too, the play is produced before a numerous audience--an audience often
distrait, always pressed for time, and impatient of the least delay.
Again, the public in general require that they shall be able to
understand without difficulty, and at first thought, the characters the
author seeks to present, making it necessary that these characters be
depicted from their most salient sides--which are too often vulgar and
unattractive.

In our comedies and dramas it is not the individual that is drawn, but
the type. Where the individual alone is real, the type is a myth of the
imagination--a pure invention. And invention is the mainspring of the
theatre, which rests purely upon illusion, and does not please us unless
it begins by deceiving us.

I believe, then, that if one seeks to know the world exactly as it is,
the theatre does not furnish the means whereby one can pursue the study.
A far better opportunity for knowing the private life of a people is
available through the medium of its great novels. The novelist deals with
each person as an individual. He speaks to his reader at an hour when the
mind is disengaged from worldly affairs, and he can add without restraint
every detail that seems needful to him to complete the rounding of his
story. He can return at will, should he choose, to the source of the plot
he is unfolding, in order that his reader may better understand him; he
can emphasize and dwell upon those details which an audience in a theatre
will not allow.

The reader, being at leisure, feels no impatience, for he knows that he
can at any time lay down or take up the book. It is the consciousness of
this privilege that gives him patience, should he encounter a dull page
here or there. He may hasten or delay his reading, according to the