THE CORNERSTONES OF MODERN" DRABLY 719 



to the aims and possibilities of this fine art to all these citizens 

 representing the best and soundest elements in the Anglo-American 

 race we may make a strong and friendly appeal. I propose that we 

 shall say to them: 



" Brother Puritans, brother Pharisees, the dramatic instinct is 

 ineradicable, inexhaustible, it is entwined with all the root? of our 

 nature; you may watch its incessant activity in your own children; 

 almost every moment of the day they are acting some little play; as 

 we grow up and strengthen, this dramatic instinct grows up and 

 strengthens in us; as our shadow, it clings to us; we cannot escape 

 from it; we cannot help picturing back to ourselves some copy of 

 this strange, eventful history of ours; this strange, earthly life of 

 ours throws everywhere around us and within us reflections and re- 

 reflections of itself; we act it over and over again in the chambers 

 of imagery, and in dreams, and on the silent secret stage of our own 

 soul. When some master dramatist takes these reflections and com- 

 bines them and shapes them into a play for us, very nature herself 

 is behind him, working through him for our welfare. So rigidly 

 economical, so zealously frugal is she that what is at first a mere im- 

 pulse to play, a mere impulse to masquerade and escape from life 

 this idle pastime she transforms and glorifies into a masterpiece of 

 wisdom and beauty; it becomes our sweet and lovable guide in the 

 great business and conduct of life. 



" This is what she did for us in Shakespeare and Moliere. Consider 

 the utility of the Theatre, you practical Americans and Englishmen ! 

 You have noticed cats teaching their kittens to play at catching mice. 

 But this is their great business and duty in after life. You have 

 noticed puppies pretending to hunt and shake and kill game. But 

 this is their great business and duty in after life. That is what all 

 children and young things do. They play at their father's business. 

 So that their playtime is not wasted, but is, indeed, a wise, amusing 

 way of preparing for life. So nature teaches us, her children, to 

 play at life in the theatre, that we may carelessly and easily learn 

 the great rules of conduct; that we may become insensibly instructed 

 in the great art of living well, insensibly infected with a passion for 

 whatsoever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely 

 and of good report. 



" This, then, is the use of the theatre, that men may learn the 

 great rules of life and conduct in the guise of a play, learn them, not 

 formally, didactically, as they learn in school and in church, but 

 pleasantly, insensibly, spontaneously, and oftentimes, believe me, 

 with a more assured and lasting result in manners and conduct. Is 

 not that a wise form of amusement ? Ought not every good citizen 

 to foster and encourage it ? Then why, Brother Puritans, why, 

 Brother Pharisees, are you found in such bitter opposition to it ? If 



