of the word, is the general term for all
places of amusement through the ear or eye, in which men assemble in order
to be amused by some entertainment presented to all at the same time and
in common. Thus an old Puritan divine says:--"Those who attend public
worship and sermons only to amuse themselves, make a theatre of the
church, and turn God's house into the devil's. _Theatra aedes
diabololatricae._" The most important and dignified species of this _genus_
is, doubtless, the stage (_res theatralis histrionica_), which, in
addition to the generic definition above given, may be characterized in
its idea, or according to what it does, or ought to, aim at, as a
combination of several or of all the fine arts in an harmonious whole,
having a distinct end of its own, to which the peculiar end of each of the
component arts, taken separately, is made subordinate and
subservient,--that, namely, of imitating reality--whether external things,
actions, or passions---under a semblance of reality. Thus, Claude imitates
a landscape at sunset, but only as a picture; while a forest-scene is not
presented to the spectators as a picture, but as a forest; and though, in
the full sense of the word, we are no more deceived by the one than by the
other, yet are our feelings very differently affected; and the pleasure
derived from the one is not composed of the same elements as that afforded
by the other, even on the supposition that the _quantum_ of both were
equal. In the former, a picture, it is a condition of all genuine delight
that we should not be deceived; in the latter, stage-scenery (inasmuch as
its principle end is not in or for itself, as is the case in a picture,
but to be an assistance and means to an end out of itself), its very
purpose is to produce as much illusion as its nature permits. These, and
all other stage presentations, are to produce a sort of temporary
half-faith, which the spectator encourages in himself and supports by a
voluntary contribution on his own part, because he knows that it is at all
times in his power to see the thing as it really is. I have often observed
that little children are actually deceived by stage-scenery, never by
pictures; though even these produce an effect on their impressible minds,
which they do not on the minds of adults. The child, if strongly
impressed, does not indeed positively think the picture to be the reality;
but yet he does not think the contrary. As Sir George Beaumont was s