In China we do not expend as much energy as Americans and Europeans
in trying to make other people good. We try to be good ourselves
and believe that our good example, like a pure fragrance, will influence
others to be likewise. We think practice is as good as precept,
and, if I may say so without being supposed to be critical of a race
different from my own, the thought has sometimes suggested itself to me
that Americans are so intent on doing good to others,
and on making others good, that they accomplish less than they would
if their actions and intentions were less direct and obvious.
I cannot here explain all I mean, but if my readers will study what
Li Yu and Chuang Tsz have to say about "Spontaneity" and "Not Interfering",
I think they will understand my thought. The theater, as I have already said,
was in several countries religious in its origin; why not use it
to elevate people indirectly? The ultimate effect, because more natural,
might be better and truer than more direct persuasion. Pulpit appeals,
I am given to understand, are sometimes very personal.
Since writing the above I have seen a newspaper notice of
a dramatic performance in the Ethical Church, Queen's Road, Bayswater, London.
The Ethical Church believes "in everything that makes life sweet and human"
and the management state that they believe -- "the best trend
of dramatic opinion to-day points not only to the transformation of theaters
into centers of social enlightenment and moral elevation,
but also to the transformation of the churches into centers
for the imaginative presentation, by means of all the arts combined,
of the deeper truths and meanings of life.
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