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THE PROBLEM 5
" This may not be expressly avowed but it seems to me that it is implicit in what you call the New Spirit." Probably a similar interpretation actuated the Theosophy Company when it invited me to expand, in an article, the thesis contained in my book,1 that the Theatre (which includes the Drama) is an organic part of human and social life. I have long held the belief that the Theatre is a part of the " spirit " or " soul " of humanity. It was originally projected by human need. Hence this " spirit " or " soul " is an eternal thing that is potential in human things. It comes to the surface when human beings are at their freest and best; it remains submerged, it may be for long periods, when they are enslaved and at their worst. I do not think that " the awakening of the ' soul ' comes with the discovery that we are eternal beings with a long past that explains the present." I think that it comes through the agency of an extraordinary event, one that strips human beings of illusion and brings them into sudden and close proximity to the eternal verities that move and govern human society, or one that suddenly moves a whole nation with an intense desire for fine achievement. An example of the first event may be found in the twentieth century war and revolution which drove into the background as matters of comparatively small importance, many of those false interests with which human thought and action had become clogged up, thus releasing the vital springs of action. There has been during the post-war period a strong movement towards freedom of development, in particular on the part of young people.
An example of the second event is the Renaissance which suffused" Italy with the glow of a real cultural existence.2 Another and political example near our own time is found in Poland where war, the menace of revolution, and Marshal Pilsudski's influence are said to have had the effect of awaken
1 " The New Spirit in the Russian Theatre." Huntly Carter. (Brentano, 1929).
2 See " The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy." By Jacob Burckhardt.