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COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
AND

UTILIZATION
Fourth Edition

CC: 2110003
(Common to all Engineering Branches)
 About the Author

E Balagurusamy, former Vice Chancellor, Anna University, Chennai and Member, Union Public Service
Commission, New Delhi, is currently the Chairman of EBG Foundation, Coimbatore. He is a teacher,
trainer, and consultant in the fields of Information Technology and Management. He holds an ME (Hons)
in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Systems Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT) Roorkee. His areas of interest include Object-Oriented Software Engineering, E-Governance:
Technology Management, Business Process Re-engineering, and Total Quality Management.
A prolific writer, he has authored a large number of research papers and several books. His
best-selling books, among others include:
∑ Programming in ANSI C, 7/e
∑ Fundamentals of Computers
∑ Computing Fundamentals and C Programming
∑ Programming in Java, 5/e
∑ Programming in BASIC, 3/e
∑ Programming in C#, 3/e
∑ Numerical Methods
∑ Reliability Engineering
∑ Introduction to Computing and Problem Solving using Python, 1e
A recipient of numerous honors and awards, E Balagurusamy has been listed in the Directory of
Who's Who of Intellectuals and in the Directory of Distinguished Leaders in Education.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
AND
UTILIZATION
Fourth Edition

CC: 2110003
(Common to all Engineering Branches)

E Balagurusamy
Chairman
EBG Foundation
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited

CHENNAI
McGraw Hill Education Offices
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 McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited
Published by McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited
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Computer Programming and Utilization, 4e

Copyright © 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014 by McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of
the publishers. The program listings (if any) may be entered, stored and executed in a computer system, but they may not
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McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited.

ISBN (13): 978-93-87572-18-8

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 Contents

Preface xiii
Roadmap to the Syllabus xvii
1. Introduction to Computer and Programming 1.1–1.30
1.1 Introduction 1.1
1.2 Basic Anatomy of a Computer System 1.2
1.3 Input Devices 1.3
1.4 Output Devices 1.5
1.5 Software 1.7
1.6 Hardware 1.9
1.7 Programming Languages 1.9
1.8 Translator Programs 1.12
1.9 Programming Environment 1.14
1.10 Introduction to the Design and Implementation of Correct,
Efficient and Maintainable Programs 1.14
1.11 Structured Programming 1.15
1.12 Problem Solving 1.15
1.13 Algorithms 1.15
1.14 Flowcharts 1.19
Just Remember 1.27
Review Questions 1.28
Multiple Choice Questions 1.29
Answers 1.30
2. Fundamentals of C 2.1–2.20
2.1 History of C 2.1
2.2 Features of C Level Language 2.2
2.3 Sample Program 1: Printing a Message 2.3
2.4 Sample Program 2: Displaying Your Name 2.6
2.5 Sample Program 3: Adding Two Numbers 2.6
2.6 Sample Program 4: Interest Calculation 2.8
2.7 Sample Program 5: Finding Ceil of a Number 2.10
2.8 Sample Program 6: Use of Math Functions 2.10
2.9 Basic Structure of C Programs 2.12
2.10 Programming Style 2.13
2.11 Executing a ‘C’ Program 2.13
Just Remember 2.15
vi Contents

Review Questions 2.15

Programming Exercises 2.17
Debugging Exercises 2.18
Multiple Choice Questions 2.20
Answers 2.20
3. Data Types in C 3.1–3.29
3.1 Introduction 3.1
3.2 Character Set 3.1
3.3 C Tokens 3.3
3.4 Keywords and Identifiers 3.3
3.5 Constants 3.4
3.6 Variables 3.8
3.7 Data Types 3.9
3.8 Declaration of Variables 3.12
3.9 Assigning Values to Variables 3.15
3.10 Defining Symbolic Constants 3.20
3.11 Declaring a Variable as Constant 3.22
3.12 Declaring a Variable as Volatile 3.22
3.13 Overflow and Underflow of Data 3.22
Just Remember 3.23
Review Questions 3.23
Programming Exercises 3.25
Debugging Exercises 3.26
Multiple Choice Questions 3.27
Answers 3.29
4. Operators and their Hierarchy 4.1– 4.34
4.1 Introduction 4.1
4.2 Arithmetic Operators 4.1
4.3 Relational Operators 4.4
4.4 Logical Operators 4.6
4.5 Assignment Operators 4.7
4.6 Increment and Decrement Operators 4.8
4.7 Conditional Operator 4.10
4.8 Bitwise Operators 4.10
4.9 Special Operators 4.11
4.10 Arithmetic Expressions 4.13
4.11 Evaluation of Expressions 4.14
4.12 Precedence of Arithmetic Operators 4.15
4.13 Some Computational Problems 4.17
4.14 Type Conversions in Expressions 4.18
4.15 Operator Precedence and Associativity 4.21
4.16 Mathematical Functions 4.23
 Contents vii

Just Remember 4.24

Review Questions 4.25
Programming Exercises 4.28
Debugging Exercises 4.30
Multiple Choice Questions 4.32
Answers 4.34
5. Input–Output Functions 5.1–5.28
5.1 Introduction 5.1
5.2 Reading a Character 5.2
5.3 Writing a Character 5.5
5.4 Formatted Input 5.6
5.5 Formatted Output 5.16
Just Remember 5.23
Review Questions 5.23
Programming Exercises 5.26
Multiple Choice Questions 5.27
Answers 5.28
6. Control Structures: Decision Making and Branching 6.1–6.41
6.1 Introduction 6.1
6.2 Decision Making with if Statement 6.1
6.3 Simple if Statement 6.2
6.4 The if.....Else Statement 6.6
6.5 Nesting of if....Else Statements 6.10
6.6 The Else if Ladder 6.13
6.7 The Switch Statement 6.18
6.8 The ? : Operator 6.22
6.9 The goto Statement 6.24
Just Remember 6.28
Review Questions 6.28
Programming Exercises 6.33
Debugging Exercises 6.36
Multiple Choice Questions 6.39
Answers 6.41
7. Control Structures: Decision Making and Looping 7.1–7.40
7.1 Introduction 7.1
7.2 The while Statement 7.3
7.3 The do Statement 7.6
7.4 The for Statement 7.9
7.5 Jumps in Loops 7.22
7.6 Concise Test Expressions 7.29
Just Remember 7.30
viii Contents

Review Questions 7.30

Programming Exercises 7.34
Debugging Exercises 7.37
Multiple Choice Questions 7.39
Answers 7.40
8. Arrays 8.1–8.36
8.1 Introduction 8.1
8.2 One-Dimensional Arrays 8.3
8.3 Declaration of One-Dimensional Arrays 8.4
8.4 Initialization of One-Dimensional Arrays 8.7
8.5 Two-Dimensional Arrays 8.10
8.6 Initializing Two-Dimensional Arrays 8.22
8.7 Multi-Dimensional Arrays 8.26
8.8 Dynamic Arrays 8.27
Just Remember 8.27
Review Questions 8.28
Programming Exercises 8.31
Debugging Exercises 8.33
Multiple Choice Questions 8.35
Answers 8.36
9. Strings 9.1–9.33
9.1 Introduction 9.1
9.2 Declaring and Initializing String Variables 9.2
9.3 Reading Strings from Terminal 9.3
9.4 Writing Strings to Screen 9.9
9.5 Arithmetic Operations on Characters 9.13
9.6 Putting Strings Together 9.14
9.7 Comparison of Two Strings 9.16
9.8 String-Handling Functions (Built-in String Functions) 9.16
9.9 Table of Strings 9.21
9.10 Other Features of Strings 9.25
Just Remember 9.25
Review Questions 9.25
Programming Exercises 9.28
Debugging Exercises 9.30
Multiple Choice Questions 9.33
Answers 9.33
10. User-Defined Functions and Recursion 10.1–10.52
10.1 Introduction 10.1
10.2 Need for User-defined Functions 10.1
10.3 A Multi-function Program 10.2
10.4 Elements of User-defined Functions 10.5
 Contents ix

10.5 Definition of Functions 10.5

10.6 Return Values and their Types 10.8
10.7 Function Calls 10.9
10.8 Function Declaration 10.11
10.9 Category of Functions 10.12
10.10 No Arguments and No Return Values 10.12
10.11 Arguments but no Return Values 10.14
10.12 Arguments with Return Values 10.18
10.13 No Arguments but Returns a Value 10.22
10.14 Functions that Return Multiple Values 10.22
10.15 Nesting of Functions 10.23
10.16 Recursion 10.25
10.17 Passing Arrays to Functions 10.26
10.18 Passing Strings to Functions 10.31
10.19 The Scope, Visibility and Lifetime of Variables 10.32
Just Remember 10.41
Review Questions 10.42
Programming Exercises 10.47
Debugging Exercises 10.48
Multiple Choice Questions 10.51
Answers 10.52
11. Pointers 11.1–11.34
11.1 Introduction 11.1
11.2 Understanding Pointers 11.2
11.3 Accessing the Address of a Variable 11.4
11.4 Declaring Pointer Variables 11.5
11.5 Initialization of Pointer Variables 11.6
11.6 Accessing a Variable through its Pointer 11.8
11.7 Chain of Pointers (Pointer to Pointer) 11.10
11.8 Pointer Expressions 11.10
11.9 Pointer Increments and Scale Factor 11.12
11.10 Pointers and Arrays 11.13
11.11 Pointers and Character Strings 11.16
11.12 Array of Pointers 11.18
11.13 Pointers as Function Arguments 11.19
11.14 Functions Returning Pointers 11.22
11.15 Pointers to Functions 11.22
11.16 Pointers and Structures 11.25
11.17 Troubles with Pointers 11.27
Just Remember 11.28
Review Questions 11.28
Programming Exercises 11.31
Debugging Exercises 11.32
x Contents

