tween justis and injustis, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, that has been going on thru the ages, will finally end in the overthrow of all forms of iniquity. Some day final verdict will be past "upon the shameless iniquities of inordinate greed, of the organized crimes of vice and intemperance," of the inhumanity of war, and of the selfishness in its manifold forms. The power behind the world is allied with truth and honor. The powers arrayd on the side of moral law are more and mightier than those against it, and ultimately truth and righteousness will prevail. While God is sometimes on the side of the heviest battalions He is always on the side of moral government. In a most vital way He is fulfilling His purpose in the earth. "History's pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown, Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own." Frederick Hegel, in his brilliant attempt to bring together the movements of universal history in an all-embracing system, assures us that, "reason is sovereign of the world." He also says, "it is only an inference from the history of the world that its development has been a rational process." He, moreover, calls to mind that passage in history in which Anaxagoras enunciates the doctrine. that νοῦς or reason, governs the world, and he affirms that this reason is God. The history of the race is the carrying out of the plan of God-the actual working of His government. It is nothing but the development of the idea of freedom. Hegel closes his "Philosophy of History" with the profound reflection "that the history of the world, with the changing scenes which its annals present, is this process of development and the realization of Spiritthis is the true Theodicæa, the justification of God in History. Only this insight can reconcile Spirit with the History of the World; viz, that what has happened, and is happening every day, is not only 'without God,' but is essentially His work." History thus contains a conscious design, which can be explaind only as it is referd to a Divine Intelligence who thru it is executing His will. It is the realization of an ideal purpose, a divine plan in the world. Our aim has been to show that the moral structure of society as well as the moral nature of man implies a moral universe. From the moral constitution of life we conclude that the Maker of man is righteous and true. The moral principles which underly society presuppose a moral Governor. Moral law and government betoken a universe whose foundations are the granit stones of justis, truth, and holiness. The moral world is, therefore, not a transient phase of the process of evolution, but an abiding system rooted in the cosmic order. It is the realization of the plan and purpose of One whose ways are just and right and who ordereth all things according to wisdom and love. The European Problem Play-Its Three Cases HENRY LAMPART LEDAUM, Head of the Department of Romance Languages, University of North Dakota TH To Will F. Roaf, Esq., "The social world, at any rate, is a stage, what- INTRODUCTION HE problem play is an unconventional literary product which has too long conventionally cringed to secure the indulgence of carping critics. As usual with anything new, it is better known thru its enemies and detractors than thru its admirers and friends. I venture, incontinent, to consider the problem play as serious literature, legitimate drama, and sound philosophy. A deal of dreded fog envelops this sort of play in spite of the lucid mind of Shaw 1 and his enviable prefaces.... But an original writer like Shaw ever counts few readers and wields little influence except on independent thinkers....The problem play has verily nothing to do with musical comedies or questionable plays; it is not a play of old-fashiond intrigue, nor wholly of character; it is a play of situations-a study of social conditions. "I have intended," said Ibsen, defending one of his great works, "to paint human beings, human emotions, and human fate, against a background of some of the conditions and laws of society as it exists today." 2 The problem play is one in which things and outside interests speak; they often control the individual and monopolize the attention. The individual, singly or in groups, is largely a creature of environment; the problem play considers him a victim of conditions; 3 he is led by circumstances to cogitate upon the social status. 1. G. Bernard Shaw is without question the leading writer of the day, altho there is still much difference of opinion regarding the literary and dramatic value of his work. Cf. the article by Mr. Felix Grendon, "Some Misceptions Concerning Shaw," in Poet Lore, pp. 377-386, Sept.-Oct., 1909. A Prophet who Laughs, Francis Lamont Peirce, Twentieth Century Magazine, April, 1911, pp. 17-23; and, for a somewhat different view, cf. the essay by Edward Everett Hale, Jr.,-Bernard Shaw, pp. 102-125, Dramatists of ToDay; Henry Holt & Co., N. Y. 1905. 2. Quoted by Edmund Gosse in his "Henrik Ibsen," p. 177, Literary Lives, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1908. 3. "Evil is produced by circumstances and not by character,-Ibsen's oft repeated demonstration."