The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-08-18
THE BOOK OF BOOKS.
High Place Of the Bible When
Considered as Literature.
1T OUGHT TO BE STUDIED MORE.
The Sunday school Method Not Salts
factory-Bible and Shakespeare
Teach Eloquence.
New York EvsnIng Post.

ttle biEle. OI DOCKS recently punished on
the subject we may mention THE Literary
Study OF the Bible" by Prof r. c. Moul-
ton, and the selection OF passages from the
Bible, with special reference to their liter
airy beauty and interest. made by Mr.. Fra
ger, one OF the fellows OF Trinity college.
Cambridge. IL is significant also that. in
the series of English Lyrics" now pub
fishing, no less than two volumes are de-
voted 10 Lyrics from the Bible" No one
can say that too much space is thus given
to the book, which, IL nothing else. is
great glory OF English literature, and in
which the lyrical cry is so sustained
ana haunting.
Nor can any one say that the Bible both
as literature and In literature, does not
need far more attention than il is receiv-
ing 81 current educational methods.
whether of the family, the Sunday school
or the college That is 10 say, il surely
needs 1t IL its beauties and grandeurs are
TO remain part of our common literary
tradition, and If the aroma of IL and allu-
sions to IL which pervade our literature are
not TO become meaningless to readers. a
striking, almost appalling. article on "Tg-
norance Respecting the Bible by coll
lege president was published in the indie
pendent last November. In it he gave the
results of a test he had made of the Bib
lical knowledge of q freshman class OF
thirty-four men. They came from the best
homes of New York. Ohio and Pennsyl-
vania: yet, when confronted with twenty
two illusions to the Bible in Tennysons
poems, betrayed astounding ignorance.
Less than one-half the illusions, nearly
all OF which were perfectly obvious, were
correctly explained in their answers. The
line. For have flung thee pearls and
found thee swine" was commented upon
by one sagacious youth, THE devil was
adjured into swine Another explained
the phrase, Marked me even as Cain"
by informing the examiner that Cain was
a farmer and had TO work hard, hence mis-
mark" These are but few specimens of
the grotesque misunderstanding of Bibli-
cal phraseology and story displayed by
what must be considered an exceptionally
intelligent body of young men. How long
Will il be before learned scfioliasts will
have to interpret to our generation the Bib
iican illusions with which our literature is
saturated, and which to the minds of fifty
years ago. saturated with the Bible, APP
pealed with swift illumination and sug-
gestiveness?
One difficulty. Il must be confessed, lies
in general conditions much as in any
thing peculiar to the Bible. That book
we do not carry in our minds any more as
a familiar friend, but neither do we carry
any book. We have no memories any
more; we have indexes. If the COMPARE
son were made between an intimate
knowledge of the Bible and an intimate
knowledge of the classics, the later
would be found to have lamentably de-
cayed as much as the other. The won
derful Renaissance memory, wax to re-
ceive and marble 20 retain. could safely
challenge the doubter TO put a dagger to
the owners heart and strike home il a
verbal slip could be detected in any given
passage of Tacitus or Horace. There are
no such giants in these days of Jahrbuch
and Zeitschrift. The Bible IS thus suffer
ing in good company. If you have a good
wi need
an age that does not care to know a
thing. but only to know where you can
find It?
But there are. of course, special reasons
why the Bible has ceased TO be the essen
tial part of mental furniture that it once.
was TO all English-speaking men and
women. One of them, and most power
full one. is the almost complete turning
over of Biblical instruction to the Sun
day school and the almost complete
disappearance even In Christian fami-
lies. from the old place In daily reading
and regular memorizing. We know, of
course, that the scheme of Sunday school
lessons contemplates covering the whole
Bible-or those parts of It fit TO he taught
children-in seven years. We know as
well OF the scheme for daily readings
meant TO go with the Sunday recitations.
But we know also that as rule these
projected readings and this comprehen-
siye plan of study are not carried out at
ALL with the result of giving children a
most chaotic and fragmentary idea or the
Bible. We say nothing here OF the faiiure
TO teach the body of weIt-ascertalned
truth about the Bible its history and
manner of composition. That is n scan
dalous thing, morally, but IL has little TO
do with the literary appreciation or the
Bible What we do say, however. is that
the broken. haphazard. come-and-go
methods Of Bible teaching in Sunday
designed with deadly ingenuity Tor that
verv purnose in destroying all rational
annreciation OF the Bible "a literature.
and in making it a happy-go-lucky collec-
ton Of golden texts" and strange and
disconnected promises and threatenings
and moralities, without form ana Noid.
Probably nine-tenths of the college stu
dents referred 20 above had gone through
~ least two seven-year cycles in Sunday
school lessons What profit did they get.
excent 70 give their ignorance the special
charm Of confusion and grotesquenessE
Jacob served seven years for wife. and
ct least got a wife II not the one he
wanted: but most Of our seven-year sun
dav school scholars emerge from the
period with little or nothing TO show for
their time
The question arises, how much better
will the purely literary method OF Bible
studv silcceed-succeed. we mean. in stor-
r,iaua ncies and majesty of Biblical phrase
olorv. and in fascinating tho attention
with the details ~ Biblical narrative and
aIlegory and pastoral and drama We con-
fass 90 cravelv doubling II il will succeed
anv better The charm and power OF the
Bible as literature seem 10 evade the MA
ture and preoccupied mind that approaches
it late and purely on the literary side.
The accumulated associations Of child
hood the familiarity with sonorous
nhraseS before thew are understood. the
pIav Of Young imagination and even Of SUI
Y-SrStftiou about the sacred page~-all these
things Joined with daily repetition and
use OF the rich English OF king James
version and a vivid acquaintance with ORR
entail trope and metaphor. parable and Wis
ion seem necessary 10 the strongest and
most enduring grasp Of the Bible merely
as literature. one cannot imagine Ruskin,
for example with his later ideas about the
Bible getting from ft a maturity what he
s~rs- al his mothers knee. There tx n GER
tsfn establishment. which IS n literary
LOGS even IL Il Is a critical gain. that comes
from studying the Bible in too dry light
Of reason The rugged old HehTaisms lose
something OF their cra1gv grandeur when
vce really come 10 sec what they mean. II
Wa have learned 20 love them. even irnor-
autlv in our youth. We resent their being
made too iutelliGible and unimaEinative 10
our manhood Thus Matthew Arnold was
fncensea az the revised version. indefensi-
lie as was his anger or critical grounds.
largely because Il PLAYED havoc with
some az the Soncrous but puzzIe-headed
70 z~A h.