young people, as balls and public assemblies on persons of riper
years. When you mentioned the subject to me first, I thought it had
been a practising of girls _only_, else I should then have given
you my sentiments fully upon that head.

"As to the _reading of plays_, or any part of them, to your
young people, I must own, it does not appear to me to be expedient; it
may be productive of bad consequences, and the _good_ arising
from it is, at most, uncertain. It is, no doubt, very desirable to
enlarge young people's minds and improve their taste as well as their
persons; but such is the state of things in this world, that to attain
this to the degree wished for by every person of refined taste, some
things must be sacrificed of much greater value: for example, a girl
cannot acquire the smart, polished air of a person of fashion, without
imbibing too much of the spirit of the world. _Vanity_ and
_emulation_ must be awakened and cultivated in the heart, before
she will apply herself with diligence to outward accomplishments; nor
can her mind and taste be much improved in _polite_ literature,
without losing its relish for simple truth. I grant you, there are a
few Christians in the world who have acquired the outward
accomplishments of it, and have, by grace, been enabled to turn these
to good account--who, like the Israelites, having spoiled the
Egyptians, have made use of _their_ jewels in adorning the
tabernacle; but this can never serve as an argument on your side of
the question. If the Lord sees fit to manifest his power and grace by
plucking a brand from the burning, this is no reason why children
should be initiated into the ways of sin and folly, in hopes that some
time or other he will bring them out. We are never to do evil that
good may come; and this brings the question to a short issue.