Multiple Choice Questions 11.33

Answers 11.34
12. Structures and Unions 12.1–12.37
12.1 Introduction 12.1
12.2 Defining a Structure 12.1
12.3 Declaring Structure Variables 12.3
12.4 Accessing Structure Members 12.4
12.5 Structure Initialization 12.6
12.6 Copying and Comparing Structure Variables 12.8
12.7 Operations on Individual Members 12.10
12.8 Arrays of Structures 12.10
12.9 Arrays within Structures 12.14
12.10 Structures within Structures (Nested Structures) 12.15
12.11 Structures and Functions 12.17
12.12 Pointers and Structures 12.20
12.13 Unions 12.22
12.14 Size of Structures 12.24
12.15 Bit Fields 12.25
Just Remember 12.28
Review Questions 12.29
Programming Exercises 12.33
Debugging Exercises 12.35
Multiple Choice Questions 12.36
Answers 12.37
13. Dynamic Memory Allocation and Linked Lists 13.1–13.38
13.1 Introduction 13.1
13.2 Dynamic Memory Allocation 13.2
13.3 Allocating a Block of Memory: Malloc 13.3
13.4 Allocating Multiple Blocks of Memory: Calloc 13.6
13.5 Releasing the used Space: Free 13.7
13.6 Altering the Size of a Block: Realloc 13.8
13.7 Concepts of Linked Lists 13.9
13.8 Advantages of Linked Lists 13.12
13.9 Types of Linked Lists 13.13
13.10 Pointers Revisited 13.14
13.11 Creating a Linked List 13.16
13.12 Inserting an Item 13.22
13.13 Deleting an Item 13.24
13.14 Application of Linked Lists 13.26
Just Remember 13.27
Case Studies 13.28
Review Questions 13.34
 Contents xi

Programming Exercises 13.36

Multiple Choice Questions 13.37
Answers 13.38
14. File Management in C 14.1–14.26
14.1 Introduction 14.1
14.2 Defining and Opening a File 14.2
14.3 Closing a File 14.3
14.4 Input/Output Operations on Files 14.4
14.5 Error Handling During I/O Operations 14.12
14.6 Random Access to Files 14.14
14.7 Command Line Arguments 14.21
Just Remember 14.23
Review Questions 14.23
Programming Exercises 14.24
Multiple Choice Questions 14.25
Answers 14.26
15. The Preprocessor 15.1–15.16
15.1 Introduction 15.1
15.2 Macro Substitution 15.2
15.3 File Inclusion 15.6
15.4 Compiler Control Directives 15.7
15.5 ANSI Additions 15.11
Just Remember 15.13
Review Questions 15.13
Programming Exercises 15.15
Multiple Choice Questions 15.15
Answers 15.16
Practical Sets PS.1–PS.3

GTU BE Semester-1st/2nd Examination (New Syllabus) – Summer 2016 Q.1–Q.12

GTU BE Semester-1st/2nd Examination (New Syllabus) – Winter 2016 Q.1–Q.10

GTU BE Semester-1st/2nd Examination (New Syllabus) – Summer 2017 Q.1–Q.9

 Preface

The developments in digital electronics and related technologies during the last few decades have
ushered in the second Industrial Revolution, popularly referred to as the Information Revolution.
Computer technology plays an ever-increasing role in this new revolution. Application of computers is
all-pervasive in the life of every human today. A sound knowledge of how computers work and how they
process data and information has, therefore, become indispensable for anyone who seeks employment
not only in the area of IT but also in any other fields.
Rightly so, many institutions and universities in India have introduced a subject covering the
fundamentals of computers and programming in C and C++ at the undergraduate and diploma levels of
arts, science and engineering disciplines.
The fourth edition of the book Computer Programming and Utilization has been revised keeping
in mind the first year engineering students of Gujarat Technological University undergoing the course
Computer Programming and Utilization (2110003).

Highlights of the Book

The book provides a detailed coverage of the basic programming concepts using easy and application
based programs and various examination oriented pedagogical aids. Student-friendly in approach, the
book comprises a variety of solved examples and solutions of GTU question papers within the book.
The book ensures that the reader will go from knowing nothing about programming to having a strong
grasp of C, C++ and object-oriented programming. Ample exercise questions including Programming
and Debugging exercises at the end of each chapter will give students opportunities to absorb concepts
and hone their skills.

Salient Features
∑ Up-to-date and complete coverage of GTU syllabus
∑ Precise theory presented in lucid language
∑ Codes with comments provided throughout the book to illustrate the use of various features of
the language
∑ Excellent coverage of flowcharts and algorithms
∑ Supplementary information and notes that complement but stand apart from the text are
included in special boxes
∑ Just Remember given at the end of each chapter for quick recap of the concepts
∑ Application based programs are given in every chapter
∑ Solved question papers including summer 2016, winter 2016 and summer 2017
xiv Preface

∑ Rich pedagogy:
o 158 Multiple Choice Questions given at the end of every chapter to help test the
understanding of learner
o 729 Review Questions provide ample opportunities to test the conceptual understanding of
features
o 198 Programming Exercises and 44 Debugging Exercises stimulate interest to practice
programming applications
o 195 Figures and over 133 Examples serve as effective study aids
o 5 Practical Sets given at the end of the book

Online Learning Centre

This edition includes an online learning centre for students and instructors which contains:
∑ Solved programs selected from question papers of 2009 to 2012.
∑ Open-ended problems with solutions
∑ Chapter summary PPTs for quick last minute revision.
∑ 6 Solved question papers with solutions from summer 2013 to winter 2015
These supplementary resources can be accessed from the following web link:
http://www.mhhe.com/balagurusamy/cpu4/gtu.

Chapter Organisation
The book has been divided into 15 chapters. Chapter 1 gives an overview of computers, their
development, characteristics and evolution. Next, the fundamentals of C are introduced in Chapter 2.
Chapter 3 explains data types in C. Operators and their hierarchy, and the concept of header files and
I/O operations are taken up in Chapters 4 and 5 respectively.
Control structures—decision making, branching and looping—are covered subsequently in
Chapters 6 and 7. Arrays in ANSI C are presented in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 deals with strings. Functions
and recursion forms the subject of discussion in Chapter 10, while pointers, structures and unions are
covered in Chapters 11 and 12 respectively.
The principles of dynamic memory allocation and linked lists are introduced in Chapter 13,
while Chapter 14 guides the reader on file management in C. Finally, the preprocessor is taken up in
Chapter 15.
The book provides numerous examples, illustrations and complete programs. The sample programs
are meant to be both simple and educational. Wherever necessary, pictorial descriptions of concepts are
included to improve clarity and facilitate better understanding. The book also presents the concept of
oriented approach and discusses briefly the important elements of object programming.
Acknowledgements
A special note of thanks to the following reviewers for their valuable feedback:
Hardik Molia Government Engineering College, Rajkot, Gujarat
Bintu Kadhiwala Sarvajanik College of Engineering and Technology, Surat, Gujarat
Archana Nayak GIDC Degree Engineering College, Abrama, Gujarat
Chintan Bhavsar G.H. Patel College of Engineering and Technology, Gujarat
Kajal S Patel Government Engineering College, Gandhinagar, Godhra, Gujarat
 Preface xv

Jay B. Teraiya Marwadi Education Foundation, Rajkot, Gujarat

Dhara Buch Government Engineering College, Rajkot, Gujarat

I would like to thank all those who provided me with valuable feedback and inputs during the preparation
of this book, and especially those at McGraw Hill Education, without whose help and cooperation, this
book would not have had a timely release. Special thanks are also due to all my teacher friends and students
for their encouragement. I hope everyone who desires to be a part of the next generation of computing
will find this book interesting and useful. Further suggestions for improvement will always be welcome.
— E Balagurusamy

Publisher's Note
Constructive suggestions and criticism always go a long way in enhancing any endeavour. We
request all readers to email us their valuable comments/views/feedback for the betterment of the
book at info.india@mheducation.com, mentioning the title and author name in the subject line.
Also, please feel free to report any piracy of the book spotted by you.
 Roadmap to the Syllabus
Computer Programming and Utilization

Introduction to Computer Programming: Introduction, Basic block diagram and functions

of various components of a computer; Concepts of hardware and software; Types of software;
Compiler and interpreter; Concepts of machine-level, assembly-level and high-level programming;
Flow charts and algorithms.

