Passage 3—Humanities
‘This passage is excerpted from “The Parisian Stage,” an
essay written for a London newspaper late in the nine-
teenth century by the American author Henry James.
It is impossible to spend many weeks in Paris with
‘out observing that the theater plays very important part
‘in French civilization; and it is impossible to go much to
the theater without finding it a copious source of instruc-
5 tion as to French ideas, manners, and philosophy. 1
‘supposed that I had a certain acquaintance with these
complex phenomena, but during the last:
Thave occupied a great many orchestra chairs,
merciless glare ofthe footighs Lhave read a
10 of my old convictions with a new distinctness.
ee te et ee
for, surely, among the pleasures ds
socks and jaye foe eee
sciousness so totally as
15 Francais. It was the poet Gray. 1
his idea of heaven was to lie