of the silliest and most vulgar kind. We know in detail the
abominations, as shameless and ridiculous, which went on a century
after Salvian, in the theatres of Constantinople, under the eyes of
the most Christian Emperor Justinian, and which won for that most
infamous woman, Theodora, a share in his imperial crown, and the
right to dictate doctrine to the Christian Bishops of the East, and
to condemn the soul of Origen to everlasting damnation, for having
exprest hopes of the final pardon of sinners. We can well believe,
therefore, Salvian's complaints of the wickedness of those pantomimes
of which he says, that 'honeste non possunt vel accusari;' he cannot
even accuse them without saying what he is ashamed to say; I believe
also his assertion, that they would not let people be modest, even if
they wished; that they inflamed the passions, and debauched the
imaginations of young and old, man and woman, and--but I am not here
to argue that sin is sin, or that the population of London would be
the worse if the most shameless persons among them were put by the
Government in possession of Drury Lane and Covent Garden; and that,
and nothing less than that, did the Roman pantomimes mean, from the
days of Juvenal till those of the most holy and orthodox Empress
Theodora.

'Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they who do such things are
worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that
do them.'

Now in contrast to all these abominations, old Salvian sets, boldly
and honestly, the superior morality of the barbarians. That, he
says, is the cause of their strength and our weakness. We,
professing orthodoxy, are profligate hypocrites. They, half
heathens, half Arians, are honester men, purer men than we. There is