lope with this woman, who is an empty-headed, empty-hearted creature,
incapable either of the passion or of the loathing which alone could
lend any semblance of reason to a breach of social law." Similarly, in
_The Profligate_, Sir Arthur Pinero no doubt intended us to reflect upon
the question whether, in entering upon marriage, a woman has a right to
assume in her husband the same purity of antecedent conduct which he
demands of her. That is an arguable question, and it has been argued
often enough; but in this play it does not really arise, for the husband
presented to us is no ordinary loose-liver, but (it would seem--for the
case is not clearly stated) a particularly base and heartless seducer,
whom it is evidently a misfortune for any woman to have married. The
authors of these two plays have committed an identical error of logic:
namely, that of suggesting a broad issue, and then stating such a set of
circumstances that the issue does not really arise. In other words, they
have from the outset begged the question. The plays, it may be said,
were both successful in their day. Yes; but had they been logical their
day might have lasted a century. A somewhat similar defect of logic
constitutes a fatal blemish in _The Ideal Husband_, by Oscar Wilde.
Intentionally or otherwise, the question suggested is whether a single
flaw of conduct (the betrayal to financiers of a state secret) ought to
blast a political career. Here, again, is an arguable point, on the
assumption that the statesman is penitent and determined never to repeat
his misdeed; but when we find that this particular statesman is prepared
to go on betraying his country indefinitely, in order to save his own
skin, the question falls to the ground--the answer is too obvious.

It happened some years ago that two plays satirizing "yellow journalism"
were produced almost simultaneously in London--_The Earth_ by Mr. James
B. Fagan, and _What the Public Wants_ by Mr. Arnold Bennett. In point of
intellectual grasp, or power of characterization, there could be no
comparison between the two writers; yet I hold that, from the point of
view of dramatic composition, _The Earth_ was the better play of the
two, simply because it dealt logically with the theme announced, instead
of wandering away into all sorts of irrelevances. Mr. Bennett, to begin
with, could not resist making his Napoleon of the Press a native of the
"Five Towns," and exhibiting him at large in provincial