The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-06
IN THE LITERARY WORLD.

the spirit, is burned deep into the
| heart.
No great writer represents the
whole of Christianity in it's application
of life. But l think that almost every
great writer since the religion of Jesus
/ touched the leading races. has helped
to reveal some new aspect of it's beau
| ty, to make clear some new secret of
| its sweet reasonableness, or to enforce
| some new lesson of its power. / r,pd
| in Shakespeare the majesty of the
moral law. in Victor Hugo the sacred
ness of childhood, in Goethe the glory
of remuneration, in Wordsworth the
joy of humility, in Tennyson the tri-
umph of immortal love, in Browning
the courage of faith in God. in Thack-
cray the ugliness of hypocrisy and the
beauty of forgiveness. in George Elliott
the supremacy of duty in Dickens the
divinity of kindness, and in Ruskin the
dignity of service. Irving teaches me
the lesson of simple cheerful
ness. Hawthorne shows me the hate
fulneSS of sin and the power of peni-
tence. Longfeilow gives me the soft
music of tranquil hope and earnest en-
deavor, Lowell makes me feel that we
must give ourselves to our fellow-men
if we would bless them. and Whittier
sings to me of human brotherhood ana
divine Fatherhooi. Are not these
Christian lessons?
| do not ask NV novelist to define
and discuss his doctrinal position, or
to tell me what religious denomina-
ton he belongs to. / ask him to tell
me a story of life as it is. seen from
the point of view of one who has
caught from Christianity a conception
of life as it ought to be. l do not ask
him even to deal out poetic justice to
all his characters, and shut the prison
doors on the bad people while he rings
the wedding bells for the good. / ask
him only to show me good as good
and evil as evil; to quicken my love
for those who do their best. and deep
en- my scorn for those who do their
worst: to give me warmer sympathy
with all sorts and conditions of men
who are sincere and loyal and kind,
to strengthen nv faith that life is
worth living even While he helps me
to realize how hard it is to live well;
to leave me my optimism, but not to
leave it stone blind; not to deDress me
with cheap cynicism, nor to lull me
with spurious SentimentallSm, but to
nourish and confirm my heart with
Sir Walter SCOTS manly faith. that Ito
every duty performed there is attached
! an inward satisfaction which deepens
with the difficulty of the task and is
it's best reward"
The use of fiction either to defend
or to attack some definite theologi-
cal dogma seems to me illegitimate
and absurd. l remember devout ana
earnest brother who begged me to
write a story to prove that Presbyte-
rians never held tEc doctrine of infant
| damnation. i would as soon write a
story to prove the binomial theorem.
But that fiction may serve noble
purpose in renewing our attraction to
! virtue, in sharpening our adherence
| of selfshness and falsehood in adding
to the good report of the things that
are pure and lovely, in showing that
| heroism is something better than &C.
centricity tinged with vice. and. at its
deepest.s in making us feel anew our
own need of a Divine Master to control
our lives-this is true, bevond ii
doubt; for precisely that is what our
! best fiction from "Waverley' down to
1.-THE Bonnie Brier Bush" and "Senti-
mental Tommy has been doing Name
! half a dozen of the great English
novels at Henry Esmond, ;,
David Co~~erfield." THE Cloister
and the Hearth, Lorna Doone, :"
"Romola.' THE Scarlet Letter''-and
who shall dare to deny that there is
| in these books an atmosphere which
| breathes of the vital truths and THO
brightest ideals of Christianity?