is charged with having carelessly admitted sub- versives, including Socrates,
Jefferson, Crom- well, Milton, and Voltaire; by their pleas for individual liberty they condemn themselves as enemies of society.
Soon there are moves against further sus- pects. The chairman of the poetry-reading
society announces an address from a promising
new talent and then, after whispering, we learn that Mr. Shelley's place will be taken by a Mr. Schmink. Bach comes to perform in a quartet which has been 'playing for ages' to find one member absent—'How can we have
a quartet without Chopin?' When he learns that a substitute has been found he cries: 'But nobody has ever heard of Mr. Schmink 'That,' he is told, 'was why we chose him.' The moral is driven home that liquidation of the remarkable individual must lead to the supremacy of the mediocre. The Investigator inevitably goes too far and the denouement is logical and fair. The acting, music and direc- tion are first-class throughout.
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