Notwithstanding this constant strain upon his time and labour, there is no figure more conspicuous in the whole round of social duties and entertainments. Wherever there is a gathering for the purpose of helping his profession, he is to be found presiding or assisting. He takes his share in the important movements of the day, and his utterances, always judicious, useful, and valuable, are quoted abundantly. CHAPTER XVII. L’ENVOI. Irving has always shown himself eager to plead for his profession, to urge its claim as a wholesome and instructive moral influence that will implant in the community elevating instincts of even a religious kind. All our great actors have been forward in this way, notably Garrick, Kemble, and Macready. The former’s reply to the bishop as to the success and failure of their different styles of preaching is well known. In these days, when we have that singular “Church and State Guild,” with the pleadings of the Reverend Stewart Headlam, and of other clergymen, in favour of the ballet, it is curious to find how this indulgent and tolerant view is repaid by the introduction on the stage of grotesque curates, vicars, and deans, the line being drawn at bishops, who now figure in many a comic opera in absurd and even degrading situations. Our actor is very earnest, and fondly believes that the day is approaching when the stage, and its ways and works, will be recognised by the Church, and by good people generally, as healthy, useful agents in the work of reforming men and women. He is fond of repeating the Bishop’s remark to him, when he asked why, with such a taste for the theatre, he did not frequent it—“My dear Irving, I am afraid of the _Rock_ and the _Record_.”