ing as matter. I believe
there is a something called force. The difference between force
and matter I do not know. So there is something called consciousness.
Whether we call consciousness an entity or not makes no difference
as to what it really is. There is something that hears, sees and
feels, a something that takes cognizance of what happens in what
we call the outward world. No matter whether we call this something
matter or spirit, it is something that we do not know, to say the
least of it, all about. We cannot understand what matter is. It
defies us, and defies definitions. So, with what we call spirit,
we are in utter ignorance of what it is. We have some little
conception of what we mean by it, and of what others mean, but as
to what it really is no one knows. It makes no difference whether
we call ourselves Materialists or Spiritualists, we believe in all
there is, no matter what you call it. If we call it all matter,
then we believe that matter can think and hope and dream. If we
call it all spirit, then we believe that spirit has force, that it
offers a resistance; in other words, that it is, in one of its
aspects, what we call matter. I cannot believe that everything
can be accounted for by motion or by what we call force, because
there is something that recognizes force. There is something that
compares, that thinks, that remembers; there is something that
suffers and enjoys; there is something that each one calls himself
or herself, that is inexplicable to himself or herself, and it
makes no difference whether we call this something mind or soul,
effect or entity, it still eludes us, and all the words we have
coined for the purpose of expressing our knowledge of this something,
after all, express only our desire to know, and our efforts to
ascertain. It may be that if we would ask some minister, some one
who has studied theology, he would give us a perfect definition.
The scientists know nothing about it, and I know of no one who
does, unless it be a theologian.

--_The Globe-Democrat_, St. Louis, Mo., 1893.

[Illustration]
_Chatham Street Theater, New York City, N. Y., where Robert G.
Ingersoll was baptized in 1836 by his father, the Rev. John Ingersoll,
who temporarily preached at the theatre, his church having been
destroyed by fire_.

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

_Question_. What place does the theatre hold among the arts?

_Answer_. Nearly all the arts unite in the theatre, and it