"Let us," replied Mr. Stanley, "rescue from the hands of the profane and
the impure, the monopoly of wit which, they affect to possess, and which
they would possess, if no good men had written works of elegant
literature, and if all good men totally despised them."

"For my own part," said Mr. Tyrrel, "I believe that a good man, in my
sense of the word, will neither write works of imagination, nor read
them."

"At your age and mine, and better employed as we certainly may be," said
Mr. Stanley, "we want not such resources. I myself, though I retain the
relish, have little leisure for the indulgence, which yet I would allow,
though with great discrimination, to the young and the unoccupied. What
is to whet the genius of the champions of virtue, so as to enable them
successfully to combat the leaders of vice and infidelity, if we refuse
to let them be occasionally sharpened and polished by such studies? That
model of brilliant composition, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, was of this
opinion, when he said, 'by whatever instrument piety is advantaged, use
that, though thou grindest thy spears and arrows at the forges of the
Philistines.'

"I know," continued Mr. Stanley, "that a Christian need not borrow
weapons of attack or defense from the classic armory; but, to drop all
metaphor, if he is called upon to defend truth and virtue against men
whose minds are adorned with all that is elegant, strengthened with all
that is powerful, and enriched with all that is persuasive, from the
writers in question--is he likely to engage with due advantage if his
own mind be destitute of the embellishments with which theirs abound?
While wit and imagination are _their_ favorite instruments, shall we
consider the aid of either as useless, much less as sinful in their
opponents?"

"While young men _will_ be amused," said Sir John, "it is surely of
importance that they should be _safely_ amused. We should not therefore
wish to obliterate in authors such faculties as wit and fancy, nor to
extinguish a taste for them in readers."

"Show me any one instance of good that ever was effected by any one
poet," said Mr. Tyrrel, "and I will give up the point; while, on the
other hand, a thousand instances of mischief might be produced."

"The latter part of your assertion, sir," said I, "I fear is too true:
but to what evil has elevation of fancy led Milton, or Milton his
readers? Into what immoralities did it involve Spenser or Cowley? Has
Thomson