It is possible that the study of literature affects the conscience, the morality, the sensitivity to some code of ``right'' and ``wrong.'' I do not know that this is true; both Flugel and Ranyard West deal with the development and nature of conscience, as do such theologians as Niebuhr and Buber. It forms the core of many, perhaps most, problems of psychotherapy. I am not aware of great attention by any of these authors or by the psychotherapeutic profession to the role of literary study in the development of conscience -- most of their attention is to a pre-literate period of life, or, for the theologians of course, to the influence of religion.

Still, it would be surprising if what one reads did not contribute to one's ideas of right and wrong; certainly the awakened alarm over the comic books and the continuous concern over prurient literature indicate some peripheral aspects of this influence. Probably the most important thing to focus on is not the development of conscience, which may well be almost beyond the reach of literature, but the contents of conscience, the code which is imparted to the developed or immature conscience available. This is in large part a code of behavior and a glossary of values: what is it that people do and should do and how one should regard it. In a small way this is illustrated by the nineteenth century novelist who argued for the powerful influence of literature as a teacher of society and who illustrated this with the way a girl learned to meet her lover, how to behave, how to think about this new experience, how to exercise restraint.