Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/166

 timidity and diffidence of the beginner was helped in a curious and amusing way by the scientific perfecting of the compound-reflector principle. A lifelike reflection of the actor was thus projected upon the stage, while he himself, in all the seclusion his modesty demanded, and with the prompter conveniently at his ear, executed his dramatic part.

This dramatic trust had selected for its grand edifice a site adjacent to that of the great offices concentration just alluded to. As other institutions followed this example, including, in particular, the chief scientific societies, this now classic area became by degrees the vast and ever-expanding centre of a comprehensive public life. The theatrical accommodations were of necessity extended at intervals in subsequent times, to meet the increasing audiences; and accoustic and microphonic science maintained a fair concurrent pace in this everlasting advance from the smaller to the greater. But with great areas to be dealt with, there was a tendency rather towards scenic and pantomimic representation. This was entirely to the taste of the juvenile world, who, as ever, the chief audience, had their own rights in the case, and doubtless got them attended to.

In the free universality of dramatic range the stage could take an educational and scientific direction. Thus countless school-youth were fascinated by the vivid drama of the earth's geological development, or of the genesis of our solar system, presented in accordance with the latest scientific inferences and discoveries. As the stately solemnity of the panoramic march progressed, accompanied usually by suitable strains of music, the great clock of time was ever an