this brings us into a closer touch with the mind of the
great artistic creator than we can come in any other way. We have then
held up before our mind the ideal of great artistic form and the
influence of this model will be incalculable upon our education and
development. But there is a certain spontaneity of self-expression, a
certain arousing of the intellectual powers and of the artistic feeling,
that comes with the making of our own play, that can hardly be otherwise
gained. Both experiences are within the opportunity of any village or
community. Both joyful means of self-expression can be mastered and
experienced. The play and the pageant form the greatest means for the
expression of the artistic energy of a community that can be devised.

The pageant may be the happy means of bringing the whole town together.
It breaks over all dividing lines because every individual in the
community can have at least some part in it. The pride in the success of
the whole can be shared by every least child, by each most important
person, by the rich and the poor, by the wise and by the unlearned; for
there has been a place for each one, according to his ability. The
pageant is democratic; all individuals work for the success of the
whole, not for the glorification of any single one, never for the
glorification of self. It develops a personality of the community
itself.

Above all things it gives the person and the community a chance to gain
the joy that comes from the expression of that creative sense that lies
at the base of all artistic ability, that power in which the human being
is most near to the God-like. Here the poets and dramatic writers of
earth, the great souls of the Greek and of the Elizabethan ages have
been partakers of the fervor that was with God under the symbol of
"Wisdom" as that wonderful poem in the eighth chapter of the Book of
Proverbs, relates, when with joy He created the earth.

Among all the good things that may come in the new upspringing of this
artistic interest, the young women in the rural realm have a distinct
function. In the planning of the play or pageant the young people will
be brought together in social ways that are full of opportunity for
high-toned acquaintanceship and culture under the best auspices. Ladies
and gentlemen, young men and young ladies, will be working together for
an artistic purpose; the result will be not only an enlarged community
spirit among all, but a great number