Note 1014 — SECT. X. The office of the Homeric Poems in relation to that of the early Books of Holy Scripture.
Reading edition
To show with what jealousy believers in revelation may justly regard the mere literary handling of the Older Scriptures, I would refer to the remarkable work of M. Ernest Renan, ‘Études d’Histoire Religieuse.’ This eloquent and elastic writer treats the idea of a revealed religion as wholly inadmissible; highly extols the Bible as a literary treasure; but denies that the general reading of the Bible is a good, except in so far as il vaut beaucoup mieux voir le peuple lire la Bible que ne rien lire (pp. 75, 385).