ing of all effort, all purpose, all life. An intrinsic, or appreciatve subject is one which engenders and fosters the sense of unity and harmony, of the wonder and beauty, of life.

Dramatics is an intrinsic subject matter. In Dramatics the mind meets elements which act upon it in such ways as create the highest educational results. These elements are three great principles, three great subjects; the principles underlying art, the principles of dramatic construction, and the principles underlying expression.

In consideration of these three principles, let us, then, proceed to an examination of Dramatics in connection with my claim that as a school subject it meets the requirements to develop a social disposition.

Dramatics is an art. And art is a spontaneous, instinctive effort of a soul to express its reactions to life, and to stimulate, to inspire other souls to a similar apprehension and reaction. Any thing of which the idea is the feeling of life, any such thing can not be otherwise than helpful in developing a sense of the meaning of life. And to have a sense of the meaning of life, I would say, is to possess considerable equipment to engage well in the business of life.

Now this statement leaves much to be explained, opens up flood-gates of disquisition, precipitates avalanches of theorization. And I would say right here, that in such a course of Dramatics as I have in mind for introduction into school activities, I would not give place for detailed consideration of the theories of art. What I would do is this: try to give the pupils a grasp of the fact that art is a human need, a human expression of purposes, hopes, aspirations.

I would endeavour to ground the pupil in the conception of the two general schools of theory. One of these is the materialistic school, regarding art as an activity arising out of the biological urge of life. The other is the idealistic school, thinking of art as the spiritual searching of the empyrean depths of a circumambient Beyond.

One regards the business of life to be to meet life at all points, to strive, to persevere, to learn, to accomplish, to carve

out a world for God. The other thinks the aim and end of existence is to pray and hope, to endeavour to conform this world to that which is better, the world not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The first thinks of life as an adventure, a being driven by the impulse to live, an urge to achieve a universe. The second school thinks of life as an enterprise, a sturdy, heroic building of an edifice to fulfill the specifications of a plan purposed and particularized in Glory.

I would aim to fix an understanding of art as a thing of sense, mind, soul, spirit. I would aim to found a comprehension of art upon a basis measurable in the human terms of length, breadth, height, stability.

And through all my purpose would be the aim to have the pupils reach the realization that in art is afforded the revelation, "as through a glass darkly," of the fact that human experience is the aesthetic process of the world's life; moreover, that life is a long, stupendous, glorious coming up into the light.

Let us pass on. And for our second subject let us choose that which I called the principles of dramatic construction. Let me call this material by its technical name: the technique of the drama.

What is meant by the technique of a drama? It is the scientific organization of material in such form that it will adequately convey the feeling about his theme by which the author is moved to his effort at expression. Behind every drama there is an emotion. And this emotion, which is concerned with a situation in human life, cannot be expressed, much less communicated, unless the medium of expression is organized upon scientific principles.

It would not be my intention that a thorough intensive study and practice of the construction of a drama should be pursued in the school activity of dramatics. Such a specialized study belongs in another field. Then, to what extent should the technique of a play be considered? And why should it be considered at all?

I will meet the first question. I would bring the pupil to the perception of the fact that in the beginning of a play there is laid down a condition, a circumstance, a situation; and that in this beginning are the potentialities of much conflict-of both conflict of action and of thought. I would endeavor to have the pupil comprehend this introduction as a piece of construction in the way of mechanical composition. I would aim to have the pupil achieve an understanding of it as an effective, efficient piece of artistic creation.

The pupil should be developed in his knowledge of technique so as to come to an understanding of the devices of surprise and suspense. He should learn to recognize a cause of an action and be able to isolate the effect or result of a preceding

cause.

The pupil should be brought to the understanding of a climax of a play as an apex of action, the peak of constructive effort, the climactic point of a technical plan.

Furthermore, the consideration of this scheme of construction should be made to develop in the pupil the ability to analyse the action of a play as it falls away from the climax. The pupil should be taught to know the catastrophe and the denouement; to see the ending as an inherent element of that which has gone before.

The pupil should be taught to grasp the story of a play as a unified structure of parts, each vital to the development of a central thought or theme.

And now the second question: Why should the pupils engaged in Dramatics be required to consider the structure of a drama? To this I would reply:-The study of the technique of the drama brings the realization that the human mind is a power which in its cognitive functions proceeds upon scientific principles; that the mind considers and knows upon a foundation of principles which are universal.

Further progress in the presentation of a play brings our school group to the problem of acting the principles underlying expression. Expression is not a hit or miss procedure in a haphazard effort to make the audience feel or think about

the play and a character as the player might wish them to feel or think. No! Expression is based upon the laws of the universe. It is a branch of the science of aesthetics which is the science of the Fine Arts. And we have seen that the Fine Arts express life. And the understanding is that life is a marvelous, amazing unity.

It would not be within the province of the activity such as should be comprehended in school dramatics to give detailed instruction in the philosophy of expression. Such a purpose in such a circumstance would defeat itself. But an illuminative conception of the principles underlying manifestation could very well be imparted by a general treatment of the salient points of the subject. This general treatment could be accorded in the course of the rehearsals of the play. An effort should be put forth to show that the art of acting rests upon a substratum of scientific principles; that expression is manifestation of soul in terms of the laws of nature as these laws are operative in the human organism.

Let me place upon view a mere hint of the facts, as they are apprehended by students of the philosophy of expression, which it would be my care to have the pupil conceive and comprehend.

It may be said that man images the universe; that in man's being are existent all the forces, forms, essences identifiable in the universe. Man moves in his existence in a natural setting of three unavoidable restrictions-space, time and motion. And so bound is he by them, that all of his expressions, whether of voice, gesture or articulate speech, bear definite relations to those three restrictions.

We talk of man as a creature in a certain setting. To go further in our subject, I will call man a Psychic. Man as a psychic being is vital, mental and emotive. This three-fold being

manifests itself through three special agents, the muscular, the phonetic and the articulatory. And the manifestation is accomplished through three modes of motion, eccentric, concentric, and poise.

The study of the art of acting will lead to the conviction that

the "evolution of man as an expressive being has been a progressive development along the three parallels of structure, function, and utility. And to such a student the following lines by Elizabeth Barrett Browning will be the utterance of a prosaic truth:

"God collected and resumed in man

The firmaments, the strata, and the lights,

Fish, fowl, and beast, and insect,-all their trains
Of various life caught back upon His arm,

Reorganized and constituted man

The Microcosm, the adding-up of works!"

And now the discussion has come back to the consideration of educational values. And, so, in the light of what has been developed,let us try to answer the question as to whether Dramatics in school would be the kind of subject-instrumental, intrinsic, or both,-which would develop a social disposition.

In a play we find an attempt to give a meaning to an experience, an attempt to state a conception of life.

A play is art, and as such it is, so to speak, sacramental. It is "the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace."

If art is the high thing I have just declared it to be, and a play is art, then Dramatics, as being an inherent element of play, possesses, as a subject matter, an intrinsic value on account of making a unique contribution to the experiences of life.

Is it not plain that in developing the sense of life, the human "reach that exceeds its grasp," Dramatics brings about a certain defined result. This result is the willingness and ability to join freely and fully in shared or common activities as suggested to be desirable by the impressing situation. And this result is the Social Disposition.

And is it not plain, then, that Dramatics is a subject, in much of its use and value, instrumental; but that essentially and eminently, Dramatics, as a school activity, would prove to be an intrinsic subject matter.