Whittier needs no words of ours. His hymns are part of our religious equipment. "Snow-bound" and all the rest of the beautiful, quiet, Quaker-like writing of this beloved poet are among our national assets. We join in his sorrow as he writes the doom of Webster and his fame, and we do not wonder that he chose for it the Scriptural title "Ichabod." Whatever is to be said about an individual here or there, it is true that great American literature shows the influence of the Bible. Like everything else in America, it has been founded on a religious purpose. Writers in all lines have been trained in the Bible. If they feel any religious influence at all, it is the Bible influence. This has been a long journey from Shakespeare to Whittier, and it leaves untouched the great field of present-day writers. Let the unstarred names wait their time. Among them are many who can say in their way what Hall Caine has said of himself: "I think I know my Bible as few literary men know it. There is no book in the world like it, and the finest novels ever written fall far short in interest of any one of the stories it tells. Whatever strong situations I have in my books are not of my creation, but are taken from the Bible. _The Deemster_ is a story of the Prodigal Son. _The Bondman_ is the story of Esau and Jacob. _The Scapegoat_ is the story of Eli and his sons, but with Samuel as a little girl; and _The Manxman_ is the story of David and Uriah." Take up any of the novels of the day, even the poorer ones, but notably the better ones, and see how uniformly they show the Scriptural influence in material, in idea, and in spirit. What the literature of the future will be no one can say. This much is as sure as any fact in literary history, that the English Bible is part of the very fiber of great literature from the day it first appeared in our tongue to this hour. FOOTNOTES: [27] _Thoughts that Breathe._ [28] _Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1900, p. 684. [29] Chapman, _English Literature in Account with Religion_. [30] _History of English Literature_, chap. iii. [31] Wordsworth, _Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible_, p. 9. [32] Strong, _The Theology of the Poets_. [33] _History of England_, vol. III., p. 220. [34] Taine, _English Literature_, II., 279. [35] June 14, 1830. [36] Morley, _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii, p. 424. [37] _Early Victorian Literature_, p. 9. [38] _English Literature in Account with Religion._ [39] This is fully worked out in Professor Richardson's _American Literature_, with ample illustration and argument. [40] _American Men of Letters Series, Washington Irving_, p. 302. LECTURE V THE KING JAMES VERSION--ITS INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HISTORY The King James version of the Bible is only a book. What can a book do in history? Well, whatever the reason, books have played a large part in the movements of men, specially of modern men.