What Is Good?

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longer in the attitude of disputing the sacred account of the risen Savior's personal appearing to his disciples after his return from the Spirit World. (Luke 24:36-39.)

Belasco and "Peter Grimm" That the creator of Hamlet and Macbeth believed in and made plentiful use of them as part of his "celestial spirits, machinery," is evident from the works of the master dramatist; and that his talented disciple, David Belasco, likewise favors such usage, is plainly shown in that intensely interesting book and play, The Return of Peter Grimm. Let me briefly review the story. Peter Grimm, an honest, elderly Dutch-American, carrying on the business of florist at Grimm Manor, a suburb of New York City, has a friend and family physician in Alexander Mc- Pherson, who, I need not say, is a Scotchman. He is also a spiritualist, deeply interested in the laws of psychic phenomena, and exceedingly tenacious of his occult views. Grimm is bluntly skeptical upon the subject, and he and his Scotch friend have many a warm debate thereon. Finally Mc- Pherson proposes a compact to this effect: Whichever one of the twain passes away first, his spirit will return, if possible, and communicate with the other, making known the secrets of the after life. Grimm laughs at the idea, even ridicules it, but at last consents, and with a flash of humor suggestive of his name, says: "If I find I am wrong, when I come back I will apologize." Alittle later the florist dies suddenly of heart failure. He passes into the Spirit World, and there obtains leave to "revisit the glimpses of the moon," as Hamlet puts it; in other words, to return to Grimm Manor and rectify a mistake made by him — while in the flesh a mistake affecting the happiness of his adopted daughter Kathrien, who, yielding to his insistence, has given up the man she loved, and has agreed to marry Grimm's nephew, Frederic. This young man is a villain, whose unworthiness his uncle discovers after his arrival in "that undiscovered country, from whose bourne" he now proposes to "return" and prevent the marriage previously planned. The wrong is to be righted by the delivery of a message. But how "get the message across?" That is the problem of the play. "Not every one can receive a communication from the Spirit World." So McPherson had said in one of his conversations with Grimm, adding that "the receiver must be a sensitive, a medium." Strange to say, the old Scotch physician is of no help whatever in the predicament now facing his departed friend. He

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