320 Elbert N. S. Thompson 
it to unending misery. How closely the dramatist has followed 
the warning of the church! 
The Castle of Perseverance, it is clear, should not be considered 
primarily from the dramatic standpoint. Its influence in the growth 
of the English drama can not be disregarded, it is true, by the 
literary historian. But he who would appreciate the type of 
which The Castle of Perseverance is the truest representative, should 
remember that its author and its first audiences knew nothing of 
the drama gua drama, and should study it first, according to its 
intention, as a piece of didactic literature, a “sermo corporeus.” 
The student then realizes that the contents are not original with 
the English author, and that the primary sources should never be 
sought through the channels of secular literature, whether English 
or French, but rather in ecclesiastical literature, which knew no 
national bounds. If this be true of The Castle of Perseverance, it 
is equally true of the type it so perfectly represents. Here, then, 
is a Clue for the investigation of the sources of the morality plays, 
and for a surer and fuller means for their intimate appreciation. 
CuHaprer IIl.—Tur PSYCHOMACHLA. 
Thus the conception of spiritual life as a conflict between the 
forces of good and of evil, terminating in death and the final 
reward or punishment before the judgment-seat of God, constitutes 
the theme of the typical moral play, as it was devised to popularize 
and enforce the practical moral lessons that the Church had to 
teach. As the theme of conflict was obviously first in order of 
presentation, so it was first, without doubt, in order of devel- 
opment. The conception of life as an armed combat is as old 
as Christianity itself. It underlies many of the New Testament’s 
warnings against temptation, especially the appeals of that virile 
apostle Paul. “For we wrestle,” he wrote, “not against flesh and 
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers 
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high 
places. ... Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, 
and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet 
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking 
the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all 
the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, 
