6S4 



The Review of Reviews. 



HOW A STAGE PLAY GROWS. 



In the December Pall Mall Magazine the 

 author of *' The Flag Lieutenant " and other 

 successful plays, Major W. P. Drury, chats of 

 the secrets of writing for the stage. His plots 

 come to him in all sorts of places, and owe their 

 being to all sorts of out-of-the-way things : — 



Every writer, I suppose, at one time or another, is 

 asked the familiar question, "Where did you get the 

 idea for such-and-such a story?" or "How did you 

 think of the plot in such-and-such a play? " Well, how 

 did one? Sometimes, it is true, the course of a story or 

 play can be traced backwards readily enough to some 

 definite episode or cause. But, generally speaking, the 

 progress of the work has been so gradual, so complex, 

 that its origin has become obscured by the mists of time 

 and thought. Yet I venture to think that the average 

 story-reader or playgoer would be astonished to learn 

 how microscopic, as a rule, was the seed which produced 

 for him the means of so many hours' entertainment. A 

 newspaper paragraph, a chance phrase in conversation, a 

 face in the street, the name over a shop— many of the 

 greatest masterpieces in fiction and drama have sprung 

 from sources no greater than these. Blown by the winds 

 of chance, a germ furnished by some such triviality of 

 life drifts into a cell of the craftsman's brain, and 

 instantly begins — quite subconsciously, it may be — to 

 germinate. One may be absorbed in other work at the 

 time, and, indeed, for a long time afterwards. Yet, 

 hour by hour, day by day, in one's dreams as likely as 

 not, that wayside seed swells into a definite idea, until, 

 from the background of subconsciousness, it insistently 

 thrusts itself forward to take complete possession of the 

 brain. 



RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS. 



The Jaques-Dalcroze system of rhythmic gym- 

 nastics is described by Elizabeth Becket in a 

 superbly illustrated article in the Christmas 

 number of the Pall Mall Magazine. The history 

 of the new system is, briefly, this : M. Jaques- 

 Dalcroze, a professor of harmony and solfege, 

 being an enthusiast, became dissatisfied with the 

 lifelessness of his harmony classes. He ardently 

 desired to make them interesting and to awaken 

 enthusiasm in his students. One day, in think- 

 ing the matter over, he recalled the ease with 

 which children learn words and music when 

 these are accompanied by actions. So were 

 born rhythmic gymnastics, the elementary 

 exercises of which consist in marking the time 

 of the bar with the arms, and the rhythm, or 

 number of notes in a bar, with the feet. Every 

 human being has a latent sense of rhythm, and 

 by developing this much pleasure is added to life, 

 and the movements of the body become more 

 harmonious and graceful. Here gymnastics and 

 music are united, perhaps reawakening the old 

 spirit of harmony expressed by the complete 

 balance of bodv and mind. 



THE DECLINE OF CULTURE. 



E. Benjamin Andrews has some pertinent 

 things to say in the biternational Journal oj 

 Ethics anent the lack of culture in modern life. 

 A believer in the classical form of education, he 

 says there is a falling off in man's desire to 

 procure and promote the things of the mind, less 

 thought than once of ideals, less enthusiasm for 

 the true, the beautiful, and the good, less sub- 

 mission to these. He defines culture as the 

 appreciation, 



not contemplative alone but active and efficient, of the 

 non-economic values. It is not identical with virtue, but 

 involves that. It covers enlightenment, breadth, open- 

 mindedness, chivalry, honour, generosity, magnanimity, 

 justice, gentleness, devotion to principle, the courage of 

 one's convictions, power to sustain, without courting it, 

 loneliness, resisting popular clamours and mob move- 

 ments, whether plebeian or patrician. Your truly culti- 

 vated man will put on no airs, neither take off any. He 

 is not afraid of that which is high nor ashamed of what 

 is obscure, having opinions but not opinionated, firm with- 

 out stubbornness, fine yet not efTeminate, respectful to the 

 past yet no slave of tradition. He loves and courts above 

 all things Truth, and with that, if he can find it, he will 

 stay, with that he will live, and with that he will die, 

 recking the minimum of what other men do or say. Faith 

 is his, a view which bottoms reality in reason and spirit 

 and equips righteousness with its everlasting yea. 



DEMOCRACY AND DEMAGOGUE. 



What Aristotle Had to Say. 



The opening paper in the North American 

 Review for November contains Aristotle's 

 remarks on the principles of democracy. Of the 

 demagogue he says : — 



Where a democracy is governed by stated laws there is 

 no room for a demagogue, but men of worth fill the first 

 offices in the State ; but where the power is not vested in 

 the laws, there demagogues abound. For there the 

 people's voice becomes that of a king, the whole com- 

 posing one body ; for they are supreme, not as indi- 

 viduals, but in their collective capacity. Homer also 

 says : " 111 fares it where the multitude hath sway " ; but 

 whether he means this kind of democracy or one where 

 the many are individually supreme is uncertain. Now, 

 when the people possess this power they desire to be alto- 

 gether absolute, that they may not be under the control 

 of the law, and they grow despotical, so that flatterers 

 are held in repute ; and such a people become analogous to 

 tyranny among the forms of monarchy ; for their manners 

 are the same, and they both hold a despotic power over 

 better persons than themselves. For their decrees are 

 like the others' edicts, and a demagogue with them is like 

 a flatterer among the others ; but both these two classes 

 abound with each, flatterers with tyrants, and demagogues 

 among such a people. And to them it is owing that the 

 supreme power is lodged in the votes of the people, and 

 not in written laws, for they bring everything before 

 them. And this they do because they have influence, on 

 account of the supreme power being lodged in the people; 

 for these are they whom the multitude obey. Besides, 

 those who inveigh against rulers are wont to say that the 

 people ought to be the judges of their conduct; and the 

 people gladly receive their complaints as the means of 

 destroving al! llieir ofTii es. 



