Call was written in order to show that we do not attain to leading a Christian life merely by assenting to doctrines and by taking part in ceremonies. We can only do so by a complete reorientation of both our outlook and our behavior. With a sure touch, the book lays bare the inconsistencies of our ideals of conduct. It has exerted a long and wide influence. Dr. Johnson said that it gave him his first serious religious convictions; and Dr. Johnson was an earnest Christian, a man who held to the Christian faith with all the tenderness and seriousness of his great character. It was an inspiration to John Wesley; and in that way it may be said to have contributed most, after the Bible, to the rise and spread of Methodism in particular and of Evangelicalism in general. Unquestionably, if we want a standard of literature we cannot do better than seek it in A Serious Call.

I have now dealt with books about science, with books about politics, folk lore, and satire, and with books about religion. And yet, except for a passing reference a moment ago, I have not mentioned the Bible, in its Authorized Version the greatest book in the English language. Of the Bible, however, I intend to say something in the next chapter, where I shall consider good and better writing—or, if you like, style.

vi

The present chapter may end with mention of a book directly inspired by the Bible, or, rather, by the Gospel; a book constantly referring to Scripture; a book whose characters, scenes, and very phrases are a great possession. It is my one example of allegory. I am referring of course to John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). Regarding deep books and difficult reading, I began by saying that among the difficult reading might be satire and allegory. Of satire we may still consider this to hold. But the earnest simplicity of Bunyan's writing proves that in at least one instance it is not true of allegory. The Pilgrim's Progress is so easy to read that it has not needed to be bowdlerized, as has Gulliver's Travels, in order to reign on the nursery bookshelf for generation after generation. Yet if it is a children's book, we shall discover, when we go to it as adults, that it repays adult attention.

A LIST OF THE BOOKS NAMED IN THE

ABOVE CHAPTER

I. SCIENCE

E. A. Burtt, The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science (1929)

William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890)
A. N. Whitehead, Introduction to Mathematics (1911)

II. ECONOMICS

Henry George, Progress and Poverty (1879)
Alfred Marshall, The Principles of Economics (1890)

III. POLITICS

Plato, Republic (Cornford's translation); The Laws
Aristotle, Politics (Oxford translation)

Edmund Burke, On Moving His Resolution for Conciliation with the Colonies (1775); Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790); An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (1791) Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776); The Rights of Man (1791-92)

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1690)

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)

Thomas More, Utopia (G. C. Richards' translation, 1923)

J. S. Mill, On Liberty (1859)

The Federalist (1787–88)

A. A. Lipscomb and A. E. Bergh, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1905)

Charles A. Beard, Economic Origins of a Jeffersonian Democracy (1915)

Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence (1922)

Gilbert Chinard, The Commonplace Book of Thomas Jefferson (1926)

James Bryce, The American Commonwealth (1888)

Felix Morley, The Power in the People (1949)

Charles A. Beard, President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War, 1941 (1948)

IV. FOLK LORE

Sir James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (one volume version, 1914)

R. L. Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, The Wrong Box (1889) Washington Irving, A History of New York by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809)

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)

VI. BEYOND HUMOR

Washington Irving, The Sketch Book (1820)

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (1883); The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)

VII. IRONY

Benjamin Franklin, An Edict of the King of Prussia; Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small (both 1773) Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants; A Modest Proposal (both in "The Nonesuch Swift")

VIII. SATIRE

Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (in "The Nonesuch Swift")

IX. RELIGION

David Hume, Of Miracles (1758); Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)

Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici (1643); Hydrotaphia, or Urn Burial (1658); Christian Morals (after 1682)

Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1594-97 and 1648–62), especially Book V

Jonathan Edwards, Freedom of the Will (1754)

Jeremy Taylor, Sermons (1650, 1651); The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651)

John Donne, Sermons (in "The Nonesuch Donne”)

Lancelot Andrewes, Sermons

Joseph Butler, Sermons (1726)

J. H. Newman, Sermons

William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728)

X. ALLEGORY

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (1678)

5

GOOD AND BETTER WRITING

i

HE IS TO BE FREQUENTLY ON DECK IN THE DAY, AND AT ALL TIMES, day and night, when the hands are employed. Assisted by his Mates, he is to see that the men severally go quickly on deck when called, and do their work well and with alacrity.

Before 8 a.m. of each day, and more frequently when necessary, in reference to the service on which the ship is employed, he is to examine carefully the state of the rigging, and report the result to the Officer of the Watch, so that immediate steps may be taken to repair or replace whatever requires to be so dealt with. He is to see that the anchors are secure, and is to take care to keep a sufficient supply of mats, plats, rubbers, points, and gaskets ready for immediate use; that the booms and boats are secure, and that, so far as may depend on him, the boats are ready for immediate service, and the gear in good order and constantly rove.

These words form a passage from "Instructions to the Boatswain" in the Queen's Regulations and Admiralty Instructions for 1863.

Again:

On Z day, the date of which will be notified later, the Army will take the offensive. The object is to inflict a decisive defeat on the enemy, and to advance to the general line of the high ground Meshariq Nablus-Yasid (098.L.9)-Sh. Beiazid (098.K.9)— 'Atara-Jebel Bir' Asur (098.B.25)-Bala (098.A.22)—Yemma (083.N.26).

(a) The main attack will be made by the XXI Corps with five divisions against the enemy's right between the foot-hills east of the

railway and the sea. This attack will commence on Z day at an hour which will be known as "XXI Corps zero hour".

(b) As soon as the crossings over the Nahr el Faliq are cleared of the enemy by the advance of the XXI Corps, the Desert Mounted Corps, passing round the left of the XXI Corps, will be directed on El 'Affule and Beisan with the object of cutting the enemy's railway communications and blocking his retreat in a northerly and northeasterly direction.

(c) As soon as the XXI Corps has gained the general line Three Bushes Hill (04/N.25)-High ground 03/K.14-Foothills east of Quadquilye-North-eastern edge of Et Tire (D.3/Y.13)-north bank of the Nahr el Faliq, it will move north-eastwards and advance to seize the high ground east of the railway between Deir Sheraf and 'Atara.

(d) "Chaytor's Force" will hold the present front in the Jordan Valley, and may be required later to advance as far as Jisr ed Damiye.

That is part of the text of a document headed: "XX Corps Operation Order No. 42". The order is dated 13 September 1918. It is signed by the brigadier-general, general staff, XX Corps. That brigadier-general later became Field-Marshal Lord Wavell.

It may seem odd that a consideration of good and better writing should begin with a quotation from "Instructions to the Boatswain" and that first quotation be followed by one from a corps operation order drawn up in Palestine in 1918. The point of this beginning will appear in a moment. In the meanwhile, we may perhaps prepare ourselves for taking the point by asking why and how good writing is important.

So far in this book the quest for symptoms of literature has led us to consider in the main how the symptoms are displayed in the contents of books. We have seen what certain books are about. We have noticed the quality of their matter. But symptoms are also shown in the manner. It is always its meaning and significance that are to be sought in what a book says. Yet the way this is said is equally of effect. For by the expression “the way in which what a book has to say is said," or, in a word, the manner, we must understand a good deal. There is the spirit in which a book is written, the tone and temper pervading it. There is the way it begins, and the way each chapter begins. There is its manner of leading up to a conclusion. There is its preparation of the reader for some capital utterance or for the