At Timgad in Algeria there are some interesting ruins, among them
being those of the theatre and the baths.
The theatre is a huge open-air one of horse-shoe shape with stone
seats rising like steps above each other, and with a row of private
boxes at the top.
The stage is a handsome one built of stone with fine marble pillars,
and a back wall--for the Romans did not make use of painted scenery as
we do--and behind the stage are the dressing-rooms for the actors.
The theatre itself was big enough to seat 3400 spectators, which is
more than most theatres in London could do, and as Timgad was merely a
country town of no very great size it shows that the Romans were as
fond of theatrical plays as the English are of cinematograph shows
to-day.
They were equally fond of bathing, and in this one town alone there
were twelve public baths. They were what we call Turkish baths, that
is, there were bathrooms of several grades of heat to be gone
through--one tepid, the next warm, the next one very hot, and then
cooler and cold, and the Romans were fond of taking these baths every
day.
This is too much of a good thing, as it is apt to weaken a man. The
Romans, as you know, were in the end driven out of their Empire,
because they allowed themselves to become weak in mind and in body by
too much laziness in theatre-going and continual hot baths.
One inhabitant had inscribed on a stone in Timgad what he thought to
be the best form of happiness. He wrote:
"_To hunt, to bathe, and to laugh--that's the way to live_."
And there is a good deal in what he says, for in hunting you have to
use much woodcraft and hard exercise, and keeping clean and being
cheery is all part of the Scout's life.
But he has forgotten to mention one very important thing towards
making your life a happy one, and I expect that any Scout could tell
me at once what that point is--couldn't you?
He has left out the happiness which you get from doing a good turn. If
he had slightly altered his sentence, and had put it this way:
"_To scout, to bathe, to do a good turn, and to smile--that is the
way to live and be happy_," he would have said the truth, and he
would have exactly described what every Boy Scout does.
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