Dr. Jonathan

Dr. Jonathan

The Project Gutenberg Ebook Dr. Jonathan (Play), by Winston
Churchill WC#60 in our series by Winston Churchill (USA author, not
Sir Winston)
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print,"
and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the
bottom of this file. Included is important information about your
specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can
also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and
how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
Title: Dr. Jonathan (Play)
Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill)
Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5397] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 30, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DR.
JONATHAN (PLAY), BY CHURCHILL ***

This eBook was produced by David Widger

[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the
file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making
an entire meal of them. D.W.]

DR. JONATHAN
A Play in Three Acts
PREFACE

This play was written during the war. But owing to the fact that several
managers politely declined to produce it, it has not appeared on any
stage. Now, perhaps, its theme is more timely, more likely to receive
the attention it deserves, when the smoke of battle has somewhat
cleared. Even when the struggle with Germany and her allies was in
progress it was quite apparent to the discerning that the true issue of the
conflict was one quite familiar to American thought, of
self-determination. On returning from abroad toward the end of 1917 I
ventured into print with the statement that the great war had every
aspect of a race with revolution. Subliminal desires, subliminal fears,
when they break down the censor of law, are apt to inspire fanatical
creeds, to wind about their victims the flaming flag of a false
martyrdom. Today it is on the knees of the gods whether the
insuppressible impulses for human freedom that come roaring up from
the subliminal chaos, fanned by hunger and hate, are to thrash
themselves out in anarchy and insanity, or to take an ordered,
intelligent and conscious course. Of the Twentieth Century, industrial
democracy is the watchword, even as political democracy was the
watchword of the two centuries that preceded it. Economic power is at
last realized to be political power. No man owns himself, no woman

owns herself if the individual is not economically free. Perhaps the
most encouraging omen of the day is the fact that many of our modern
employers, and even our modern financiers and bankers seem to be
recognizing this truth, to be growing aware of the danger to civilization
of its continued suppression. Educators and sociologists may supply the
theories; but by experiment, by trial and error,--yes, and by prayer,--
the solution must be found in the practical domain of industry.

DR. JONATHAN
ACT I
SCENE: The library of ASHER PINDAR'S house in Foxon Falls, a
New England village of some three thousand souls, over the destinies
of which the Pindars for three generations have presided. It is a large,
dignified room, built early in the nineteenth century, with white doors
and gloss woodwork. At the rear of the stage,--which is the front of the
house,--are three high windows with small, square panes of glass, and
embrasures into which are fitted white inside shutters. These windows
reach to within a foot or so of the floor; a person walking on the lawn
or the sidewalk just beyond it may be seen through them. The trees
bordering the Common are also seen through these windows, and
through a gap in the foliage a glimpse of the terraced steeple of the
Pindar Church, the architecture of which is of the same period as the
house. Upper right, at the end of the wall, is a glass door looking out on
the lawn. There is another door, lower right, and a door, lower left,
leading into ASHER PINDAR'S study. A marble mantel, which holds a
clock and certain ornaments, is just beyond this door. The wall spaces
on the right and left are occupied