I cannot think it reasonable, because Mr. Collier is pleased to write one chapter of Immodesty and another of Profaneness, that therefore every expression traduced by him under those heads shall be condemned as obscene and profane immediately, and without any further inquiry. Perhaps Mr. Collier is acquainted with the deceptio visus, and presents objects to the view through a stained glass; things may appear seemingly profane, when in reality they are only seen through a profane medium, and the true color is dissembled by the help of a sophistical varnish. Therefore, I demand the privilege of the habeas corpus act, that the prisoners may have liberty to remove and to appear before a just judge in an open and an uncounterfeit light.

Fourthly, because Mr. Collier in his chapter of the profaneness of the stage has founded great part of his accusation upon the liberty which poets take of using some words in their plays which have been sometimes employed by the translators of the Holy Scriptures, I desire that the following distinction may be admitted, viz. that when words ate applied to sacred things and with a purpose to treat of sacred things, they ought to be understood accordingly; but when they are otherwise applied, the diversity of the subject gives a diversity of signification. And in truth he might as well except against the common use of the alphabet in poetry because the same letters are necessary to the spelling of words which are mentioned in sacred writ.


return to top | previous page | next page