GO TO
Chapter 1 Introduction to Computers and Programming

Fundamentals of C—Features of C language; Structure of C program; Comments; Header files;

Data types; Constants and variables; Operators; Expressions; Evaluation of expressions; Type
conversion; Precedence and associativity; I/O functions

GO TO Chapter 2 Fundamentals of C
Chapter 3 Data Types in C
Chapter 4 Operations and their Hierarchy
Chapter 5 Input–Output Functions

Control Structures in C—Simple statements; Decision-making statements; Looping statements;

Nesting of control structures; break and continue; goto statement

GO TO
Chapter 6 Control Structures: Decision Making and Branching
Chapter 7 Control Structures: Decision Making and Looping
xviii Roadmap to the Syllabus

Arrays and Strings—Concepts of array; One and two-dimensional arrays; Declaration and
initialization of arrays; String; String storage; Built-in-string functions

GO TO
Chapter 8 Arrays
Chapter 9 Strings

Functions—Concepts of user-defined functions; Prototypes; Definition of function; Parameters;

Parameter passing; Calling a function; Recursive function; Macros; Pre-processing

GO TO Chapter 10 User-Defined Functions and Recursion

Chapter 15 The Preprocessor

Pointers—Basics of pointers; Pointer to pointer; Pointer and Array; Pointer to array; Array of
pointers; Functions returning a pointer

GO TO Chapter 11 Pointers

Structure—Basics of structure; Structure members; Accessing structure members; Nested

structures; Array of structures; Structure and functions; Structures and pointers

GO TO Chapter 12 Structures and Unions

Dynamic Memory Allocation—Introduction to dynamic memory allocation; malloc; calloc;

GO TO Chapter 13 Dynamic Memory Allocation and Linked Lists

File Management—Introduction to file management and its functions

GO TO Chapter 14 File Management in C

 1
Introduction to Computer
and Programming

1.1 Introduction

The term computer is derived from the word compute. A computer is an electronic device that takes
data and instructions as an input from the user, processes data, and provides useful information known
as output. This cycle of operation of a computer is known as the input–process–output cycle and is
shown in Fig. 1.1. The electronic device is known as hardware and the set of instructions is known as
software.

INPUT OUTPUT
Data PROCESS Information

Instructions

Fig. 1.1 Input–process–output concept

The spurt of innovations and inventions in computer technology during the last few decades has led
to the development of a variety of computers. They are so versatile that they have become indispensable
to engineers, scientists, business executives, managers, administrators, accountants, teachers and
students. They have strengthened man’s powers in numerical computations and information processing.
Modern computers possess certain characteristics and abilities peculiar to them. They can:
(i) perform complex and repetitive calculations rapidly and accurately,
(ii) store large amounts of data and information for subsequent manipulations,
(iii) hold a program of a model which can be explored in many different ways,
(iv) compare items and make decisions,
(v) provide information to the user in many different forms,
(vi) automatically correct or modify the parameters of a system under control,
1.2 Computer Programming and Utilization

(vii) draw and print graphs,

(viii) converse with users interactively, and
(ix) receive and display audio and video signals.
These capabilities of computers have enabled us to use them for a variety of tasks. Application areas
may broadly be classified into the following major categories.
1. Data processing (commercial use)
2. Numerical computing (scientific use)
3. Text (word) processing (office and educational use)
4. Message communication (e-mail)
5. Image processing (animation and industrial use)
6. Voice recognition (multimedia)
Engineers and scientists make use of the high-speed computing capability of computers to solve
complex mathematical models and design problems. Many calculations that were previously beyond
contemplation have now become possible. Many of the technological achievements such as landing on
the moon would not have been possible without computers.
The areas of computer applications are too numerous to mention. Computers have become an
integral part of man’s everyday life. They continue to grow and open new horizons of discovery and
application such as the electronic office, electronic commerce, and the home computer center.
The microelectronics revolution has placed enormous computational power within the reach
of not only every organisation but also individual professionals and businessmen. However, it must
be remembered that computers are machines created and managed by human beings. A computer has
no brain of its own. Anything it does is the result of human instructions. It is an obedient slave which
carries out the master’s instructions as long as it can understand them, no matter whether they are right
or wrong. A computer has no common sense.

1.2 Basic Anatomy of a Computer System

A computer system comprises of hardware and software components. Hardware refers to the physical
parts of the computer system and software is the set of instructions or programs that are necessary for
the functioning of a computer to perform certain tasks. Hardware includes the following components:
• Input devices — They are used for accepting the data on which the operations are to be
performed. The examples of input devices are keyboard, mouse and track ball.
• Processor — Also known as CPU, it is used to perform the calculations and information
processing on the data that is entered through the input device.
• Output devices — They are used for providing the output of a program that is obtained after
performing the operations specified in a program. The examples of output devices are monitor
and printer.
• Memory — It is used for storing the input data as well as the output of a program that is obtained
after performing the operations specified in a program. Memory can be primary memory as
well as secondary memory. Primary memory includes Random Access Memory (RAM) and
secondary memory includes hard disks and floppy disks.
 Introduction to Computer and Programming 1.3

Software supports the functioning of a computer system internally and cannot be seen. It is
stored on secondary memory and can be an application software as well as system software. The
application software is used to perform a specific task according to requirements and the system software
is mandatory for running application software. The examples of application software include Excel and
MS Word and the examples of system software include operating system and networking system.
All the hardware components interact with each other as well as with the software. Similarly, the
different types of software interact with each other and with the hardware components. The interaction
between various hardware components is illustrated in Fig. 1.2.

Magnetic Magnetic
Tape Disk

EXTERNAL STORAGE UNITS

Input Input Memory Output Output

Media Unit Unit Unit Media

Arithmetic
Unit

Control
Unit

CPU
Data and results flow
Control Instructions to units
Instructions to control unit

Fig. 1.2 Block diagram of a computer system depicting interaction between

various hardware components

1.3 Input Devices

Input devices can be connected to the computer system using cables. The most commonly used input
devices among others are:
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• Scanner
1.4 Computer Programming and Utilization

1.3.1 Keyboard
A standard keyboard includes alphanumeric keys, function keys, modifier keys, cursor movement keys,
spacebar, escape key, numeric keypad, and some special keys, such as Page Up, Page Down, Home,
Insert, Delete and End. The alphanumeric keys include the number keys and the alphabet keys. The
function keys are the keys that help perform a specific task such as searching a file or refreshing a
Web page. The modifier keys such as Shift and Control keys modify the casing style of a character or
symbol. The cursor movement keys include up, down, left and right keys and are used to modify the
direction of the cursor on the screen. The spacebar key shifts the cursor to the right by one position. The
numeric keypad uses separate keypads for numbers and mathematical operators. A keyboard is shown in
Fig. 1.3.
Function Keys
(F1 to F12)
Escape Key
Special Keys

Numeric Keypad

Modifier Keys

Alphanumeric Spacebar Key Cursor Movement

Keys Keys

Fig. 1.3 Keyboard

1.3.2 Mouse
The mouse allows the user to select elements on the screen, such as tools, icons, and buttons, by pointing
and clicking them. We can also use a mouse to draw and paint on the screen of the computer system. The
mouse is also known as a pointing device because it helps
Wheel
change the position of the pointer or cursor on the screen.
Right Button
The mouse consists of two buttons, a wheel at the
Left Button
top and a ball at the bottom of the mouse. When the ball
moves, the cursor on the screen moves in the direction in
which the ball rotates. The left button of the mouse is used
to select an element and the right button, when clicked,
displays the special options such as open and explore and
Fig. 1.4 Mouse shortcut menus. The wheel is used to scroll down in a
document or a Web page. A mouse is shown in Fig. 1.4.

1.3.3 Scanner
A scanner is an input device that converts documents and images as the digitized images understandable
by the computer system. The digitized images can be produced as black and white images, gray images,
or colored images. In case of colored images, an image is considered as a collection of dots with each
dot representing a combination of red, green, and blue colors, varying in proportions. The proportions
 Introduction to Computer and Programming 1.5

of red, green, and blue colors assigned to a dot are together called as
color description. The scanner uses the color description of the dots
to produce a digitized image. Fig. 1.5 shows a scanner.
There are the following types of scanners that can be used to
produce digitized images:
• Flatbed scanner — It contains a scanner head that moves across
a page from top to bottom to read the page and converts the
image or text available on the page in digital form. The flatbed
scanner is used to scan graphics, oversized documents, and
pages from books.
• Drum scanner — In this type of scanner, a fixed scanner head
Fig. 1.5 Scanner is used and the image to be scanned is moved across the head.
The drum scanners are used for scanning prepress materials.
• Slide scanner — It is a scanner that can scan photographic slides directly to produce files
understandable by the computer.
• Handheld scanner — It is a scanner that is moved by the end user across the page to be scanned.
This type of scanner is inexpensive and small in size.

1.4 Output Devices

The data, processed by the CPU, is made available to the end user by the output devices. The most
commonly used output devices are:
• Monitor
• Printer
• Speaker
• Plotter

1.4.1 Monitor
A monitor is the most commonly used output device that produces visual displays generated by the
computer. The monitor, also known as a screen, is connected as an external device using cables or
connected either as a part of the CPU case. The monitor connected using cables, is connected to the
video card placed on the expansion slot of the motherboard. The display device is used for visual
presentation of textual and graphical information.
The monitors can be classified as cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors or liquid crystal display (LCD)
monitors. The CRT monitors are large, occupy more space in the computer, whereas LCD monitors are
thin, light weighted, and occupy lesser space. Both the monitors are available as monochrome, gray
scale and color models. However, the quality of the visual display produced by the CRT is better than
that produced by the LCD.
The inner side of the screen of the CRT contains the red, green, and blue phosphors. When a beam
of electrons strike the screen, the beam strikes the red, green and blue phosphors on the screen and
irradiates it to produce the image. The process repeats itself for a change in the image, thus refreshing
the changing image. To change the color displayed by the monitor, the intensity of the beam striking the
screen is varied. If the rate at which the screen gets refreshed is large, then the screen starts flickering,
when the images are refreshed.
1.6 Computer Programming and Utilization

The LCD monitor is a thin display device that consists of a number of color or monochrome pixels
arrayed in front of a light source or reflector. LCD monitors consume a very small amount of electric
power.
A monitor can be characterized by its monitor size and resolution. The monitor size is the length of
the screen that is measured diagonally. The resolution of the screen is expressed as the number of picture
elements or pixels of the screen. The resolution of the monitor is also called the dot pitch. The monitor
with a higher resolution produces a clearer image.

