ough when merely read; it was easy to believe that the
Dei Franchi had a special brand of constitution which enabled them to
see the family ghost whilst the more sceptical could talk of brain waves
and suggestions and of subjective phenomena. That is where the modern
novelist gets out of all hobbles; if you will not accept his spook as a
genuine, old-fashioned spook, you can hardly refuse to swallow it as a
subjective phenomenon. The blessed word "subjective" extricates him from
all troubles.

The poor dramatist has no such refuge. Occasionally he can work his plot
by means of a vision; and the hypnotic trance has served, as in the case
of _The Polish Jew_; but his ghosts have to be strictly objective. In
fact, using a technical term frivolously, his ghosts expect the ghost to
walk regularly on Fridays. There is no humbug about them; no
"Pepper"--but they have to be taken with a ton of salt!

This difficulty was, perhaps, of no great importance at a time when
most people had faith in ghosts; when the most sceptical did not go
further than Madame de Stael, who alleged that she did not believe in
them but was afraid of them. It is not recorded what Benjamin Constant,
her unhappy lover, thought about them. Nowadays things have changed and
ghosts and the personal devil have joined the ranks of the unemployed,
or only obtain employment with Mr Stead and his Julia.

There is, of course, the spook of the spiritualist, who demands serious
consideration; but plays dealing with spiritualism are not common.
Perhaps because such playgoers as will accept the more or less material
ghost are even more sceptical than the scientific as to the objective
phenomena of the spiritualist. No doubt managers try to rise to the
occasion and to make a steady advance in ghosts, devils and angels, but
the mechanical improvements seem small. Indeed, in a sense there has
been no advance since the days when Pepper's ghost terrified us at the
poor old Polytechnic, and unfortunately the system of Pepper can only be
used to a limited extent. There were moments of thrill in _Ulysses_ at
His Majesty's.

The stage angels are the worst of the supernaturals. Because angels are
supposed to dwell off the earth it is assumed that they must fly.
Furthermore, it is imagined that as fliers they belong to the
heavier-than-air order, the monoplane variety, and so must have gigantic
wings; no one makes provision for the working of the wings, which would
involve tr