147 



The Pagan and Christian Conception of God. 



THE MIRACLE" AT OLYMPIA AND "OEDIPUS REX" AT COVENT GARDEN. 



l>oiina." Hut surely it is something to tiic good that 

 men and women should be familiarised with the out- 

 worn creeds in the strength of which their ancestors 

 faced the jiroblems of life and went down into the 

 chill waters of the river of death? Kach of these 

 religions, "exploded superstitions " as men call ihcm, 

 was at one time a step on the great altar stair by 

 which humanity has groped its way from darkness to 

 the throne of God Since " the first man stood God 

 conquered with his face to heaven upturned," each 

 successive generation has formulated, according to 

 the light aflfordtd it, a creed and a ritual which 

 defired with more or less exactitude the angle at 

 which they faced the Infinite. 'I'he scenic represen- 

 tation of these lites enables us at least to realise with 

 a more sjmpathetic understanding the marvellous 

 variety of conceptions which man has formed of God. 



It is at least better that great multitudes should be 

 gathered together to see and to reflect upon the 

 ancient ways in which our forefathers realised Divinity 

 than that they should be perjietually surfeited with 

 contemplating the various methods in which men 

 corrujit their neighbours' wives and deceive their own. 

 If it be true that all paths to the Father lead when 

 self the feet have spurned, it must be profitable to see 

 vividly represented before the eye and car the efforts 

 which our fathers made to stumble upwards towards 

 the Author of their being. Of course this is abso- 

 lutely opposed to the old notion that a man should 

 turn away as from a temptation of Satan from any 

 attractive presentation of any creed save that in 

 which he was born and baptised. It used to be 

 regarded almost as much of a religious duty to 

 despise your neighbour's creed, to caricature it, to 

 abuse it, as to hold firmly to your own. Religious 

 men and religious women have for generations acted 

 on the principle of the ingenuous juror who wanted to 

 !-top the case and find a verdict before the counsel for 

 the defence had been heard. " It is all so clear to 

 nic now, but if that other fellow speaks I know he 

 will confuse me." Reinhardt is making us hear the 

 other fellow, and it ought to be counted to him for 

 righlcousnes.s. 



.\nd right here before I go any further I must make 

 a |)crsonal explanation. In order to help to increase 

 ihe popular interest in "The Miracle," I wrote a 

 letter which has been extensively quoted in the Press 

 pointing out how directly Rcinhardi's play challenged 

 the narrow-minded fanaticism of Orange rrotestant- 

 ism. I asked, in tl e same vein of .scoffing irony as 

 that cni])loyed by the Prophet Klijah when he had 

 the priests of Haal on the h.ip, what our good Pro- 

 testants were thinking about when they rai.scd such a 

 hull.djaloo about the procession of the Host at iho 

 I'lucharistic Congress and sat down lainely before 

 this beautiful but defiant presentation of Romish 



RlilN'Il.ARI)!' il'.e Jew has made the Christian 

 world of London his debtor by compelling 

 the multitude to see and wonder at two mar- 

 vellous scenic representations of two of the vanished 

 faiths of mankind. His success opens up a wide 

 field for the entcriirise of audacious dramatists. There 



are a score, 

 nay, a hun- 

 dred, religions 

 — both past 

 and present — 

 which are cap- 

 able of sym- 

 ])athetic repre- 

 sentation on 

 the modern 

 stage. There- 

 is the faith of 

 the Druids, for 

 instance, which 

 has in it great 

 possibili ties, 

 and a play 

 based on the 

 worship of 

 Moloch w'ould 

 outdo " CEdi- 

 pus Rex " in 

 ho rror. The 

 riles of Isis, the Bacchanalian orgies of the cult 

 of Cybele, offer obvious attractions to tho.se who 

 find profit in e\i)luiting the mysteries of sex. Still 

 more attractive, because more grim and weird, are the 

 obscure an^ obscene rites of Voodooism. " Dear Old 

 Charlie" might be induced to license a realistic 

 representation of Phallus worship, and that ancient 

 deity Priapus might be honoured naked and un- 

 ashamed insteail of being the furtive inspirer of 

 musical comedy and the gay humours of I.abiche. 

 Hindoo mytholni^ics afford endless themes for the 

 K( inhardts of ih.- future. Nor can it be said after 

 "'I'he Miracle ".iiid "CEdipus" that anything must 

 be rejected as common and unclean. 



The study of conqjaralive mythology has long 

 '•ngaged the allenlion of the learned. 'I'hese repre- 

 sentations on the stage are now democratising the 

 subject. The gicat advantage of the dramatic treat- 

 ment of what ilic freethinker scornfully waves aside 

 as superstitious is that it must he sympathetic. That 

 has its disadvantages no doi;bt. To accustom 

 thousands of young men and maidens to think them- 

 selves inio the mental and physical state of Pacchantes 

 c.wi hardly be < ommendcd as tending to purity of 

 thought, of manmrs, or of morals. 



The same objection may be taken to the persona- 

 tion of the Laily of the Camellias or of "Bella 



Professor Reinhardt. 



