use some
from dreams of selfish vanity and corruption, and awaken within some germ
of better and purer elements of life,--will scarcely be disputed. But it
is not from these, or such as these, that the highest and noblest, the
purest and most penetrative, the most extended and enduring teaching and
elevation of the world has come. That has come emphatically from Him
whose self-chosen name, "the Son of Man," designates Him the ideal of
humanity on earth; Him who is at once the "Lamb of God" and "the Lion of
the tribe of Judah," the "Good Shepherd," and the stern and fearless but
ever-righteous Judge--the concentration of all tender and holy love, and
of divinest scorn of, and revulsion from, everything mean and false in
humanity; Him who for the repentant sinner has no harsher word of rebuke
than "Go and sin no more," and who over the self-righteous, self-wrapt,
all-despising Pharisees thundered back, to His own ultimate destruction,
His terrible "Woe unto you _hypocrites_." He too stands out, not
isolated or severed, but prominent, amid every conceivable phase and
gradation of human character, from a John to a Judas; touches each and
all at some point of living contact; meets them with tender sympathy,
with gentle patience, and pitying love, over their weaknesses and falls.
Can the true artist err in aiming, according to his nature or to the
purity and elevation of his genius, to approach in his portraitures such
ideals as this great typical exemplar of our humanity, whose influence
has for eighteen centuries been stealing down into the hearts and souls
of men to elevate and refine, and who is now, and who is more and more
becoming, the paramount factor in individual character, and in social and
political relations? Or can such ideals, presented before us, fail to
arouse in some degree the better elements of our humanity, and to lead us
to strive toward the realisation of these?

In wonderfully drawn and finished yet never obtruded contrast to this
beautiful creation comes before us Rosamond Vincy. Outwardly even more
characterised by every personal charm, save that one living and crowning
charm which outshines from the soul within; to the eye, therefore--such
eyes as can penetrate no deeper than the surface--prettier, more
graceful, more accomplished and fascinating, than Dorothea Brooke;--it is
difficult to conceive a more utterly unlovable example of womanhood,
whether as maiden or wife. Hard and callous of hear