RELIGION IN FICTION.
MISS YONGE, the novelist, whose death on Sunday last we regret to record, was able with the profits which she obtained from "The Heir of Redclyffe ” to purchase a schooner, which she presented to Bishop Selwyn for his missionary work in Melanesia. "The Daisy Chain," which we shall always maintain was the ablest, though not the most readable, of her books, yielded a sum out of which she contri- buted 22,000 to another missionary effort. These gains from what they style " goody " books seem to surprise some writers who, as we think, do not fully comprehend their countrymen, or realise that in this country and America a story, if it has any strength of its own, gains instead of losing in popularity from a religious flavour. Because some fifty years ago the country was deluged with books which were at once reli- gious and feeble, and were therefore despised by all who were competent to criticise them, they think there is a distaste in England for religion in literature, and especi- ally in the literature of fiction. They are, we are convinced, mistaken. They forget that no book in the world except the Bible has ever had among English-speaking peoples the circulation of "The Pilgrim's Progress," which, besides being a work of genius and the best allegory ever written, is an evangelical novel. They forget that " Ccelebs in Search of a Wife" was once in the library of every country house ; that Lady Georgiana Fullerton's rather poor story, "Ellen Middleton," made on account of its religious tone a reputa- tion which, in spite of her change of faith, lasted all her life; that scarcely any book has had the hold on the middle classes obtained by Miss Mulock's "John Halifax," which is intended to inculcate a creed almost identical with that of the Quakers. and that Mrs. Ward obtained very large sums from "Robert Elmore," a book of which the very essence is its eloquent advocacy of Unitarianism touched and warmed by religious emotion. They forget that "Salem Chapel" made Mrs. Oliphant, and that both in that book and its sequel, "Plicebe Junior," an admirable novel, the life-blood is the contrast drawn between the social effects of two ecclesiastical systems. They do not see that the enormous popularity of Mi.. Barrie and "Ian Maclaren," that "John Galt touched with the grace of God," is first of all due to their marvellous portraiture of specially religious lives. Above all, they forget that "Adam Bede" was in no way less admired because of the religiousness of its tone, and that of all French novels probably the one best known in England is "Les Miserables," in which Victor Hugo preached the doctrine of unselfishness elevated into a real " religion " of controlling force over men. Many of these writers say such books are popular in spite of the religion in them, and laugh at Miss Yonge's goody-goo:1i- ness while acknowledging her really marvellous skill in the delineation of character. She possessed that skill, no doubt, even Sir Guy Morville being real, though "raised," as every Sir Galahad must be; while in "The Daisy Chain" there are seven or more girls, all brought up under similar circum- stances and sutjected to the same conditions, who are yet so separate and so finely drawn that if you met one of them you would be tempted to address her, by name. The reservation of the critics is nevertheless a mistake. Religion in England is a part of life..." Your sceptics are all religious," said a French lady --and the introduction of it increases to a majority of readers that sense of realism which the critics usually profess to admire. Nizose readers cannot imagine a week—as most story-tellers, by the way, do—without a Sunday. In half the educated house- holds in the country creed and conduct are subjects of daily discussion, and, any variety of opinion about them is a cause of separation; while even among- the hand-workers, though the proportion is less, it is far higher than could be deduced from any statistics of attendance at church. It is not true, either, that Miss Yonge's or Mrs. Ward's special opinions are the source of their attractiveness, though doubtless they had a keen attraction for those who held their opinions before- hand. The English will read with attentiveness stories pene- trated with religious opinions in which they do not believe. How many "Auld Licht" Christians have we here, and how many people delight in "A Window in Thrums " ? Thousands who dislike or distrust missionary effort read with keen pleasure Sir William Hunter's really wonderful story, "The Old Missionary"; and we doubt if any one ever turned away from one of Mrs. Steel's books because of the very peculiar creed which, unless we mistake their meaning entirely, they half-consciously reveal.
Will this tendency to tolerate, and even enjoy, religion in novels continue ? We think it will, and even increase. No change in English life in the past fifty years strikes the writer more strongly than that in the attitude of the people of nearly all grades towards religion. That the community has become more deeply religious he will not affirm. But while an over-rich class has become drunken with the thirst for excitement, and theology has perhaps grown less definite, the purely secular tone which once was manifested by a large majority has almost disappeared. There is keen interest in the subject, even among disbelievers. The discussion, too often, no doubt, sterile, in millions of households never ends, and with it comes the desire to know what the religious-minded really think and do, and the knowledge is sought as often through fiction as any other source. We can remember the time when good Pro- testants would have been hopelessly repelled by the Roman Catholic atmosphere which pervades that delightful story "My New Curate," but what Protestant now who reads it fails keenly to appreciate it ? The effect of a religion on the character is, in fact, recognised as most profound, and men are as pleased to see it pointed out, and to study it, as they are to see the influence of caste well painted in a picture. We do not say that the change is altogether beneficial. Much of it springs from purely intellectual curiosity, and there must be something, be it little or much, in the old teaching about the danger of "sinning against light," but that it has occurred we are certain. No novel with power in it will now fail because it is intended to inculcate a particular religious belief, and no character will be despised because it is the product mainly of a special creed. Indeed, we should be inclined to go farther, -and predict that the next great novel, if we ever have one, would be penetrated through and through with belief or disbelief, but that prophecy is so vain, and that genius may display itself in a form that is outside calculation. But of this we feel assured, that although work like that of Miss Yonge may not live, the reason of its fading will not be the religiousness of its tone. And the reason is plain and simple. Does any human being know another human being who is not what he is, in part at least, because of his religious belief, or who under a different religious influence would not be a different man ? The business of a novelist is to show people as they are, and they are because of ideas and impulses, among the strongest of which are their convictions, be they what they may, as to the supernatural.
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