Turkish Empire, tells me of a Mohammedan who ex- amined a school geography and said at once, "If this
is true, we must give up faith in the Koran." Then
(2) such a literature usually comes by translation at
first, just as the Bible itself comes; but the aim of
those who would stimulate and direct its production
should be, as soon as the way opens, to seek for
original authorship in the vernacular by men es- pecially gifted for the purpose.
How great is the power of a well translated book!
Witness Omar Khayyam's Kuhaiyat in its extraordinary translation by Fitzgerald. This has become a household book in many an American Christian
family, its literary charm blinding many to the peculiar pantheistic pessimism of the Persian poet.
Next to the Bible the most frequently translated
book is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," which is found now in at least 112 languages. How wonderful
is the permanence of Bunyan's heavenly dream! His
literary genius and his sound theology are winning
new victories in India, in Burma, by "many an
ancient river and
many a palmv
plain."
But we must not
be content with
translations. They
arc the best at first,
but not the best for
the future. "We
must pray to God
and labor with men
that some day, somehow, some Indian
or Chinese Bunyan
may dream dreams
and see visions
suitable to his own
people—perhaps as much more wonderful than our English dreamer as the
East is more wonderful than the
West. God is sover- eign in the bestowment of the gifts of genius—it can- not be made to order; and we must first of all appeal
to Him in behalf of Christian vernacular literature.
We need a guild of authors, both translators and
originators, who will treat both religious and theological themes and also deal with general literature.
It is impossible to forecast the future, but the
literature of the older Christian nations must have
the most tremendous effect for good or evil upon the
vernacular literatures which arc now coming into being. Our works shall follow us in a new sense when
the good and the had ones alike are translated and
scattered broadcast over the new Orient.
(3) Another distinction: Even yet the great
majority of non-Christian nations cannot read. Aliterate nation like China still has millions of the
untaught who are now learning to read as never
before. It is, however, a very different undertaking
to supply or create a literature for the Zulus, or the
Bulus, or the Miao tribes of the Laos country: but