Life of Edwin Forrest, the American Tragedian. Volume 2 (of 2)Alger, Horatio, Jr.
General
Life of Edwin Forrest, the American Tragedian. Volume 2 (of 2)
Alger, Horatio, Jr.
Forrest, Edwin, 1806-1872
But the dramatic spirit freely enters the
soul and lot of every condition of men for the sympathetic
interpretation and intuitive feeling of their contents. The genuine
temper of this art, separate from the depraved usages of society, would
teach men to honor and copy those above, to love and blend with those
around, and to example and help those beneath. Then the strong and
cunning would no longer take selfish advantage of their power and hold
the masses of mankind in subjection by the triple bond of interest,
fraud, and fear. According to the principles of universal order, life
would everywhere become a mutual partnership of teaching and blessing
from above and learning and following from below, a spontaneous giving
and taking of all good things in justice and love without violence and
without money. Every one rendering his share of service in the co-
operation of the whole, no portion would be victimized by the rest, but
in the perfected equity and good will there would be abundant wealth for
all and plenty of leisure for each.
There are certain select places or focal buildings in which all the
secrets of human nature are revealed and the arts of power grasped. Each
of these has become the centre of a profession which has employed the
knowledge and skill given by its social position to secure certain
advantages to its members and make the rest of mankind pay tribute to
them in return for the benefits they claim to bestow or in
acknowledgment of the authority they claim to possess. These are the
ruling or leading classes of the world, in whose hands the keys of power
are lodged. The advantages of their situation where all the secrets of
experience are uncovered and all the arts of influence developed, their
exemption from the hardships of physical drudgery, their varied training
in mental accomplishments and cumulative inheritance of superiority,
place the rest of mankind in subjection to them. Had they
disinterestedly used their power to enlighten and free other men, to
educate and enrich other men, the world would long since have been
redeemed. They have used it to secure special advantages for themselves,
making others their servants on whose uncompensated blood and sweat they
live. Therefore the strife and crime and poverty and misery of the world
continue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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