His Views and Principles
that at the present time in London there are places of public entertainment where young women counterfeit, at all events, the action of taking off their clothes, of undressing, in fact, upon the stage; while in one case a woman has been found who is indecent enough to exhibit herself before thousands in what is, practically, a state of nature. You may note, by the way, that in the latter case the exhibition is supposed to be sanctioned by the name of "art," to be "classic" in so much as the unhappy female in question assumes, I believe, the appearance of some of the statues which have survived to us from heathen times. Now, as you may imagine, no voice will be raised higher than mine against these and all similar exhibitions. The prurient hypocrisy of shewing an audience a naked woman and of pretending at the same time that the sight is "classic" needs no comment from me. But bad as this is, I am quite sure that it is not so bad as the terrible scene from the "classic" comedy which I outlined for you. For, after all, clothes are a conven-
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