New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-04-29

vest Of " a calamity and an injury 70 the sober and
sskd interests Of society. None are more truly inter-
ssteS-dh they know their own duty and policy
n seeing the community properly amused than The
sFganised friends Of morality and pfety They ought
- know that Nature avenges herself sooner or eter
and better sooner than later-i,r the violation OF ~
hws Of physical and moral health; and that the sup
preston Of the sportive careless and peasure-tfs
prepebstes or api.udes OF our nature Involves ;r
svitAbIe derang. ment and sue decay OF ". .-s,inc
srgape and faculties. Instead, therefore, OF
With business duty, sobrieiy, pety--"i'n y;ewd
economy virtue and reverence "a. ,b.r, all
merely a. principle advances and 'uplo day WORK.
Tie intellect that plays part Of ~ m, rest "
~>ye noverfulv and to better results io' VI" 80 "
- ,ha Seart that IL cav for hour, IL more
serisss for the other hours Of the day; . ~
Nat reposes for spacc more acu'9 M, a. sI ,h,
- viii that rests is more rigorous man Inc VIII mat
h always strained. o,. .on. 81.
You see then that j put amusc nv an l ue
>e~esesrjee and not the luIures Oh me- Lake s"xN
which was long thought mere paiate -pieaser, gu.
.h<h ,o~ .nnsout 10 be an indispensable constituent
If The HOOD. and one of the most nourlshng ana
,<c1sa,y articles of human food, amusement ~ ~,
rsue, practical interest and concern OF society UNI
at mere indulgence aud weakness, to be excuse"
and spoIogized for. Society Is the better, 'he seie
the more moral and religious, for amusement a
xsod friend TO the church it Is 70 the lheee. W
sssnd morals and interpretations pefy, az II Is ~
Asslh and happiness. The very word recreation car
Ties its argument in its etymology 10 rectea'e y "a
yseIsate and pleasure and plcty nave, III lis ulrc
tion, an Identical aimto renew ana euily our ns'u'e
manner from piety Ii does not make the bone and
sinsw but supplies the roundness OF the muscle, the
fat and moisture Of the system-and wine one gives
strength and size the other gives hexbiy ease and
race. Both are necessary TO build up the perfect
Put here shall be met with the suggestion that,
allowing all this Amusement, falling IN with the tastes
the slotb the selfindugent propensties OF humanity
being IN its very nature easy, careless and gay
tends always TO excess; provides amply and
extravogantly for its own grauhcaton; IL 10
league with the vanity, vices, aud dangerous
passions of the human heart; and, instead OF
eountenance and encouragement from the 30
rioue class, needs only ITS rebuke and restraint
Nay, that the very object of religion is to produce
seriousness self-denial and conservation which pleas
pre in every form assais and renders difficult; that 1t
attaches to the world those whom pety il seeking to
detach from the world; produces giddncss where re-
hgon would give sobrety ana promotes seIi-lorge!
seeking TO make thoughtful and anxious. Many good
and wise people, who have not the least idea OF see
ing amusement go out of fashion, and who would con-
fees that what they themselves call innocent smuse-
ment is necessary and legitimate; who look at the
sports Of young chidren-the game at ball, or the
skaters fight, the walk in the country the nutting
party game at chequers or chess, the music oil the
piano, the wit and humor Of true story-with sympe-
Thy nevertheless think il their duty TO resist the prln-
cpe of amusement, lest under any concession OF its
hwfulness, excess should find SHELTER.
There is however, no greater mistake in the world
than imagine that taking society together the love
Of amusement is overweeniDg passion of humanity
Doubtless it is the ruin Of class But selhshness, the
root Of depravy and the mother OF human evils finds
hs chief outlets and manifestations IN the serious and
anxious passions Of men-in cupidity, the love OF
power envy, jealousy and malice. Out OF the grand
desire to appropriate wealth power place, or to avoid
want submission and injury spring the worst charac-
terstcs of society Falsehood fraud violence, anger,
cunning, SANDER, meanness apathy, wee ana cTlme,
originate in selhshness which is ordinarily unsocal
stern sober laborous and far as possible from pleas
ure or diversion. Instead of being sefforgetful DIS
posed to relaxation pa yfM gay, it suDen, intro
spectve, tightly girded, and in no mood Tor delight
For certainly must mot confound things different,
and call the grim satisfaction with which the miser
pursues his gains the tyrant his victims the rogue his
prize, with which envy surveys the modification OF
competitor, hatred the misfortune Of en- enemy, OF
Jealousy the pangs of q riva-snusemont.
Nor are the vices Of society. drunkenness lust and
gambling, TO be placed among the rela1ations and
amusemepts of mankind They arc the serious and
horrible outbreak of awess appetites which do nothing
to tcreate but only Destroy. If they often found
in connection with the pleasures Of the world they are
lust often found iu absolute separation from them
Indeed the lack of the wholesome excitement OF pleas
ure is commonly seen producing the nOIious excite
nent of vice; and intempersnce, lust and gambling,
have devastated communities IL which public diver
sions have been scrupulouAy forbidden IL Is terr-
Die fact that the first hundred years OF Pu1tansm In
New-England was marked alike by nscetic public
manners and the prevalence Of slmost unheard
Of in our free and indulGent society; and II Is
even now asserted that tie soberest Of sister States
contributes than any other State IL the Cnon to
the sad catalogue OF female frailty
There is hardly more balefu error In the world
than that which has produced the feud between moral
ity and amusement piety and pleasure. by present
ing the mark for reprobation the rcacrcstons in
stead ofthe sins of society by confoundng smusements
with vices the moral feeling Of the world has been
wastefully diverted from its opposition TO absolute
wrong and depravng affections into opposition to
things innocent indifferent hutful only IN excess;
and thus q very misehievous confusion has been intro
duced into the natural and the Christian conscience OF
evil. Consider the thick darkness, the absence Of
interior light and moral order which Is likely to reign
Ia a soul that has been instructed to put dancing and
the frequentations of shows specta and bulls into
the same disallowance and reprobstiOn III which lying
SANDER hatred and unchsstty kept and to reckon
the love Of fun, gaycty and social excitement az de-
praved and Satanic afec0ou What but moral confu-
sion secret protest. nsdious revengee private vice.
latent skeptcism aud laxy in drotious not open to
observation or suspicion, can result to many, from
such unwarTanted aud unnatural ciassfcatous' II Is
true the second generation often pays the pensty OF
the ascetcism OF the first but the first usually has
runous pity on itself and treats its resolution in dark
and deadly ways. We cannot afford to waste
moral feeling, our sensiblity to sin. our powers OF
secontrol and OF resistance, upon false issues
artificial sins We want all the tenderness and all the
energy of conscience-all the amcnabeness TO duty,
all the fear Of God we have cultivate, where
with TO encounter real Gins the actual temptations Of
the devil, the positive wrongs to which human life and
character lre exposed livery artificial wrong every
thing pronounced evil which is innocent, every re-
straint volunteered every self-denial which is uane-
cessaTy, positive weakening Of moral forces
ammunition used up in sham fight when the real
enemy Just at our doors. II ia no uncommon thing,
therefore 10 sscetcisn accompanied by cruelty ~
others sanctmonousness associated with sourncss of
heart and sepsrstepess from the world disgust and
contempt for its pleasures, offset with spiritual prde,
harshness ofjudgment and malgnty Of temper.
1t viii not answer then, for the religious class to
bold amusemens or pleasures responsible for that de-
prsvity Of manners and nsensiby Of conscience and
heart which they 50 justly depore. They had much