readily than good, and it is therefore a very dangerous practice to send the young to a spot where good and evil occur in combination. If we wish to poison any one, we do not give him poison alone, but mix it with some pleasant drink, the presence of which does not interfere with the action of the poison. This is precisely the way in which these men-destroyers of old mixed their hellish poisons with cunning inventions and with elegance of style; and are we to remain conscious of their devices and not strike the potion from their hands?
Some one else may object: “They are not all lascivious writers. Cicero, Virgil, Horace, and others are serious and earnest.” I answer: None the less they are blind pagans, and turn the minds of their readers from the true God to other gods and goddesses (Jove, Mars, Neptune, Venus, Fortune, etc.), though God has said to His people: “Make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth” (Exodus xxiii. 13). Then what a chaos of superstitions, of false opinions, of earthly desires at variance with one another, is to be found in these writers! The spirit with which they fill their readers must be very different from that of Christ. Christ calls us from the world, they plunge us into the world. Christ teaches self-abnegation, they teach self-love. Christ teaches us to be humble, they to be magnanimous. Christ demands meekness, they inculcate self-assertion. Christ bids us be simple as doves, they show us how to turn an argument in a thousand different ways. Christ urges us to modesty, they spend their time in mocking others. Christ loves those who believe easily, they prefer those who are suspicious, argumentative, and obstinate. To conclude briefly and in the words of the Apostle: “What communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what portion hath a believer with an unbeliever?” (2 Cor. vi. 15). Rightly does Erasmus say: “Bees avoid withered flowers; and no book, the contents of which are impure, should be opened.” And again: “It is safest to sleep on clover,
