Page:Chapters on Jewish literature (IA chaptersonjewish00abra).pdf/34

30 soul, and of the mind. Business, religion, social duties, ritual, are all dealt with in one and the same code. The fault of this conception is, that by associating things of unequal importance, both the mind and the conscience may become incapable of discriminating the great from the small, the external from the spiritual. Another ill consequence was that, as literature corresponded so closely with life, literature could not correct the faults of life, when life became cramped or stagnant. The modern spirit differs from the ancient chiefly in that literature has now become an independent force, which may freshen and stimulate life. But the older ideal was nevertheless a great one. That man's life is a unity: that his conduct is in all its parts within the sphere of ethics and religion: that his mind and conscience are not independent, but two sides of the same thing: and that therefore his religious, ethical, æsthetic, and intellectual literature is one