ard to Charles Kemble, was the perfection of his art. It was not his
individual characteristics--though of course I remember those--it was
the perfection of his art. My countryman has alluded to the fact that at
one time it was difficult for an actor to get a breakfast, much more to
have one offered to him; and that recalls to my mind the touching words
of the great master of your art, Shakespeare, who in one of his sonnets
said:--

"O for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means, which public manners breeds:
Thence comes it that my name receives a brand;
And almost thence my nature is subdu'd
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand."

Certainly the consideration in which the theatrical profession is held
has risen greatly even within my own recollection. It has risen greatly
since the time when Adrienne Lecouvreur was denied burial in that
consecrated ground where rakes and demireps could complete the
corruption they had begun on earth; and this is due to the fact that it
is now looked upon not only by the public in general but by the members
of your profession as a fine art. It is perfectly true that the stage
has often lent itself, I will not say to the demoralization of the
public, but to things which I think none of us would altogether approve.
This, however, I think has been due, more to the fact that it not only
holds up the mirror to nature, but that the stage is a mirror in which
the public itself is reflected. And the public itself is to blame if the
stage is ever degraded. [Cheers.]

It has been to men of my profession, perhaps, that the degradation has
been due, more than to those who represent their plays. They have
interpreted, perhaps in too literal a sense, the famous saying of Dryden
that

"He who lives to write, must write to live."

But I began with the Irishman's weapon and I shall not forget that among
its other virtues is its brevity, and as in the list of toasts which are
to follow I caught the name of a son of him who was certainly the
greatest poet, though he wrote in prose, and who perhaps possessed the
most original mind that America has given to the world, I shall, I am
sure, with your entire approbation make way for the next speaker.
[Applause.]

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COMMERCE

[Speech of James Russell Lowell at the second annual dinner of t