d that the churches, ethical societies and reform
associations in America do not more clearly appreciate the valuable aid
they might receive from the stage. I have been told that some churches
pay their singers more than their preachers, which shows that they have
some idea of the value of good art. Why not go a step further and
preach through a play? This does not mean that there should be no fun
but that the moral should be well thrust home. I have heard of
preachers who make jokes while preaching, so that it should not be so
very difficult to act interesting sermons which would elevate, even if
they did not amuse. People who went to church to see a theater would
not expect the same entertainment as those who go to the theater simply
for a laugh.

In China we do not expend as much energy as Americans and Europeans in
trying to make other people good. We try to be good ourselves and
believe that our good example, like a pure fragrance, will influence
others to be likewise. We think practice is as good as precept, and,
if I may say so without being supposed to be critical of a race
different from my own, the thought has sometimes suggested itself to me
that Americans are so intent on doing good to others, and on making
others good, that they accomplish less than they would if their actions
and intentions were less direct and obvious. I cannot here explain all
I mean, but if my readers will study what Li Yu and Chuang Tsz have to
say about "Spontaneity" and "Not Interfering", I think they will
understand my thought. The theater, as I have already said, was in
several countries religious in its origin; why not use it to elevate
people indirectly? The ultimate effect, because more natural, might be
better and truer than more direct persuasion. Pulpit appeals, I am
given to understand, are sometimes very personal.

Since writing the above I have seen a newspaper notice of a dramatic
performance in the Ethical Church, Queen's Road, Bayswater, London.
The Ethical Church believes "in everything that makes life sweet and
human" and the management state that they believe--"the best trend of
dramatic opinion to-day points not only to the transformation of
theaters into centers of social enlightenment and moral elevation, but
also to the transformation of the churches into centers for the
imaginative presentation, by means of all the arts combined, of the
deeper truths and meanings of life." Personally, I do not know