10. People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have
themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.
11. All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all
those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the
theatre. It is a representation of the passions so natural and so delicate
that it excites them and gives birth to them in our hearts, and, above all,
to that of love, principally when it is represented as very chaste and
virtuous. For the more innocent it appears to innocent souls, the more they
are likely to be touched by it. Its violence pleases our self-love, which
immediately forms a desire to produce the same effects which are seen so
well represented; and, at the same time, we make ourselve