1.4.2 Printer
The printer is an output device that transfers the text displayed on the screen, onto paper sheets that can
be used by the end user. The various types of printers used in the market are generally categorized as
dot matrix printers, inkjet printers, and laser printers. Dot matrix printers are commonly used in low
quality and high volume applications like invoice printing, cash registers, etc. However, inkjet printers
are slower than dot matrix printers and generate high quality photographic prints. Since laser printers
consist of microprocessor, ROM and RAM, they can produce high quality prints in quicker time without
being connected to a computer.
The printer is an output device that is used to produce a hard copy of the electronic text displayed on
the screen, in the form of paper sheets that can be used by the end user. The printer is an external device
that is connected to the computer system using cables. The computer needs to convert the document
that is to be printed to data that is understandable by the printer. The printer driver software or the print
driver software is used to convert a document to a form understandable by the computer. When the
computer components are upgraded, the upgraded printer driver software needs to be installed on the
computer.
The performance of a printer is measured in terms of dots per inch (DPI) and pages per minute
(PPM) produced by the printer. The greater the DPI parameter of a printer, the better is the quality of
the output generated by it. The higher PPM represents higher efficiency of the printer. Printers can be
classified based on the technology they use to print the text and images:
• Dot matrix printers — Dot matrix printers are impact printers that use perforated sheet to
print the text. The process to print a text involves striking a pin against a ribbon to produce its
impression on the paper. As the striking motion of the pins help in making carbon copies of a
text, dot matrix printers are used to produce multiple copies of a print out.
• Inkjet printers — Inkjet printers are slower than dot matrix printers and are used to generate
high quality photographic prints. Inkjet printers are not impact printers. The ink cartridges are
attached to the printer head that moves horizontally, from left to right. The print out is developed
as the ink of the cartridges is sprayed onto the paper. The ink in the inkjet is heated to create
a bubble. The bubble bursts out at high pressure, emitting a jet of the ink on the paper thus
producing images.
• Laser printers — The laser printer may or may not be connected to a computer, to generate an
output. These printers consist of a microprocessor, ROM and RAM, which can be used to store
the textual information. The printer uses a cylindrical drum, a toner and the laser beam. The toner
stores the ink that is used in generating the output. The fonts used for printing in a laser printer
are stored in the ROM or in the cartridges that are attached to the printer. The laser printers are
available as gray scale, black and white or color models. To print high quality pages that are
graphic intensive, laser printers use the PageMaker software.
 Introduction to Computer and Programming 1.7

1.4.3 Speaker
The speaker is an electromechanical transducer that converts an electrical signal into sound. They are
attached to a computer as output devices, to provide audio output, such as warning sounds and Internet
audios. We can have built-in speakers or attached speakers in a computer to warn end users with error
audio messages and alerts. The audio drivers need to be installed in the computer to produce the audio
output. The sound card being used in the computer system decides the quality of audio that we listen
using music CDs or over the Internet. The computer speakers vary widely in terms of quality and price.
The sophisticated computer speakers may have a subwoofer unit, to enhance bass output.

1.4.4 Plotter
The plotter is another commonly used output device that is connected to a computer to print large
documents, such as engineering or constructional drawings. Plotters use multiple ink pens or inkjets
with color cartridges for printing. A computer transmits binary signals to all the print heads of the
plotter. Each binary signal contains the coordinates of where a print head needs to be positioned for
printing. Plotters are classified on the basis of their performance, as follows:
• Drum plotter — They are used to draw perfect circles and other graphic images. They use a
drawing arm to draw the image. The drum plotter moves the paper back and forth through a roller
and the drawing arm moves across the paper.
• Flat-bed plotter — A flat bed plotter has a flat drawing surface and the two drawing arms that
move across the paper sheet, drawing an image. The plotter has a low speed of printing and is
large in size.
• Inkjet plotter — Spray nozzles are used to generate images by spraying droplets of ink onto the
paper. However, the spray nozzles can get clogged and require regular cleaning, thus resulting in
a high maintenance cost.
• Electrostatic plotter — As compared to other plotters, an electrostatic plotter produces quality
print with highest speed. It uses charged electric wires and special dielectric paper for drawing.
The electric wires are supplied with high voltage that attracts the ink in the toner and fuses it with
the dielectric paper.

1.5 Software

In the field of computer science, software is defined as a computer program, which includes logical
instructions used for performing a particular task on a computer system using hardware components. The
following are the two major categories of software under which different types of computer programs
can be classified:
• System software
• Application software
Figure 1.6 shows the relationship among hardware, software, and user.
The figure shows a layered architecture, which represents different components of a computer such
as hardware, system software, application software, and user in a hierarchical manner.
1.8 Computer Programming and Utilization

Hardware

System software

Application software

User

Fig. 1.6 Relationship among hardware, software, and user

1.5.1 System Software

System software refers to a computer program that manages and controls hardware components of
a computer system. In other words, the system software is responsible for handling the functioning
of the computer hardware. The system software is also responsible for the proper functioning of the
application software on a computer system. The system software includes general programs, which
are written to provide an environment for developing new application software using programming
languages. In computer science, there are several types of system software, such as operating systems
and utility programs. The operating system is the primary system software, which controls the hardware
and software resources of a computer system. It also performs various operations, such as memory
allocation, instruction processing, and file management. The most commonly used operating systems
are MS DOS, MS Windows, and UNIX. The following are the various functions of system software:
• Process management
• Memory management
• Secondary storage management
• I/O system management
• File management

1.5.2 Application Software

Application software is a computer program that is executed on the system software. It is designed and
developed for performing specific tasks and is also known as end-user program. Application software
is unable to run without the system software, such as operating system and utility programs. It includes
several applications, such as word-processing and spreadsheet. The word-processing application helps
in creating and editing a document. Using this application software, we can also format and print the
document. For word-processing, many applications are available, such as WordStar, WordPerfect, and
Open-source. The most commonly used word-processing application is MS Word, which is a part of
the MS Office suite. Spreadsheet application helps in creating a customized ledger, which has number
of columns and rows for entering the data values. The most commonly used spreadsheet application is
MS Excel, which is also a part of MS Office suite. It helps in storing and maintaining a database in a
structural manner.
 Introduction to Computer and Programming 1.9

1.6 Hardware

The physical devices that make up the computer are called Hardware. The hardware units are responsible
for entering, storing and processing the given data and then displaying the output to the users. The basic
hardware units of a general purpose computer are keyboard, mouse, memory, CPU, monitor and printer.
Among these hardware units, keyboard and mouse are used to input data into the computer, memory is
used to store the entered data, CPU is used to process the entered data and monitor and printer are used
to display the processed data to the users.
CPU is the main component inside the computer that is responsible for performing various operations
and also for managing the input and output devices. It includes two components for its functioning,
Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) and Control Unit (CU). ALU is used to perform the arithmetic operations
such as addition, subtraction, etc. and logic operations such as AND, OR, etc. on the data obtained from
the memory. CU is used to control the activities related to the input and output devices. It obtains the
instructions from the memory, decodes them and then, executes them so as to deliver output to the users.
The XNOR gate can be logically expressed as:
A≈ B
Table 1.1 shows the truth table of XNOR gate.
Table 1.1 Truth Table of XNOR Gate

Input A Input B Output Y

0 0 1
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1

1.7 Programming Languages

The operations of a computer are controlled by a set of instructions (called a computer program). These
instructions are written to tell the computer:
1. What operation to perform
2. Where to locate data
3. How to present results
4. When to make certain decisions
The communication between two parties, whether they are machines or human beings, always needs
a common language or terminology. The language used in the communication of computer instructions
is known as the programming language. The computer has its own language and any communication
with the computer must be in its language or translated into this language.
Three levels of programming languages are available. They are:
1. machine languages (low level languages)
2. assembly (or symbolic) languages
3. procedure-oriented languages (high level languages)
1.10 Computer Programming and Utilization

1.7.1 Machine Language

As computers are made of two-state electronic devices they can understand only pulse and no-pulse
(or ‘1’ and ‘0’) conditions. Therefore, all instructions and data should be written using binary codes
1 and 0. The binary code is called the machine code or machine language.
Computers do not understand English, Hindi or Tamil. They respond only to machine language.
Added to this, computers are not identical in design, therefore, each computer has its own machine
language. (However, the script 1 and 0, is the same for all computers). This poses two problems for the
user.
First, it is difficult to understand and remember the various combinations of 1’s and 0’s representing
numerous data and instructions. Also, writing error-free instructions is a slow process.
Secondly, since every machine has its own machine language, the user cannot communicate with
other computers (If he does not know its language). Imagine a Tamilian making his first trip to Delhi.
He would face enormous obstacles as the language barrier would prevent him from communicating.
Machine languages are usually referred to as the first generation languages.

