the intellectual faculties, the
knowledge how to think, are more essential to the actor than mere
professional instruction. In no case should he neglect the other
branches of art; all of them being so nearly akin, he cannot attain to
a fine artistic taste if he is entirely unacquainted with music, the
plastic arts, and poetry.

"The best school of acting seems to me to be the stage itself--when
one begins by playing small parts, and slowly, step by step, reaches
the more important ones. There is a probability that if you play well
a minor character, you will play greater ones well by and by; while if
you begin with the latter, you may prove deficient in them, and
afterward be both unwilling and unable to play small parts. It was my
ill-fortune to be put, soon after my entrance on the stage, in the
position of a star in a travelling company. I think it was the
greatest danger I encountered in my career, and the consequence was
that when I afterward entered a regular stock company, I had not only
a great deal to learn, but much more to unlearn.

"The training by acting, in order to be useful, requires a certain
combination of circumstances. It is good in the stock companies of
Europe, because with them the play-bill is constantly changed, and
the young actor is required to appear in a great variety of characters
during a short period. But it may prove the reverse of good in a
theatre where the beginner may be compelled for a year or so to play
one insignificant part. Such a course would be likely to kill in him
all the love of his art, render him a mechanical automaton, and teach
him but very little.

"Private instruction can be given either by professors of elocution or
by experienced actors. I know nothing of the first, as there are no
professors of elocution, to my knowledge, outside of America and of
England, and I never knew one personally. But speaking of private
lessons given by experienced actors, there are certainly a great many
arguments and instances in favor of that mode of instruction. Of
course, a great deal depends upon the choice of the teacher. But,
supposing he is capable, he can devote more time to a private pupil
than he can to one in a public school. Some of the greatest actresses
that ever lived owed, in great part, their success to the instructions
of an experienced actor, of less genius than themselves. Take, for
instance, Rachel and Samson. Strange to say, it happens often that
very good actor