To say that the persons who write and introduce these pieces are in want of _sense_, may not be true; but I must charge them with a want of sufficient thought, right feeling and principle, in not calculating on their baneful effects on the rising generation, for whose amusement it appears they are chiefly produced.
Many unfortunate persons, who have heard sentence of death passed upon them, or who are now suffering under the law, in various ways, have had to lament that the _first seeds of vice were sown in their minds while viewing the pilfering tricks of clowns in pantomimes_.

Alas! too little do we calculate on the direful effects of this species of amusement on the future character of the young.

We first permit their minds to be poisoned, by offering them the draught, and then punish them by law for taking it.

Does not the wide world afford a variety of materials sufficient for virtuous imitation, without descending to that which is vicious?
It is much easier to make a pail of pure water foul, than it is to make a pail of foul water pure.

It must not be supposed that I wish to sweep off every kind of amusement from the juvenile part of society, but I do wish to sweep off all that has a pernicious tendency.