1.7.2 Assembly Language

The Assembly language, introduced in 1950s, reduced programming complexity and provided some
standardization to build an application. The assembly language, also referred to as the second-generation
programming language, is also a low-level language. In an assembly language, the 0s and 1s of machine
language are replaced with abbreviations or mnemonic code.
The main advantages of an assembly language over a machine language are:
• As we can locate and identify syntax errors in assembly language, it is easy to debug it.
• It is easier to develop a computer application using assembly language in comparison to machine
language.
• Assembly language operates very efficiently.
An assembly language program consists of a series of instructions and mnemonics that correspond
to a stream of executable instructions. An assembly language instruction consists of a mnemonic code
followed by zero or more operands. The mnemonic code is called the operation code or opcode, which
specifies the operation to be performed on the given arguments. Consider the following machine code:
10110000 01100001
Its equivalent assembly language representation is:
mov al, 061h
In the above instruction, the opcode “move” is used to move the hexadecimal value 61 into the
processor register named ‘al’. The following program shows the assembly language instructions to
subtract two numbers:
ORG 500 /Origin of program is location 500
LDA SUB /Load subtrahend to AC
CMA /Complement AC
INC /Increment AC
ADD MIN /Add minuend to AC
STA DIF /Store difference
HLT /Halt computer
 Introduction to Computer and Programming 1.11

MIN, DEC 56 /Minuend

SUB, DEC -2 /Subtrahend
DIF, HEX 0 /Difference stored here
END /End of symbolic program
It should be noted that during execution, the assembly language program is converted into the
machine code with the help of an assembler. The simple assembly language statements had one-to-one
correspondence with the machine language statements. This one-to-one correspondence still generated
complex programs. Then, macroinstructions were devised so that multiple machine language statements
could be represented using a single assembly language instruction. Even today programmers prefer to
use an assembly language for performing certain tasks such as:
• To initialize and test the system hardware prior to booting the operating system. This assembly
language code is stored in ROM
• To write patches for disassembling viruses, in anti-virus product development companies
• To attain extreme optimization, for example, in an inner loop in a processor-intensive algorithm
• For direct interaction with the hardware
• In extremely high-security situations where complete control over the environment is required
• To maximize the use of limited resources, in a system with severe resource constraints

1.7.3 High-Level Languages

High level languages further simplified programming tasks by reducing the number of computer
operation details that had to be specified. High level languages like COBOL, Pascal, FORTRAN,
and C are more abstract, easier to use, and more portable across platforms, as compared to low-
level programming languages. Instead of dealing with registers, memory addresses and call stacks, a
programmer can concentrate more on the logic to solve the problem with help of variables, arrays or
Boolean expressions. For example, consider the following assembly language code:
LOAD A
ADD B
STORE C
Using FORTRAN, the above code can be represented as:
C=A+B
The above high-level language code is executed by translating it into the corresponding machine
language code with the help of a compiler or interpreter.
High-level languages can be classified into the following three categories:
• Procedure-oriented languages (third generation)
• Problem-oriented languages (fourth generation)
• Natural languages (fifth generation)
Procedure-oriented Languages
High-level languages designed to solve general-purpose problems are called procedural languages
or third-generation languages. These include BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, C, C++, and JAVA,
which are designed to express the logic and procedure of a problem. Although, the syntax of these
programming languages is different, they use English-like commands that are easy to follow. Another
Discovering Diverse Content Through
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does not insist upon the same purity of family
life which Homer describes in Ulysses and
Penelope. Charles Kingsley, in Alton Locke,
remarks that the spirit of the Greek tragedy
was 'man mastered by circumstance'; that of
modern tragedy is “man mastering
circumstance.” But the Greek tragedians, while
showing man thus mastered, do still represent
him as inwardly free, as in the case of
Prometheus, and this sense of human freedom
and responsibility appears to some extent in
Socrates.

Plato (430-348) held that morality is pleasure in

the good, as the truly beautiful, and that
knowledge produces virtue. The good is
likeness to God,—here we have glimpses of an
extra-human goal and model. The body, like all
matter, being inherently evil, is a hindrance to
the soul,—here we have a glimpse of hereditary
depravity. But Plato “reduced moral evil to the
category of natural evil.” He failed to recognize
God as creator and master of matter; failed to
recognize man's depravity as due to his own
apostasy from God; failed to found morality on
the divine will rather than on man's own
consciousness. He knew nothing of a common
humanity, and regarded virtue as only for the
few. As there was no common sin, so there was
no common redemption. Plato thought to reach
God by intellect alone, when only conscience
and heart could lead to him. He believed in a
freedom of the soul in a preëxistent state
where a choice was made between good and
evil, but he believed that, after that
antemundane decision had been made, the
fates determined men's acts and lives
irreversibly. Reason drives two horses, appetite
and emotion, but their course has been
predetermined.

[pg 184]
Man acts as reason prompts. All sin is
ignorance. There is nothing in this life but
determinism. Martineau, Types, 13, 48, 49, 78,
88—Plato in general has no proper notion of
responsibility; he reduces moral evil to the
category of natural evil. His Ideas with one
exception are not causes. Cause is mind, and
mind is the Good. The Good is the apex and
crown of Ideas. The Good is the highest Idea,
and this highest Idea is a Cause. Plato has a
feeble conception of personality, whether in
God or in man. Yet God is a person in whatever
sense man is a person, and man's personality is
reflective self-consciousness. Will in God or man
is not so clear. The Right is dissolved into the
Good. Plato advocated infanticide and the
killing off of the old and the helpless.

Aristotle (384-322) leaves out of view even the

element of God-likeness and antemundane evil
which Plato so dimly recognized, and makes
morality the fruit of mere rational self-
consciousness. He grants evil proclivities, but
he refuses to call them immoral. He advocates
a certain freedom of will, and he recognizes
inborn tendencies which war against this
freedom, but how these tendencies originated
he cannot say, nor how men may be delivered
from them. Not all can be moral; the majority
must be restrained by fear. He finds in God no
motive, and love to God is not so much as
mentioned as the source of moral action. A
proud, composed, self-centered, and self-
contained man is his ideal character. See
Nicomachean Ethics, 7:6, and 10:10; Wuttke,
Christian Ethics, 1:92-126. Alexander, Theories
of Will, 39-54—Aristotle held that desire and
reason are the springs of action. Yet he did not
hold that knowledge of itself would make men
virtuous. He was a determinist. Actions are free
only in the sense of being devoid of external
compulsion. He viewed slavery as both rational
and right. Butcher, Aspects of Greek Genius, 76
—“While Aristotle attributed to the State a more
complete personality than it really possessed,
he did not grasp the depth and meaning of the
personality of the individual.” A. H. Strong,
Christ in Creation, 289—Aristotle had no
conception of the unity of humanity. His
doctrine of unity did not extend beyond the
State. “He said that ‘the whole is before the
parts,’ but he meant by ‘the whole’ only the
pan-Hellenic world, the commonwealth of
Greeks; he never thought of humanity, and the
word ‘mankind’ never fell from his lips. He
could not understand the unity of humanity,
because he knew nothing of Christ, its
organizing principle.” On Aristotle's conception
of God, see James Ten Broeke, in Bap. Quar.
Rev., Jan. 1892—God is recognized as personal,
yet he is only the Greek Reason, and not the
living, loving, providential Father of the Hebrew
revelation. Aristotle substitutes the logical for
the dynamical in his dealing with the divine
causality. God is thought, not power.

Epicurus (342-270) regarded happiness, the

subjective feeling of pleasure, as the highest
criterion of truth and good. A prudent
calculating for prolonged pleasure is the highest
wisdom. He regards only this life. Concern for
retribution and for a future existence is folly. If
there are gods, they have no concern for men.
“Epicurus, on pretense of consulting for their
ease, complimented the gods, and bowed them
out of existence.” Death is the falling apart of
material atoms and the eternal cessation of
consciousness. The miseries of this life are due
to imperfection in the fortuitously constructed
universe. The more numerous these
undeserved miseries, the greater our right to
seek pleasure. Alexander, Theories of the Will,
55-75—The Epicureans held that the soul is
composed of atoms, yet that the will is free.
The atoms of the soul are excepted from the
law of cause and effect. An atom may decline
or deviate in the universal descent, and this is
the Epicurean idea of freedom. This
indeterminism was held by all the Greek
sceptics, materialists though they were.

Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy (340-

264), regarded virtue as the only good.
Thought is to subdue nature. The free spirit is
self-legislating, self-dependent, self-sufficient.
Thinking, not feeling, is the criterion of the true
and the good. Pleasure is the consequence, not
the end of moral action. There is an
irreconcilable antagonism of existence. Man
cannot reform the world, but he can make
himself perfect. Hence an unbounded pride in
virtue. The sage never repents. There is not the
least recognition of the moral corruption of
mankind. There is no objective divine ideal, or
revealed divine will. The Stoic discovers moral
law only within, and never suspects his own
moral perversion. Hence he shows self-control
and justice, but never humility or love. He
needs no compassion or forgiveness, and he
grants none to others. Virtue is not an actively
outworking character, but a passive resistance
to irrational reality. Man may retreat into
himself. The Stoic is indifferent to pleasure and
pain, not because he believes in a divine
government, or in a divine love for mankind,
but as a proud defiance of the irrational world.
He has no need of God or of redemption. As
the Epicurean gives himself to enjoyment of the
world, the Stoic gives himself to contempt of
the [pg 185]world. In all afflictions, each can
say, “The door is open.” To the Epicurean, the
refuge is intoxication; to the Stoic, the refuge is
suicide: “If the house smokes, quit it.” Wuttke,
Christian Ethics, 1:62-161, from whom much of
this account of the Greeks systems is
condensed, describes Epicureanism and
Stoicism as alike making morality subjective,
although Epicureanism regarded spirit as
determined by nature, while Stoicism regarded
nature as determined by spirit.

