at festivals passed by
imperceptible steps into dramatic representations with dogmatic meaning
or magical significance.

+631. Modern analogies.+ The end man of the negro minstrel troupe is a
modern creation like the Greek _phlyax_, for he is a buffoon of the
plantation-negro type, with every feature exaggerated to the utmost, so
that he is unreal and a caricature; but the exaggerations direct
attention to familiar facts and display characteristic features which
are a cause of merriment. The rise, development, and decline of negro
ministrelsy illustrate, within our observation, many features in the
history of popular comedy. It originated in fun making by the imitation
of a foreign group, whose peculiar ways appeared to be ridiculous
antics. Then the negro was used to burlesque and satirize the
weaknesses, follies, and affectations of whites. The negro plantation
hand is a type which is disappearing and interest in him is declining.
He is no longer available for direct study or derived satire.

+632. Biologs and ethologs.+ The Greek _phlyax_ (the play) passed to
southern Italy in the fourth century B.C., whence it was transmitted to
Rome and confused with the atellan. It became very popular, and lasted
until the fifth century A.D.[2036] Reich divides the mimes into two
classes: (1) biologs, i.e. those who represent individual types, e.g. an
unfaithful wife, an imbecile husband, a fatuous nobleman, a physician,
etc.; (2) ethologs, i.e. those who impersonate some feature in the mores
of the time and satirize it, e.g. faith in miracles, fondness for drink
or gambling, sycophancy to the rich, or "getting on in the world." This
is a very important distinction and one which illuminates the connection
between the drama and the mores. Socrates was an etholog, although not
an actor. He spent sarcasm, irony, and humor on the ways of the
Athenians of his time.[2037] Aristophanes was another, Rabelais was
another, Erasmus was an inferior one. In his _Colloquies_ and _Praise of
Folly_ he is more of a preacher, but his aim is to influence by graphic
satirical description. In our day the comic papers attempt the task of
the etholog. They try to satirize manners and men. A comic paper owned
or subsidized by a political party is the sorriest representative of
Pierrot that the world has yet seen. The biolog personates an individual
type, like an aberration of human nature, which may be found anywhere
and at any time. The etholog persona