The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-11

is sufficient TO change tho whole religious
aspect of the performance. The correct
stamp is placed upon the coin, and It passes
current Immediately; or, as we might rather
say, the child is provided with a sacred amulet
which enables il to breathe without danger
the atmosphere of simple amusement. We
would not for the world say anything
which might cut off from any poor innocent
of fourteen months, or under, its chance of
escape from the austere monotonies of
Puritan Sunday; but we hope that the parents
have considered the objection that some pro-
family might possibly arise from this mode of
playing with sacred things. There are some
scenes and persons in the Bible which, we
confess, we should not like TO see represented
by child of ours with the help of wooden
bricks and Noah's arks. But it is an old OBJ
servation that there is very close connection
between superstition and profanity.
Not to dwell upon this, the invention
strikes us as very ingenious, and capable of
much wider application than the original
contriver may have imagined. Older per-
sons may take hint as to the best
way of queting their consciences. Amuse-
ment is wrong on Sunday, and should
be sternly put down. A man who would
be guilty of playing game or looking at q
picture would be as bad as drunkard or a
thief. But let him associate his amusement
with the Scriptures, and the whole state of
the caseswill be altered. The directors of the
Crystal Palace Company should add TO their
collections a few wax figures representing the
ancient Jews, they should have panorama Of
the Holy Land and declare that their garden
is laid out in exact imitation of the Garden of
Eden, and they might boldly appeal to the
religious world to allow them to open their
doors on Sunday. Even the theatres might
contrive dramatic representation of some
scenes in Old Testament history; and circus
which is fortunate enough to possess a
camel might Immediately declare its readi-
ness to illustrate the passage of the
desert. The principle would be identical,
and in a very short time all our population
might be amusing itself without committing
any offence against Sabbatsrianism. When
people are so clever at cheating themselves
for the pleasure of their children, they might
contrive to do little self-deception for the
benefit of their poorer fellow-countrymen.
For ourselves, we must confess that the pro-
ceeding is not altogether pleasant to con-
template. The particular absurdity which
we have selected is almost too trifling for
notice, but it is petty indication of very
widespread temper of mind. In the stern
Old Puritan conception of the Sunday there
was at least a certain grandeur. 1t was
cruelty hard upon the children, and many of
us remember those days of enforced and
dreaIy ID nass with greater bitterness than is
due TO mon. rious causes of vexation. But
if it tended to sour mems minds, it did not
tend to make them mean. The religious
spirit indicated was narrow, but il
was capable of exercising a mighty in
fuence and forming strong characters; MOI
would any reasonable man speak slightingly
of the benefits, mixed as they are with many
evils, which result from the English respec
| for Sunday Be this as it may, the supersti
tious pettifogging of the bigoted school is thu
| greatest source of danger to the whole insti
tuition. 1t is really lamentable to think hov
many children have this sort of nonsense in
stilled into them from their earliest years
they are taught, on the one hand, that all in
nocent amusements become wicked
on a Sunday, and on the other, that by
skilful bit of legerdemain they ma,
get the pleasure without the sin. 1t is diff
cult TO conceive training more likely t.
result in happy combination of bigotr.
and hypocrisy. 1t enables clever lad to ca
his cake 80 long as it is sugared over with
transparent coating of religious platitude
and to believe that everybody who takes
without is on the high road to perdition. I
people would bring themselves to admi
frankly that some amusement is necessary an
desirable for human beings even on Sunday
they would do more to preserve its vitalit
than by any quantity of special pleading
they would enable children to believe tina
religious observances are not of necessity
WEAKNESS to the flesh; and, above all, the
would run less risk of converting them int
premature hypocrites No sight in the worl
is more melancholy than a child who ha
already learnt the art of systematically chea
ing his own conscience.