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America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat-Part24_TingFang Wu(1842-1922)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Christian preachers and moralists could do well to take up this matter

and discourage people from frequenting the exhibitions of tricksters.



There are doubtless many laws in nature yet undiscovered, and a few persons

undoubtedly possess abnormal powers. This makes the cultivation



of the love of trickery the more dangerous. It prevents the truth

from being perceived. It enables charlatans to find dupes,



and causes the real magician to be applauded as a legerdemainist.

This is what the New Testament tells us happened in the case of Jesus Christ.



His miracles failed to convince because the people had for a long time

loved those who could deceive them cleverly.* The people said to him,



"Thou hast a devil," and others warned them after his death saying,

"That deceiver said while he was yet alive `After three days



I will rise again.'" When people are taught not only to marvel

at the marvelous but to be indifferent to its falsehoods



they lose the power of discrimination, and are apt to take

the true for the false, the real for the unreal.



--

* This is a rather unorthodox view, but nonetheless interesting,



especially as it pertains to his following statements. -- A. R. L., 1996.

--



For an evening's healthyenjoyment I believe a circus is as good a place

as can be found anywhere. The air there is not close and vitiated



as in a theater; you can spend two or three hours comfortably

without inhaling noxious atmospheres. It is interesting to note



that the circus is perhaps the only form of ancient entertainment

which has retained something of its pristine simplicity.



To-day, as in the old Roman circuses, tiers of seats run round the course,

which in the larger circuses is still in the form of an ellipse,



with its vertical axis, where the horses and performers enter, cut away.

But the modern world has nothing in this connection to compare



with the Circus Maximus of Rome, which, according to Pliny,

held a quarter of a million spectators. It is singular, however,



that while the old Roman circuses were held in permanent buildings,

modern circuses are mostly travelling exhibitions in temporary erections.



In some respects the entertainment offered has degenerated with the change,

for we have to-day nothing in the circus to correspond to



the thrilling chariot races in which the old Romans delighted.

I wonder that in these days of restless search for novelties some one



does not re-introduce the Roman chariot race under the old conditions,

and with a reproduction of the old surroundings. It would be



as interesting and as exciting as, and certainly less dangerous than,

polo played in automobiles, which I understand is one of the latest fads



in the West. A modern horse-race, with its skill, daring and picturesqueness,

is the only modern entertainmentcomparable to the gorgeous races



of the Romans.

The exhibition of skillful feats of horsemanship and acrobatic displays



by juvenile actors, rope-dancing, high vaulting and other

daring gymnastic feats seen in any of our present-day circuses



are interesting, but not new. The Romans had many clever tight-rope walkers,

and I do not think they used the long pole loaded at the ends



to enable them to maintain their equilibrium, as do some later performers.

Japanese tumblers are very popular and some of their tricks clever,



but I think the Western public would find Chinese acrobats

a pleasant diversion. With practice, it would seem as if



when taken in hand during its supple years there is nothing

that cannot be done with the human body. Sometimes it almost appears



as if it were boneless, so well are people able by practice

to make use of their limbs to accomplish feats which astonish



ordinary persons whose limbs are less pliable.

The trapeze gives opportunity for the display of very clever exhibition,



of strength and agility; at first sight the gymnast would appear to be flying




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