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58 of being alive. No beauty, no grandeur can take the place of youth and life. Instead of disdaining life and allowing it to fall a prey to unworthy artisans, let us try to go to life; only you must not hope to be able to get it from those distant summits where rise, far from the turmoil of our present existence, the beautiful temples of the past. Let us not be afraid to confess it: your disinterested art is an art for old men. It is good, it is natural that we should look forward, after the accomplishment of our tasks, to the serenity of Goethe, to beauty, pure and simple. That is all very well for our declining years, but I pity the man or the people reaching that stage prematurely, without having deserved it. That man or that people will not experience the supreme beauty, and the serenity will turn to apathy, which is the herald of death. Life means constant making over, and it means struggle. Better the struggle, with all the suffering it entails, than a calm and beautiful death.

My People's Theater is of no party; it is limitless, eternal, universal. A noble dream, yes, but future generations will realize it, if they can, at the end of time. Meanwhile, let us endeavor to put a little of eternity into the fleeting moments of today; and live with our time. Art cannot draw apart from the aspirations of the epoch. The People's Theater must share the people's struggles, their worries, their hopes, and their battles. Frankly, the People's Theater must be of the people, or it will never thrive. You protest that the drama should