And I, who had always counted
Voltaire's _Micromegas_ as one of my favourite tales, thought of
where Sirius, the giant, voices his supposition that the people on the
earth are happy beings who pass their time in love and thought, and of
the philosopher's reply to him: "At this moment there are a hundred
thousand animals of our species, who wear hats, engaged in killing a
hundred thousand more, who wear turbans, or in being killed by them. And
so it has been all over the earth from time immemorial." Only that this
time not a hundred thousand, but some two million men were being held in
readiness to exterminate each other.
What I saw in London of the scenic art at the Adelphi Theatre, the
Prince of Wales' Theatre and the Royal Strand Theatre was disheartening.
Moliere was produced as the lowest kind of farce, Sheridan was acted
worse than would be permitted in Denmark at a second-class theatre; but
the scenic decorations, a greensward, shifting lights, and the like,
surpassed anything that I had ever seen before.
More instructive and more fascinating than the theatres were the
parliamentary debates and the trials in the Law Courts. I enjoyed in
particular a sitting of the Commons with a long debate between Gladstone
and Disraeli, who were like representatives of two races and two opposed
views of life.
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