-Gosse, id. p. 178. His inquiry into the reason of things makes the problem play. This play is usually static, no drama of performances, that; nor of glittering generalities. Viewed from the old dramatic illusion of action the players develop the story, not themselvs. Any study of character is then incidental to the problem presented. But there are plays in which this is not the case, and where the unfolding of the story, or plot, also reveals character, without, however, being a study in character evolution. But this whole process is illusory,-there being in drama and in problem plays in particular, only exposition followd by more exposition or revelation, and not really evolution, tho we use the term in dramatic parlance; still, if the problem play lacks movement, it has intensity of interest; it has emotion, too, tho often morbid because of its few contrasting situations, the social failing at hand being carefully circumscribed and probed relentlessly; it is actual and unromantic, oft a thing of ugly moods, studied seriously; it is presumably experienced or the mature fruit of reflection; it is seldom picturesque. It views humanity struggling for, with, or against position, privilege, fortune, tradition, heredity and vice; it may be tragedy or comedy, tho grim. It is more often a dramatized conversation in which the artistic identity of tragedy or comedy is sacrificed to the more pertinent claims of the problem or of the situation at issue. The problem playwright has to exhibit life, not prove the conventions and petty tyrannies of art; the constraint of a traditionally fixt form would needlessly hamper his pragmatical spirit. Nevertheless, the problem play rests on the common inheritance of all dramatists. But the new drama, to be appreciated, must be contrasted, not with the field, but with the age it strives to meet. Given an accepted social theory or condition what will the individual do to meet it or live under it?....What are the consequences of education and free-will in a conservativ and traditional social order? Let me say, at once, that many are cald problem plays that are only remotely related to the genre. Nor are they questionable plays because they put a question or a situation up to the audience for solution or sober consideration. Don't be prejudist:-I once spoke to an audience of professional men and city fathers so intent upon the obsession of "Questionable Dramas" as to miss the substance of my talk for the shadow of their prejudis. The problem play is a play of questions, not a questionable play; a play of actual social problems, and not imaginary or traditional literary materials warmed over; each might bear the laconic stage-direction of a recent play-Time: now. Place: here. 4 It is hardly more traditional in form than in substance. It is a drama of new ideas tho, or perhaps only a vehicle for new ideas; and, like anything dealing with new ideas, it is a little enigmatic and crude, at first, and a bit revolutionary. It is pragmatic in its philosophic attitude, and not idealistic. It is not satisfied with the convenient but undemocratic "eternal verities;" it contests divine pretense, administrativ arrogance and racial prerogativs, absolute values and establisht standards, and finds no tyranny in "docil relativity." You will find the problem play even in the speculativ field, for we must study and meet all questions or situations up for consideration in a society ever undergoing change in its organization. Much ink, unfortunately, has been spilt on the question of sincerity in problem plays and playwrights. Something in the new point of view, or in the manner of work, evidently baffles the conventional critic. "What elusive and many-coloured mysteries of half-meaning," exclaims Chesterton. 5 But Shaw:-"No doubt all plays which deal sincerely with humanity must wound the monstrous conceit which it is the business of romance to flatter." 6 And Chesterton to rejoin:-"The problem playwrights make the mistake of despising the mental attitude of romance which is the only key to real human conduct."...."The glamour of romance is as certain a fact as the commonplaces of life.. And both go on talking,talking!....like Supermen (*note). The great Shaw critic is in generous mood, however, when he grants that "the writers of problem plays are not all playing the game (so distasteful to him) of catching unconventional people in conventional poses." 8 With or without rancor, the eternal debate, grows to the greatest danger of the 4. The Servant in the House, by Charles Rann Kennedy; Harper Brothers, New York and London, 1908. 5. Cf. p. 88 of Gilbert K. Chesterton's "George Bernard Shaw"; John Lane Co., New York, 1909. This is perhaps the keenest, albeit the least sympathetic, English book on Shaw; but it is stimulating in spite of its epigrammatic and wrangling tone. 6. Preface to "Plays Unpleasant," by Bernard Shaw, p. XXX, Brentano's, N. Y. 1907. 7. (a) Chesterton,-op. cit. pp. 123-4. (b) Id. pp. 180 ff. Chesterton's animated defense of romance is the only genuin thing in this otherwise pretentious and personal book. *Man and Superman-a Comedy and a Philosophy: Brentano's, N. Y., 1905.-Shaw's closing words to this captivating and brilliant work. Note:-Regarding Supermen, let me say, to paraphrase Wilde on Shaw, -that Chesterton, tho a very young man (he is almost a generation younger than Shaw) is the other of the two leading critics in England,-leading the opposition with such a relish of letters, such conscience of his role,-luminous withal; so keen a sense of....ill-humour, and such verbal dexterity as to make it incredible that he is not a disciple of Shaw. But, it may be ironically true, from the viewpoint of the progressivs, that if Shaw is a cult, Chesterton is an institution,-a conservativ!... Chesterton's plays,-tragedies, comedies, and other stage creations, are eagerly awaited. 8. Id. Chesterton, p. 70. |