Excerpt from The Influence of the Drama Lives there a thoughtful person who has not at some time paused to consider that great question, The Influence of the Drama? It is a question which has been uppermost in the minds of men of all Ages so far as we have record, and it no doubt troubled the minds of the men who first reviewed our earliest preserved dramatic writing, that wonderful allegory, The Book of Job. It is not the purpose of the present volume to draw conclusions as to the definite moral effect of the Drama upon the Peoples of the Ages, but rather to trace the various forms of influence of the Drama, and its ways of producing that influence, and leave it to each reader to make his own deductions. The subject is vast and of necessity its treatment must be merely suggestive. It is to be hoped the reader may be assisted in arriving at a definite deter mination in regard to many things connected with the Play which may hitherto have troubled him. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.