with these two characters only, because the
effect to be wrought out is based on the personal relation between
them,--a relation involving no one else. But fatherly forbearance
exercised toward an _only_ child might seem a trait of human weakness
instead of patriarchal strength; and the father's forgiveness will be
greatly accentuated if, beside the prodigal, he has other children
less liable to error. Therefore, in pursuance of the utmost emphasis,
it is necessary to add a third character,--another son who is not
allured into the way of the transgressor. The story must necessarily
be narrated by an external omniscient personality: it must be seen and
told from a point of view aloof and god-like. The father could not tell
it, because the theme of the tale is the beauty of his own character;
and neither of the two sons is in a position to see the story whole
and to narrate it without prejudice. The story opens perfectly, with
the very simple sentence, "A certain man had two sons." Already the
reader knows that he is to be told a story of character (rather than
of action or of setting) concerning three people, the most important
of whom is the certain man who has been mentioned first. Consider, in
passing, how faulty would have been such another opening as this, for
instance,--"Not long ago, in a city of Judea".... Such an initial
sentence would have suggested setting, instead of suggesting
character, as the leading element in the story. Very properly, the
first of the two sons to be singled out specifically is the more
important of the two, the prodigal: "And the younger of them said to
his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to
me.'" Thus, in only two sentences, the reader is given the entire
basis of the story. The swift and simple narrative that follows is
masterly in absolute conciseness. The younger son takes his journey
into a far country, wastes his substance in riotous living, begins to
be in want, suffers and repents, and returns to seek the forgiveness
of his father. Wonderfully, beautifully, his father loves and pities
and forgives him: "For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was
lost, and is found." At this point the story would end, if it were
told with only two characters instead of three. But emphasis demands
that the elder son should now make an entirely reasonable objection to
the reception of the prodigal; because the great love which is the
essence of the father's charac