"Plato raised the same objections against poetry as against the stage, and Aristotle's opinion is doubtful,--therefore I will leave them alone. The early Christians did well to abstain from the HEATHEN play,--I will also leave them alone. That earnest Christians in modern times should have their scruples about the theatre, I can well understand; I have had them myself. But if one admits that a poet has liberty to write a drama, then an actor has liberty to play it, for in writing, what other does a poet do than play it--in his thoughts, with ardour, with passion, and 'whosoever looketh after a woman to lust after her,' &c.--you know the words of Christ Himself. When Schleiermacher says, that the drama may only be played privately and by amateurs, it is the same as to assert, that the talents God has given us, shall be neglected, whereas the meaning really is, that they shall be developed to the highest possible perfection; and to this end have we received them. We are all acting every day, when we imitate others in joke or earnest. Where, in any single instance these powers outweigh all others, I really wonder if such a one ceased to cultivate them, if it would not soon be shown that THIS was sin. For he who does not follow his proper calling, becomes unfit for another, leads an unsettled wavering life,--in short becomes a far easier prey to temptation. Where work and inclination fall together, much temptation is locked out. Now if you say the calling is in itself too full of temptation, well, every one feels it differently. To ME that calling possesses the greatest temptation that dupes one to believe he is righteous himself, because he bears the commands of the Righteous,--dupes him to believe he himself is believing, because he speaks to the belief of others, or more plainly said: 'To me the ministerial calling has the greatest temptation of all.'" (Great uproar: I deny it! Yes! Silence! I deny it! It's true! Silence!) The Captain: "Well I never heard before that the pulpit was worse than the stage!" Laughter and cries from all: "No, he never said it was." Captain: "Yes, the deuce----" "No, no, captain, the devil will be coming!"--"Well, my child, well, well!" And Odegaard took up the thread: "All the temptation of being excited in a moment, of sinking down into the mere wish to see and hear, of taking the models of virtue, and without trouble appropriating their life as ours, this verily is also present in the church!" (The same clamour again.)