age, by A. M. of the Church of England' pp. 108-109 (228 words)
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[Original spelling and puntuation retained] …[To] fill up the measure of Iniquity [the higher rank of men] must have their Anticks and their Merry strains on this Holy Day. They cannot go to Bed without a Song or a Dance to refresh their drooping Spirits. Poor Hearts! They have been fatigued with the long and tedious Duties of the Day, have with patience undergone the Burthen thereof; and attended (till they were weary) to Mr. Parsons Discourse of an Hour long: And must they be debarred from a harmless Diversion, which hurts nobody, and is an Offence to none but meddling Fools, and unaccountably-scrupulous Puritans? Perhaps this might be tolerable, were it not attended (as is most commonly) with Masquerading and Balls of half a Nights Continuance. But shall such Farce and Sonnetting go down? Shall such Fooleries and Apishness make up the Conclusion of the Sunday? Shall Singing of Divine Anthems, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, so much recommended by St. James, and so much in use among the truly merry-hearted Primitive Christians be abus’d, ridicul’d, and laid aside by most? And shall the Melodious Harmony of the Saints, and the Comfort we may hold with the Heavenly Host be converted into Obscene Modern Songs, which would not take at any other time, were it not for the Pandarism of a Musical Composure? |
| appears in search results as | excerpt from 'The Reform'd Gentleman: Or, The Old English Morals Rescued from the Immoralities of the Present Age, by A. M. of the Church of England' pp. 108-109 (228 words) |
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