Excerpt from Genius and Faith: Or Poetry and Religion, in Their Mutual Relations The second branch of the subject consists in a vindication of the Christian religion from the charge of antagonism to poetry. And the class whose prejudices are here encountered is composed of irreligious men of taste and talent, who have taken up the impression, that true virtue chills the glow of genius, and that Christianity fetters the wings of an aspiring mind and who therefore conclude themselves to be, by Special prerogative, exempted from the ordinary claims of morality and religion. But in addition to the fatal effect of this prejudice on the character of literary men, a most disastrous influence extends from the same source through the whole compass of that polite literature of which such men are the patrons and authors. Hence t only the exclusion of all Christian themes and sentiments from the province of such literature but hence, also, the adoption of views and feelings at variance with the Christian standard. It cant be denied that a dis guised practical infidelity pervades a large portion of our cur rent literature. There is open attack on the truth of revelation. A more secret, and therefore more successful, method has been adopted. The arguments of infidelity have been exploded but its Spirit still lives, and lurks unperceived in the shadowy regions of poetry and romance. From this dim fairy-land, supposed neutral in its moral position, because undefined in its physical territory, it darts invisible weapons. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
