38 LIFE AND HABIT. 



them ; then let him go to the masterpieces of Greek and 

 Italian art, the truest preachers of the truest gospel of 

 grace ; let him look at the Venus of Milo, the Discobo- 

 lus, the St. George of Donatello. If it had pleased 

 these people to wish to study, there was no lack of 

 brains to do it with ; but imagine " what a deal of 

 scorn " would " look beautiful " upon the Venus of 

 Milo's face if it were suggested to her that she should 

 learn to read. Which, think you, knows most, the 

 Theseus, or any modern professor taken at random ? 

 True, the advancement of learning must have had a 

 great share in the advancement of beauty, inasmuch 

 as beauty is but knowledge perfected and incarnate — 

 but with the pioneers it is sic vos non vobis ; the grace 

 is not for them, but for those who come after. Science 

 is like offences. It must needs come, but woe unto 

 that man through whom it comes ; for there cannot be 

 much beauty where there is consciousness of know- 

 ledge, and while knowledge is still new it must in the 

 nature of things involve much consciousness. 



It is not knowledge, then, that is incompatible with 

 beauty ; there cannot be too much knowledge, but it 

 must have passed through many people who it is to be 

 feared must be more or less disagreeable, before beauty 

 or grace will have anything to say to it ; it must 

 be so incarnate in a man's whole being that he shall 

 not be aware of it, or it will fit him constrainedly as 

 one under the law, and not as one under grace. 



And grace is best, for where grace is, love is not dis- 

 tant. Grace ! the old Pagan ideal whose charm even 

 unlovely Paul coidd not withstand, but, as the legend 



