genious fancy; receiving from him thankfully, and
often reverently, whatever interpretation of texts the agreeable voice
or ready wit may recommend: while, in the meantime, he remains entirely
ignorant of, and if left to his own will, invariably destroys as
injurious, the deeply meditated interpretations of Scripture which, in
their matter, have been sanctioned by the consent of all the Christian
Church for a thousand years; and in their treatment, have been exalted
by the trained skill and inspired imagination of the noblest souls ever
enclosed in mortal clay.

46. There are few of the fathers of the Christian Church whose
commentaries on the Bible, or personal theories of its gospel, have
not been, to the constant exultation of the enemies of the Church,
fretted and disgraced by angers of controversy, or weakened and
distracted by irreconcilable heresy. On the contrary, the scriptural
teaching, through their art, of such men as Orcagna, Giotto, Angelico,
Luca della Robbia, and Luini, is, literally, free from all earthly
taint of momentary passion; its patience, meekness, and quietness are
incapable of error through either fear or anger; they are able,
without offence, to say all that they wish; they are bound by
tradition into a brotherhood which represents unperverted doctrines by
unchanging scenes; and they are compelled by the nature of their work
to a deliberation and order of method which result in the purest state
and frankest use of all intellectual power.

47. I may at once, and without need of returning to this question,
illustrate the difference in dignity and safety between the mental
actions of literature and art, by referring to a passage, otherwise
beautifully illustrative of St. Jerome's sweetness and simplicity of
character, though quoted, in the place where we find it, with no such
favouring intention,--namely, in the pretty letter of Queen Sophie
Charlotte, (father's mother of Frederick the Great,) to the Jesuit
Vota, given in part by Carlyle in his first volume, ch. iv.

"'How can St. Jerome, for example, be a key to Scripture?' she
insinuates; citing from Jerome this remarkable avowal of his method of
composing books;--especially of his method in that book, _Commentary on
the Galatians_, where he accuses both Peter and Paul of simulation, and
even of hypocrisy. The great St. Augustine has been charging him with
this sad fact, (says her Majesty, who gives chapter and verse,) and
Jerome answers, '