Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne/Appendix 3
APPENDIX III.
Page 34.—Effect of Modern Entertainments on the Mind of Youth.
The letter of the Times' correspondent referred to contained an account of one of the most singular cases of depravity ever brought before a criminal court; but it is unnecessary to bring any of its details under the reader's attention, for nearly every other number of our journals has of late contained some instances of atrocities before unthought of, and, it might have seemed, impossible to humanity. The connection of these with the modern love of excitement in the sensational novel and drama may not be generally understood, but it is direct and constant; all furious pursuit of pleasure ending in actual desire of horror and delight in death. I entered into some fuller particulars on this subject in a lecture given in the spring at the Royal Institution.
[Any part of the lecture referred to likely to be of permanent interest will be printed, somewhere, in this series.]