Even the words of the thoughtless in these days go to prove the principles of Mental Science true at every point.
Mme. Bernhardt, the famous French actress, has written an interesting letter in defence of the sincerity of actors, because of their entering into the spirit of their parts with such intense enthusiasm. She does not draw upon our credulity to the bold extent of adding that the sincere portrayal of healthy and happy characters might produce a correspondingly healthy and happy actor; we are left to infer that possibility; but here is what she says of the opposite roles: "Beaulevet always wept real tears when performing King Lear. Mounet-Sully had veritable hallucinations, when acting the madness of Orestes. I have never played Phedre without fainting or spitting blood; and after the fourth tableau of Theodora, in which I kill Marcellus, I am in such a nervous state, that I return to my dressing-room sobbing. If I do not weep, I have a hysterical fit, which is much more disagreeable to those around me, and more dangerous for the vases and other things near at hand."
