But if the principles we have been at some trouble in explaining are
true- and most profoundly do we feel them to be so- if the spirit of
imitation is, in fact, the real source, of the drama's stagnation- and
if it is so because of the tendency in in all imitation to render
Reason subservient to Feeling and to Taste it is clear that only by
deliberate counteracting of the spirit, and of the tendency of the
spirit, we can hope to succeed in the drama's revival.
The first thing necessary is to burn or bury the "old models," and
to forget, as quickly as possible, that ever a play has been penned.
The second thing is to consider de novo what are the capabilities of
the drama- not merely what hitherto have been its conventional
purposes. The third and last point has reference to the composition of
a play (showing to the fullest extent these capabilities) conceived
and constructed with Feeling and with Taste, but with Feeling and
Taste guided and controlled in every particular by the details of
Reason- of Common Sense- in a word, of a Natural Art.
It is obvious, in the meantime, that towards the good end in view
much may be effected by discriminative criticism on what has already
been done. The field, thus stated, is, of course, practically
illimitable- and to Americans the American drama is the special
point of interest.
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