The Stoics were materialists and pantheists.

Though they speak of a personal God, this is a
figure of speech. False opinion is at the root of
all vice. Chrysippus denied what we now call
the liberty of indifference, saying that there
could not be an effect without a cause. Man is
enslaved to passion. The Stoics could not
explain how a vicious man could become
virtuous. The result is apathy. Men act only
according to character, and this a doctrine of
fate. The Stoic indifference or apathy in
misfortune is not a bearing of it at all, but
rather a cowardly retreat from it. It is in the
actual suffering of evil that Christianity finds
“the soul of good.” The office of misfortune is
disciplinary and purifying; see Seth, Ethical
Principles, 417. “The shadow of the sage's self,
projected on vacancy, was called God, and, as
the sage had long since abandoned interest in
practical life, he expected his Divinity to do the
same.”
The Stoic reverenced God just because of his
unapproachable majesty. Christianity sees in
God a Father, a Redeemer, a carer for our
minute wants, a deliverer from our sin. It
teaches us to see in Christ the humanity of the
divine, affinity with God, God's supreme interest
in his handiwork. For the least of his creatures
Christ died. Kinship with God gives dignity to
man. The individuality that Stoicism lost in the
whole, Christianity makes the end of the
creation. The State exists to develop and
promote it. Paul took up and infused new
meaning into certain phrases of the Stoic
philosophy about the freedom and royalty of
the wise man, just as John adopted and
glorified certain phrases of Alexandrian
philosophy about the Word. Stoicism was lonely
and pessimistic. The Stoics said that the best
thing was not to be born; the next best thing
was to die. Because Stoicism had no God of
helpfulness and sympathy, its virtue was mere
conformity to nature, majestic egoism and self-
complacency. In the Roman Epictetus (89),
Seneca (65), and Marcus Aurelius(121-180),
the religious element comes more into the
foreground, and virtue appears once more as
God-likeness; but it is possible that this later
Stoicism was influenced by Christianity. On
Marcus Aurelius, see New Englander, July,
1881:415-431; Capes, Stoicism.

4. Systems of Western Asia. Zoroaster (1000 B.

C. ?), the founder of the Parsees, was a dualist,
at least so far as to explain the existence of evil
and of good by the original presence in the
author of all things of two opposing principles.
Here is evidently a limit put upon the
sovereignty and holiness of God. Man is not
perfectly dependent upon him, nor is God's will
an unconditional law for his creatures. As
opposed to the Indian systems, Zoroaster's
insistence upon the divine personality furnished
a far better basis for a vigorous and manly
morality. Virtue was to be won by hard struggle
of free beings against evil. But then, on the
other hand, this evil was conceived as originally
due, not to finite beings themselves, but either
to an evil deity who warred against the good,
or to an evil principle in the one deity himself.
The burden of guilt is therefore shifted from
man to his maker. Morality becomes subjective
and unsettled. Not love to God or imitation of
God, but rather self-love and self-development,
furnish the motive and aim of morality. No
fatherhood or love is recognized in the deity,
and other things besides God (e. g., fire) are
worshiped. There can be no depth to the
consciousness of sin, and no hope of divine
deliverance.

It is the one merit of Parseeism that it

recognizes the moral conflict of the world; its
error is that it carries this moral conflict into the
very nature of God. We can apply to Parseeism
the words of the Conference of Foreign Mission
Boards to the Buddhists of Japan: “All religions
are expressions of man's sense of dependence,
but only one provides fellowship with God. All
religions speak of a higher truth, but only one
speaks of that truth as found in a loving
personal God, our Father. All religions show
man's helplessness, but only one tells of a
divine Savior, who offers to man forgiveness of
sin, and salvation through his death, and who is
now a living person, working in and with all
who believe in him, to make them holy and
righteous and pure.” Matheson, Messages of
Old Religions, says that Parseeism recognizes
an obstructive element in the nature of God
himself. Moral evil is reality; but there is no
reconciliation, nor is it shown that all things
work together for good. See Wuttke, Christian
Ethics, 1:47-54; Faiths of the World (St. Giles
Lectures), 109-144; Mitchell, in Present Day
Tracts, 3: no. 25; Whitney on the Avesta, in
Oriental and Linguistic Studies.

[pg 186]
Mohammed (570-632 A. D.), the founder of
Islam, gives us in the Koran a system
containing four dogmas of fundamental
immorality, namely, polygamy, slavery,
persecution, and suppression of private
judgement. Mohammedanism is heathenism in
monotheistic form. Its good points are its
conscientiousness and its relation to God. It has
prospered because it has preached the unity of
God, and because it is a book-religion. But both
these it got from Judaism and Christianity. It
has appropriated the Old Testament saints and
even Jesus. But it denies the death of Christ
and sees no need of atonement. The power of
sin is not recognized. The idea of sin, in
Moslems, is emptied of all positive content. Sin
is simply a falling short, accounted for by the
weakness and shortsightedness of man,
inevitable in the fatalistic universe, or not
remembered in wrath by the indulgent and
merciful Father. Forgiveness is indulgence, and
the conception of God is emptied of the quality
of justice. Evil belongs only to the individual,
not to the race. Man attains the favor of God by
good works, based on prophetic teaching.
Morality is not a fruit of salvation, but a means.
There is no penitence or humility, but only self-
righteousness; and this self-righteousness is
consistent with great sensuality, unlimited
divorce, and with absolute despotism in family,
civil and religious affairs. There is no knowledge
of the fatherhood of God or of the brotherhood
of man. In all the Koran, there is no such
declaration as that “God so loved the world”
(John 3:16).

The submission of Islam is submission to an

arbitrary will, not to a God of love. There is no
basing of morality in love. The highest good is
the sensuous happiness of the individual. God
and man are external to one another.
Mohammed is a teacher but not a priest.
Mozley, Miracles, 140, 141—“Mohammed had
no faith in human nature. There were two
things which he thought men could do, and
would do, for the glory of God—transact
religious forms, and fight, and upon these two
points he was severe; but within the sphere of
common practical life, where man's great trial
lies, his code exhibits the disdainful laxity of a
legislator who accomodates his rule to the
 recipient, and shows his estimate of the
recipient by the accommodation which he
adopts.... ‘Human nature is weak,’ said he.”
Lord Houghton: The Koran is all wisdom, all
law, all religion, for all time. Dead men bow
before a dead God. “Though the world rolls on
from change to change, And realms of thought
expand, The letter stands without expanse or
range, Stiff as a dead man's hand.” Wherever
Mohammedanism has gone, it has either found
a desert or made one. Fairbairn, in Contemp.
Rev., Dec. 1882:866—“The Koran has frozen
Mohammedan thought; to obey is to abandon
progress.”Muir, in Present Day Tracts, 3: no. 14
—“Mohammedanism reduces men to a dead
level of social depression, despotism, and semi-
barbarism. Islam is the work of man;
Christianity of God.” See also Faiths of the
World (St. Giles Lectures, Second Series), 361-
396; J. F. Clarke, Ten Great Religions, 1:448-
488; 280-317; Great Religions of the World,
published by the Harpers; Zwemer, Moslem
Doctrine of God.

3. The person and character of Christ.

A. The conception of Christ's person as presenting
deity and humanity indissolubly united, and the
conception of Christ's character, with its faultless and
all-comprehending excellence, cannot be accounted
for upon any other hypothesis than that they were
historical realities.

The stylobate of the Parthenon at Athens rises

about three inches in the middle of the 101 feet
of the front, and four inches in the middle of
the 228 feet of the flanks. A nearly parallel line
is found in the entablature. The axes of the
columns lean inward nearly three inches in their
height of 34 feet, thus giving a sort of
pyramidal character to the structure. Thus the
architect overcame the apparent sagging of
horizontal lines, and at the same time increased
the apparent height of the edifice; see Murray,
Handbook of Greece, 5th ed., 1884, 1:308, 309;
Ferguson, Handbook of Architecture, 268-270.
The neglect to counteract this optical illusion
has rendered the Madeleine in Paris a stiff and
ineffective copy of the Parthenon. The Galilean
peasant who should minutely describe these
peculiarities of the Parthenon would prove, not
only that the edifice was a historical reality, but
that he had actually seen it. Bruce, Apologetics,
 343—“In reading the memoirs of the
evangelists, you feel as one sometimes feels in
a picture-gallery. Your eye alights on the
portrait of a person whom you do not know.
You look at it intently for a few moments and
then remark to a companion: ‘That must be like
the original,—it is so life-like.’ ” Theodore
Parker: “It would take a Jesus to [pg
187]forge a Jesus.” See Row, Bampton
Lectures, 1877:178-219, and in Present Day
Tracts, 4: no. 22; F. W. Farrar, Witness of
History to Christ; Barry, Boyle Lecture on
Manifold Witness for Christ.

(a) No source can be assigned from which the

evangelists could have derived such a conception.
The Hindu avatars were only temporary unions of
deity with humanity. The Greeks had men half-
deified, but no unions of God and man. The
monotheism of the Jews found the person of Christ a
perpetual stumbling-block. The Essenes were in
principle more opposed to Christianity than the
Rabbinists.

