As the sense of reality becomes more exacting and more general, the action of the imagination is more carefully regulated; but it is not diminished, either in volume or in potency.

Men have not lost the power of individual action because society has become so highly developed, and the multiplication of the police has not materially reduced the tragic possibilities of life.

There is more accurate and more extensive knowledge of environment than ever before in the history of the race, but temperament, impulse, and passion remain as powerful as they were in primitive men; and tragedy finds its materials in temperament, impulse, and passion, much more frequently than in objective conditions and circumstances.
The soul of man has passed through a great education, and has immensely profited by it; but its elemental qualities and forces remain unchanged.

Two things men have always craved,--to come to close quarters with life, and to do something positive and substantial.
Self-expression is the prime need of human nature; it must know, act, and suffer by virtue of its deepest instincts.

The greater and richer that nature, the deeper will be its need of seeing life on many sides, of sharing in many kinds of experience, of contending with multiform difficulties.