394 MOVING PICTURES [Cn. XI 



the kinds of scenes that were portrayed, and the kinds of people 

 who crowded the theaters to see them. At the same time they 

 have also visited the regular theaters to see actual human beings in 

 the plays, and the kind of plays and the kind of people who were 

 there to see them. 



To some of us, at least, the actual stage and the screen-stage 

 seem equally real. The screen-stage has the advantage of a 

 boundless, and untrammeled outlook of land and water, earth and 

 sky in calm and sunshine and in the resistless action of storm or 

 volcanic eruption. 



In human life it can show actual scenes, commonplace or heroic ; 

 scenes like a royal coronation, or the barbarisms of war and riot, 

 and on a scale impossible for a regular theater, and at an expense 

 which makes them available for all mankind to see and enjoy, each 

 according to his own knowledge, experience and capabilities. 



That some of the scenes in moving picture theaters are neither 

 inspiring nor uplifting, and that the order in which the scenes 

 appear is sometimes unfortunate, must be admitted. But these 

 and all other defects which have been pointed out are not inherent 

 in the moving picture. They simply indicate human failings. 

 They can be corrected and are being corrected all the time. 



It is perfectly natural to think of the advantages to be gained by 

 impressing moving pictures into the service of education. The 

 striking scenes depicted by the moving picture are well adapted for 

 arousing interest and giving the inspiration which lead to the care- 

 ful and painstaking effort necessary for a true education. For 

 example, in the development of a frog or a fish from the egg the 

 moving picture shows the major changes but not the minor ones 

 which are the really essential changes. No one would ever become 

 an embryologist by looking at moving pictures of a developing 

 animal or plant, and so with all the other subjects the study of 

 which enters into an education. 



There are a good many helps in education, but there is no way 

 to become really educated in any subject without the continuous 

 and concentrated study of details as well as of the subject as a 

 whole, any more than a man can become a skilled mechanic by 



