hen or Christian. Christianity has thrown gleams of light on him
and his literature; but as it has not converted him, but only certain
choice specimens of him, so it has not changed the characters of his mind
or of his history; his literature is either what it was, or worse than
what it was, in proportion as there has been an abuse of knowledge granted
and a rejection of truth. On the whole, then, I think it will be found,
and ever found, as a matter of course, that Literature, as such, no matter
of what nation, is the science or history, partly and at best of the
natural man, partly of man in rebellion.

7.

Here then, I say, you are involved in a difficulty greater than that which
besets the cultivation of Science; for, if Physical Science be dangerous,
as I have said, it is dangerous, because it necessarily ignores the idea
of moral evil; but Literature is open to the more grievous imputation of
recognizing and understanding it too well. Some one will say to me
perhaps: "Our youth shall not be corrupted. We will dispense with all
general or national Literature whatever, if it be so exceptionable; we
will have a Christian Literature of our own, as pure, as true, as the
Jewish." You cannot have it:--I do not say you cannot form a select
literature for the young, nay, even for the middle or lower classes; this
is another matter altogether: I am speaking of University Education, which
implies an extended range of reading, which has to deal with standard
works of genius, or what are called the _classics_ of a language: and I
say, from the nature of the case, if Literature is to be made a study of
human nature, you cannot have a Christian Literature. It is a
contradiction in terms to attempt a sinless Literature of sinful man. You
may gather together something very great and high, something higher than
any Literature ever was; and when you have done so, you will find that it
is not Literature at all. You will have simply left the delineation of
man, as such, and have substituted for it, as far as you have had any
thing to substitute, that of man, as he is or might be, under certain
special advantages. Give up the study of man, as such, if so it must be;
but say you do so. Do not say you are studying him, his history, his mind
and his heart, when you are studying something else. Man is a being of
genius, passion, intellect, conscience, power. He exercises these various
gifts in various ways, in great deeds, in great t