Smyrna times., 1869-03-17
Beecher on Rational Amusements.

Rev. II. W. Beccher delivered lecture on
Rational Amusement in Phlla. recently.
| Here are some extracts:
Every question of general interest must go
through this conflict. The lines have been
drawn on this battle of amuscmcnts, and the
endless battle is still going on. The old wi
have their way, and the young are equally OBJ
stinate, and will have theirway. The old must
give away to the newcomers.
! To-day gaiety is in the ascendant Fashion
in brilliant rags is delighting society. SO to-
morrow comes the religious rebound, and i'm
mcdiately jewellers will be brought to the con-
tessonal. Now he proposed to we'd mirth and
morality, and who would forbid the banns =?
Amusement was the production of lawful pleas
ure, and was the prcrOgative of the man whose
business was amusement. There was a moral
good in it; for pleasure was wholesome, neces-
sary, and obligatory. There were some whose
manual or professional occupations were suff-
cient to cause excitement. But men need
something that will interlacc business.
There are some men whose professional or
manual labor gives all the pleaSureable excite
ment which they need, but there arc very few
| OF them. While we are reckoning men, we
leave idlers out of the count. Those who make
pleasure the business Of their lives are mere
honey suckers, butterflies, and their father was
the worm. Laughter. We are speaking of
men who have a life of hard work before them.
If there be any men who have right to amuSe-
ment it is the busy men; if there be any men
for whom | make an exception, it is the people
who have nothing to do but to amuSe them
selves. They have no right to be merry. Those
who have the most of it should retrench, and
those who have less amusement should aug
ment the volume Of it.
| mean by amusement the whole art of ex-
tracing pleasure from life. A certain degree
of happiness is as necessary to the well-workine
of the body as food itself is, although happiness
is sought and much used for mere selfish rca
sons, yet happiness is part Of the Divine pro-
vision for life and health. Joyiulncss is both
food and medicine, and the absence of exhila
rating amusement amounts to physical injury
in the last estate. Without dissimulation, and
without excitement Of pleasure in some form,
all the Functions of the body will become Ian.
guild, the senses will grow feeble, the appetite
will fail, the heart enfeeblcd, and the whole
nervous system will get out of tone.
The want OF happiness ended in the want Of
usefulness. Although the health Of the body
required stimulent it did not need the use Of
opium, tobacco, or alcoholic spirits. Men must
keep up excitement but it must be sustained
by lawful means. Now, where true pleasure
was popular vulgar dissipation was apt to bt
rare. Under these circumstances life cannot bC
ecOnOmized or augmented without wholesome
enjoyment. Again, wholesome and exhilara
ting amusement economies time. Drudgery
did but little good. A dull man cuts with
beetle, not with an axe. When the brain is the
controlling influence, it may be laid down as al
axiom that the half of man S time is as gooC
as the whole. He dilated upon the folly O
these who were necessarily working their brain
and upon the absurdity Of continually driving
at work without some amusement. They art
soon found looking after their dyspeptit
stomachs, nibbling crackers. Laughter.
Some die of sOttening of the brain, and if they
! had not been soft before, they would not have
been soft afterwards. Laughter. The fac
was, that they kicked against Gods law anC
t God S law killed them. This continual raspins
of business was detrimental, and those meI
who broke themselves down by business com
mitted suicide. Now he pleaded for anu Q
ment for the sake of economy and the prolOn
cation Of life. Excessive care turns a''man int
5 pin-blunt at the head, slender in the stem
t and sharp at the point A woman of care il
like q needle-sll eye and all sharpness. Ap
plause and laughter. Whoever Slays car,
! kills death. Applause How was it in Eu
: roper
1t is not pleasure that has degraded Europe
The joyous amusement of the people there ha,
8 kept alive the national spirit under wrongs
t without which they would have been driven t
t desperation or animalism. We have this les
= son to learn. We are learning it. We shal
e yet rival them in joyOusness.
| say man who loves his work, and woulC
only put his heart in it and be conscientious ant
diligent, would find that work would carry it
own reward. Ones amusements must be oc
c casional.
. Those who live for pleasure must grow feeble
n and nothing is more worthless, nothing is NOR
undignifed, and nothing more contemptibl
r than life which has been spent in the hun
of pleasure. He contemned the man tha
It sought nothing but amusement; for laugf
was a good thing, but il one laughed all da.
- long who could endure it? The gaieties of so
D ciety were excessive in their stimulants. The!
l. were unnatural and unwholsOme, deriving thei
influences not from rational amusement bu
IT from pride. They keep indecent hours anc
u spread unwholesomeness. Those who follow
the voluptuous dance must be in a dcliriun
4 heflra thew enter il lie entirely diScnnnta