Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/20

 6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

most forms of social opportunity partake of the nature of luxuries. Parties, dances, calls, festivals, many forms of address and aesthetic pleasure, are of this kind. And most of these are ancient institutions which have proven their fitness to function in this way by remaining through the years. Among charac- teristic institutions which society seems to have created for this purpose are the theater, the novel, gambling, and drink. That this seemingly rash classification may not give unnecessary pain, it is to be noted that, while these institutions are grouped together upon a common principle, they differ widely among themselves.

One great difference between the modern theater and the ancient stage is to be found in the fact that, while the ancient theater was consciously regarded as a teaching institution, its modern namesake exists chiefly to please. As man becomes surer of his place in the world, he has less need to be instructed therein, and more need for other forms of occupation. The character of the stage has varied to suit this changing need. The theater belongs to society as a whole. For everyone it is a social opportunity. If one's own condition does not afford emotion-producing and thought-demanding crises in the requisite degree, he may always find them ready-made here. On the ancient stage conflicting destinies worked themselves out in full view of the people. With us the theater exists to lend an emotional coloring to life through pleasure or through pleas- ant pain. It offers avenues of escape from self (which is always more properly written escape for self). Not all are in bondage to the theater. The busy man, the man of events and affairs, the man for whom life is a drama, or to whose alert attention history, past and in the making, is supplying scenes which evoke his entire wealth of feeling, this man is not com- pelled to see situations through others' eyes, nor to depend upon the arbitrary selections of the playwright for emotional stimulation. Modern life is said to lack color. As measured by its many special attempts to supply it, the statement is true. But the color is not absent. It is overlooked. With the coming of divisions of labor, the mind was divided into