Herbert Spencer, Data of Ethics, 279—“The

coëxistence of a perfect man and an imperfect
society is impossible; and could the two coëxist,
the resulting conduct would not furnish the
ethical standard sought.” We must conclude
that the perfect manhood of Christ is a miracle,
and the greatest of miracles. Bruce,
Apologetics, 346, 351—“When Jesus asks: ‘Why
callest thou me good?’ he means: ‘Learn first
what goodness is, and call no man good till you
are sure that he deserves it.’ Jesus' goodness
was entirely free from religious scrupulosity; it
was distinguished by humanity; it was full of
modesty and lowliness.... Buddhism has
flourished 2000 years, though little is known of
its founder. Christianity might have been so
perpetuated, but it is not so. I want to be sure
that the ideal has been embodied in an actual
life. Otherwise it is only poetry, and the
obligation to conform to it ceases.” For
comparison of Christ's incarnation with Hindu,
Greek, Jewish, and Essene ideas, see Dorner,
Hist. Doct. Person of Christ, Introduction. On
the Essenes, see Herzog, Encyclop., art,:
Essener; Pressensé, Jesus Christ, Life, Times
and Work, 84-87; Lightfoot on Colossians, 349-
419; Godet, Lectures in Defence of the
Christian Faith.
(b) No mere human genius, and much less the
genius of Jewish fishermen, could have originated
this conception. Bad men invent only such characters
as they sympathize with. But Christ's character
condemns badness. Such a portrait could not have
been drawn without supernatural aid. But such aid
would not have been given to fabrication. The
conception can be explained only by granting that
Christ's person and character were historical realities.

Between Pilate and Titus 30,000 Jews are said

to have been crucified around the walls of
Jerusalem. Many of these were young men.
What makes one of them stand out on the
pages of history? There are two answers: The
character of Jesus was a perfect character, and,
He was God as well as man. Gore, Incarnation,
63—“The Christ of the gospels, if he be not true
to history, represents a combined effort of the
creative imagination without parallel in
literature. But the literary characteristics of
Palestine in the first century make the
hypothesis of such an effort morally
impossible.”The Apocryphal gospels show us
what mere imagination was capable of
producing. That the portrait of Christ is not
puerile, inane, hysterical, selfishly assertive,
and self-contradictory, can be due only to the
fact that it is the photograph from real life.

For a remarkable exhibition of the argument

from the character of Jesus, see Bushnell,
Nature and the Supernatural, 276-332. Bushnell
mentions the originality and vastness of Christ's
plan, yet its simplicity and practical adaptation;
his moral traits of independence, compassion,
meekness, wisdom, zeal, humility, patience; the
combination in him of seemingly opposite
qualities. With all his greatness, he was
condescending and simple; he was unworldly,
yet not austere; he had strong feelings, yet was
self-possessed; he had indignation toward sin,
yet compassion toward the sinner; he showed
devotion to his work, yet calmness under
opposition; universal philanthropy, yet
susceptibility to private attachments; the
authority of a Savior and Judge, yet the
gratitude and the tenderness of a son; the most
elevated devotion, yet a life of activity and
exertion. See chapter on The Moral Miracle, in
Bruce, Miraculous Element of the Gospels, 43-
78.
B. The acceptance and belief in the New Testament
descriptions of Jesus Christ cannot be accounted for
except upon the ground that the person and
character described had an actual existence.

[pg 188]
(a) If these descriptions were false, there were
witnesses still living who had known Christ and who
would have contradicted them. (b) There was no
motive to induce acceptance of such false accounts,
but every motive to the contrary. (c) The success of
such falsehoods could be explained only by
supernatural aid, but God would never have thus
aided falsehood. This person and character,
therefore, must have been not fictitious but real; and
if real, then Christ's words are true, and the system
of which his person and character are a part is a
revelation from God.

“The counterfeit may for a season Deceive the

wide earth; But the lie waxing great comes to
labor, And truth has its birth.” Matthew Arnold,
The Better Part: “Was Christ a man like us? Ah,
let us see, If we then too can be Such men as
he!” When the blatant sceptic declared: “I do
not believe that such a man as Jesus Christ
ever lived,” George Warren merely replied: “I
wish I were like him!” Dwight L. Moody was
called a hypocrite, but the stalwart evangelist
answered: “Well, suppose I am. How does that
make your case any better? I know some pretty
mean things about myself; but you cannot say
anything against my Master.” Goethe: “Let the
culture of the spirit advance forever; let the
human spirit broaden itself as it will; yet it will
never go beyond the height and moral culture
of Christianity, as it glitters and shines in the
gospels.”

Renan, Life of Jesus: “Jesus founded the

absolute religion, excluding nothing,
determining nothing, save its essence.... The
foundation of the true religion is indeed his
work. After him, there is nothing left but to
develop and fructify.” And a Christian scholar
has remarked: “It is an astonishing proof of the
divine guidance vouchsafed to the evangelists
that no man, of their time or since, has been
able to touch the picture of Christ without
debasing it.” We may find an illustration of this
in the words of Chadwick, Old and New
Unitarianism, 207—“Jesus' doctrine of marriage
was ascetic, his doctrine of property was
communistic, his doctrine of charity was
sentimental, his doctrine of non-resistance was
such as commends itself to Tolstoi, but not to
many others of our time. With the example of
Jesus, it is the same as with his teachings.
Followed unreservedly, would it not justify
those who say: ‘The hope of the race is in its
extinction’; and bring all our joys and sorrows
to a sudden end?”To this we may answer in the
words of Huxley, who declares that Jesus Christ
is “the noblest ideal of humanity which
mankind has yet worshiped.” Gordon, Christ of
To-Day, 179—“The question is not whether
Christ is good enough to represent the
Supreme Being, but whether the Supreme
Being is good enough to have Christ for his
representative. John Stuart Mill looks upon the
Christian religion as the worship of Christ,
rather than the worship of God, and in this way
he explains the beneficence of its influence.”

John Stuart Mill, Essays on Religion, 254—“The

most valuable part of the effect on the
character which Christianity has produced, by
holding up in a divine person a standard of
excellence and a model for imitation, is
available even to the absolute unbeliever, and
can never more be lost to humanity. For it is
Christ rather than God whom Christianity has
held up to believers as the pattern of perfection
for humanity. It is the God incarnate, more than
the God of the Jews or of nature, who, being
idealized, has taken so great and salutary hold
on the modern mind. And whatever else may
be taken away from us by rational criticism,
Christ is still left: a unique figure, not more
unlike all his precursors than all his followers,
even those who had the direct benefit of his
personal preaching.... Who among his disciples,
or among their proselytes, was capable of
inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus, or of
imagining the life and character revealed in the
Gospels?... About the life and sayings of Jesus
there is a stamp of personal originality
combined with profundity of insight which, if we
abandon the idle expectation of finding
scientific precision where something very
different was aimed at, must place the Prophet
of Nazareth, even in the estimation of those
who have no belief in his inspiration, in the very
first rank of the men of sublime genius of
whom our species can boast. When this
preëminent genius is combined with the
qualities of probably the greatest moral
reformer and martyr to that mission who ever
existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to
have made a bad choice in pitching on this man
 as the ideal representative and guide of
humanity; nor even now would it be easy, even
for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of
the rule of virtue from the abstract into the
concrete than the endeavor so to live that
Christ would approve our life. [pg 189]When
to this we add that, to the conception of the
rational sceptic, it remains a possibility that
Christ actually was ... a man charged with a
special, express and unique commission from
God to lead mankind to truth and virtue, we
may well conclude that the influences of
religion on the character, which will remain
after rational criticism has done its utmost
against the evidences of religion, are well worth
preserving, and that what they lack in direct
strength as compared with those of a firmer
belief is more than compensated by the greater
truth and rectitude of the morality they
sanction.”See also Ullmann, Sinlessness of
Jesus; Alexander, Christ and Christianity, 129-
157; Schaff, Person of Christ; Young, The Christ
in History; George Dana Boardman, The
Problem of Jesus.

4. The testimony of Christ to himself—as being a

messenger from God and as being one with God.
Only one personage in history has claimed to teach
absolute truth, to be one with God, and to attest his
divine mission by works such as only God could
perform.

A. This testimony cannot be accounted for upon the

hypothesis that Jesus was an intentional deceiver:
for (a) the perfectly consistent holiness of his life; (b)
the unwavering confidence with which he challenged
investigation of his claims and staked all upon the
result; (c) the vast improbability of a lifelong lie in
the avowed interests of truth; and (d) the
impossibility that deception should have wrought
such blessing to the world,—all show that Jesus was
no conscious impostor.

Fisher, Essays on the Supernat. Origin of

Christianity, 515-538—Christ knew how vast his
claims were, yet he staked all upon them.
Though others doubted, he never doubted
himself. Though persecuted unto death, he
never ceased his consistent testimony. Yet he
lays claim to humility: Mat. 11:29—“I am meek
and lowly in heart.” How can we reconcile with
humility his constant self-assertion? We answer
that Jesus' self-assertion was absolutely
essential to his mission, for he and the truth
were one: he could not assert the truth without
asserting himself, and he could not assert
himself without asserting the truth. Since he
was the truth, he needed to say so, for men's
sake and for the truth's sake, and he could be
meek and lowly in heart in saying so. Humility
is not self-depreciation, but only the judging of
ourselves according to God's perfect standard.
“Humility” is derived from “humus”. It is the
coming down from airy and vain self-
exploitation to the solid ground, the hard-pan,
of actual fact.

