In the absence of a proper Biblical psychology the word has been most sadly abused in translations. This example does peculiar discredit either to the learning or the mental honesty of the author. This psychological probability appears a simpler solution than the various textual conjectures. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, essayist and novelist, says in an interesting essay on the relation of fiction to life, that the object of fiction is to produce illusions, and the test of its art is its power to produce such illusion. There is a temptation here to adopt the translation of Molz.
Truth lies in the fiction, however, when what is told corresponds to reality.
Mr. Warner, in his lecture, goes on to say that the object of fiction is to reveal what is,-not the base and sordid things rely or peculiarly, but the best possibilities, and gives an exquisite exposition of the fact that the idealism of true fiction is simply the realism of the nobler characteristics and truths. The truth is, that the object of fiction or poetry as art is to produce the image,-fill the whole personality with a picture. This is only gained in its highest form when every detail exactly corresponds to truth or reality. The function of fiction is not illusion, but realization. Its object is the reproduction of truth.