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6 THE NEW SPIRIT IN THE CINEMA
ing the people to a sense of intense patriotism. They have sought patriotism in everything with the result that they have regained confidence under which they have lost fear of Bolshevism.
As rny book is not a metaphysical treatise I will not pursue this kind of definition further. The term New Spirit came into my works under the disguise of Purpose, or let me say Good Purpose to distinguish it from Bad Purpose which, I think, is the real cause of the unhappy state of the Western European and American theatres and cinemas. The thing I want to make clear is what I have in mind when I say that the Cinema has a New Purpose, that is, Purpose not in the theological sense of Design, but in the human one of Service. I think I can best show what this Purpose is, how it came into being, its path and its present position and possibilities, by pointing out the analogy to the old Bible story of human life and that of the story of the life of the Cinema. It seems to me that a religious similitude is likely to be an attractive one, for human beings are now in such a religious mood that the great Film Kings have taken to building cathedrals to exploit it. "A motion picture cathedral as the more grandiose establishments (cinemas) are now known in America."1 There is no doubt that a remarkable feature of to-day is, as anyone can see by reference to the public prints, the big wave of religious curiosity. There is a general search for an object of faith, for contentment, for an explanation of life and conduct, in the old religions, in particular Christianity, in the re-interpretation of religion, in the rediscovery of the Christ of the first century, and in the new creeds. Political legislation is suspect. Party politics no longer satisfies the people. Social organisation leaves them cold because its importance has not been made clear and intelligible to them. Changing environment is not yet understood as a revelation of the changing mind of the community. Present-day science is too much concerned with externals, and is far too pro
1 Ivor Brown in The Manchester Guardian, October 12, 1929.