God requires of us only so much humility as is

consistent with truth. The self-glorification of
the egotist is nauseating, because it indicates
gross ignorance or misrepresentation of self.
But it is a duty to be self-asserting, just so far
as we represent the truth and righteousness of
God. There is a noble self-assertion which is
perfectly consistent with humility. Job must
stand for his integrity. Paul's humility was not of
the Uriah Heep variety. When occasion
required, he could assert his manhood and his
rights, as at Philippi and at the Castle of
Antonia. So the Christian should frankly say out
the truth that is in him. Each Christian has an
experience of his own, and should tell it to
 others. In testifying to the truth he is only
following the example of “Christ Jesus, who
before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good
confession” (1 Tim. 6:13).

B. Nor can Jesus' testimony to himself be explained

upon the hypothesis that he was self-deceived: for
this would argue (a) a weakness and folly amounting
to positive insanity. But his whole character and life
exhibit a calmness, dignity, equipoise, insight, self-
mastery, utterly inconsistent with such a theory. Or it
would argue (b) a self-ignorance and self-
exaggeration which could spring only from the
deepest moral perversion. But the absolute purity of
his conscience, the humility of his spirit, the self-
denying beneficence of his life, show this hypothesis
to be incredible.

Rogers, Superhuman Origin of the Bible, 39—If

he were man, then to demand that all the
world should bow down to him would be
worthy of scorn like that which we feel for
some straw-crowned monarch of Bedlam.
Forrest, The Christ of History and of [pg
190]Experience, 22, 76—Christ never united
with his disciples in prayer. He went up into the
mountain to pray, but not to pray with them:
Luke 9:18—“as he was alone praying, his
disciples were with him.” The consciousness of
preëxistence is the indispensable precondition
of the total demand which he makes in the
Synoptics. Adamson, The Mind in Christ, 81, 82
—We value the testimony of Christians to their
communion with God. Much more should we
value the testimony of Christ. Only one who,
first being divine, also knew that he was divine,
could reveal heavenly things with the clearness
and certainty that belong to the utterances of
Jesus. In him we have something very different
from the momentary flashes of insight which
leave us in all the greater darkness.

Nash, Ethics and Revelation, 5—“Self-respect is

bottomed upon the ability to become what one
desires to be; and, if the ability steadily falls
short of the task, the springs of self-respect dry
up; the motives of happy and heroic action
wither. Science, art, generous civic life, and
especially religion, come to man's rescue,”—
showing him his true greatness and breadth of
being in God. The State is the individual's larger
self. Humanity, and even the universe, are parts
of him. It is the duty of man to enable all men
to be men. It is possible for men not only
truthfully but also rationally to assert
themselves, even in earthly affairs. Chatham to
the Duke of Devonshire: “My Lord, I believe I
can save this country, and that no one else
can.” Leonardo da Vinci, in his thirtieth year, to
the Duke of Milan: “I can carry through every
kind of work in sculpture, in clay, marble, and
bronze; also in painting I can execute
everything that can be demanded, as well as
any one whosoever.”

Horace: “Exegi monumentum ære perennius.”

Savage, Life beyond Death, 209—A famous old
minister said once, when a young and zealous
enthusiast tried to get him to talk, and failing,
burst out with, “Have you no religion at all?”
“None to speak of,”was the reply. When Jesus
perceived a tendency in his disciples to self-
glorification, he urged silence; but when he saw
the tendency to introspection and inertness, he
bade them proclaim what he had done for them
(Mat. 8:4; Mark 5:19). It is never right for the
Christian to proclaim himself; but, if Christ had
not proclaimed himself, the world could never
have been saved. Rush Rhees. Life of Jesus of
Nazareth, 235-237—“In the teaching of Jesus,
two topics have the leading place—the Kingdom
of God, and himself. He sought to be Lord,
rather than Teacher only. Yet the Kingdom is
not one of power, national and external, but
one of fatherly love and of mutual
brotherhood.”

Did Jesus do anything for effect, or as a mere

example? Not so. His baptism had meaning for
him as a consecration of himself to death for
the sins of the world, and his washing of the
disciples' feet was the fit beginning of the
paschal supper and the symbol of his laying
aside his heavenly glory to purify us for the
marriage supper of the Lamb. Thomas à
Kempis: “Thou art none the holier because
thou art praised, and none the worse because
thou art censured. What thou art, that thou art,
and it avails thee naught to be called any better
than thou art in the sight of God.” Jesus'
consciousness of his absolute sinlessness and
of his perfect communion with God is the
strongest of testimonies to his divine nature
and mission. See Theological Eclectic, 4:137;
Liddon, Our Lord's Divinity, 153; J. S. Mill,
Essays on Religion, 253; Young, Christ of
History; Divinity of Jesus Christ, by Andover
Professors, 37-62.
If Jesus, then, cannot be charged with either mental
or moral unsoundness, his testimony must be true,
and he himself must be one with God and the
revealer of God to men.

Neither Confucius nor Buddha claimed to be

divine, or the organs of divine revelation,
though both were moral teachers and
reformers. Zoroaster and Pythagoras apparently
believed themselves charged with a divine
mission, though their earliest biographers wrote
centuries after their death. Socrates claimed
nothing for himself which was beyond the
power of others. Mohammed believed his
extraordinary states of body and soul to be due
to the action of celestial beings; he gave forth
the Koran as “a warning to all creatures,” and
sent a summons to the King of Persia and the
Emperor of Constantinople, as well as to other
potentates, to accept the religion of Islam; yet
he mourned when he died that he could not
have opportunity to correct the mistakes of the
Koran and of his own life. For Confucius or
Buddha, Zoroaster or Pythagoras, Socrates or
Mohammed to claim all power in heaven and
earth, would show insanity or moral perversion.
But this is precisely what Jesus claimed. He was
 either mentally or morally unsound, or his
testimony is true. See Baldensperger,
Selbstbewusstsein Jesu; E. Ballentine, Christ his
own Witness.

[pg 191]
IV. The Historical Results of the Propagation of
Scripture Doctrine.

1. The rapid progress of the gospel in the first

centuries of our era shows its divine origin.

A. That Paganism should have been in three

centuries supplanted by Christianity, is an
acknowledged wonder of history.

The conversion of the Roman Empire to

Christianity was the most astonishing revolution
of faith and worship ever known. Fifty years
after the death of Christ, there were churches
in all the principal cities of the Roman Empire.
Nero (37-68) found (as Tacitus declares) an
“ingens multitudo” of Christians to persecute.
Pliny writes to Trajan (52-117) that they
“pervaded not merely the cities but the villages
and country places, so that the temples were
nearly deserted.” Tertullian (160-230) writes:
 “We are but of yesterday, and yet we have filled
all your places, your cities, your islands, your
castles, your towns, your council-houses, even
your camps, your tribes, your senate, your
forum. We have left you nothing but your
temples.” In the time of the emperor Valerian
(253-268), the Christians constituted half the
population of Rome. The conversion of the
emperor Constantine (272-337) brought the
whole empire, only 300 years after Jesus'
death, under the acknowledged sway of the
gospel. See McIlvaine and Alexander, Evidences
of Christianity.

B. The wonder is the greater when we consider the

obstacles to the progress of Christianity:

(a) The scepticism of the cultivated classes; (b) the

prejudice and hatred of the common people; and (c)
the persecutions set on foot by government.

(a) Missionaries even now find it difficult to get

a hearing among the cultivated classes of the
heathen. But the gospel appeared in the most
enlightened age of antiquity—the Augustan age
of literature and historical inquiry. Tacitus called
the religion of Christ “exitiabilis
superstitio”—“quos per flagitia invisos vulgus
Christianos appellabat.” Pliny: “Nihil aliud inveni
quam superstitionem pravam et immodicam.”If
the gospel had been false, its preachers would
not have ventured into the centres of
civilization and refinement; or if they had, they
would have been detected. (b) Consider the
interweaving of heathen religions with all the
relations of life. Christians often had to meet
the furious zeal and blind rage of the mob,—as
at Lystra and Ephesus. (c) Rawlinson, in his
Historical Evidences, claims that the Catacombs
of Rome comprised nine hundred miles of
streets and seven millions of graves within a
period of four hundred years—a far greater
number than could have died a natural death—
and that vast multitudes of these must have
been massacred for their faith. The
Encyclopædia Britannica, however, calls the
estimate of De Marchi, which Rawlinson
appears to have taken as authority, a great
exaggeration. Instead of nine hundred miles of
streets, Northcote has three hundred fifty. The
number of interments to correspond would be
less than three millions. The Catacombs began
to be deserted by the time of Jerome. The
times when they were universally used by
Christians could have been hardly more than
two hundred years. They did not begin in sand-
pits. There were three sorts of tufa: (1) rocky,
used for quarrying and too hard for Christian
purposes; (2) sandy, used for sand-pits, too
soft to permit construction of galleries and
tombs; (3) granular, that used by Christians.
The existence of the Catacombs must have
been well known to the heathen. After Pope
Damasus the exaggerated reverence for them
began. They were decorated and improved.
Hence many paintings are of later date than
400, and testify to papal polity, not to that of
early Christianity. The bottles contain, not
blood, but wine of the eucharist celebrated at
the funeral.

Fisher, Nature and Method of Revelation, 256-

258, calls attention to Matthew Arnold's
description of the needs of the heathen world,
yet his blindness to the true remedy: “On that
hard pagan world disgust And secret loathing
fell; Deep weariness and sated lust Made
human life a hell. In his cool hall, with haggard
eyes, The Roman noble lay; He drove abroad,
in furious guise, Along the Appian Way; He
made a feast, drank fierce and fast, And
crowned his hair with flowers,—No easier nor
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