Essays on Life 



tianity as this ? I should be shocked if any- 

 thing I had ever written or shall ever write 

 should seem to make light of these things. 

 I should be shocked also if I did not know 

 how to be amused with things that amiable 

 people obviously intended to be amusing. 



The reader may need to be reminded that 

 Oropa is among the somewhat infrequent 

 sanctuaries at which the Madonna and infant 

 Christ are not white, but black. I shall 

 return to this peculiarity of Oropa later on, 

 but will leave it for the present. For the 

 general characteristics of the place I must 

 refer the reader to my book, " Alps and Sanc- 

 tuaries." 1 I propose to confine myself here 

 to the ten or a dozen chapels containing life- 

 sized terra-cotta figures, painted up to nature, 

 that form one of the main features of the 

 place. At a first glance, perhaps, all these 

 chapels will seem uninteresting ; I venture to 

 think, however, that some, if not most of 

 them, though falling a good deal short of the 

 best work at Varallo and Crea, are still in 

 their own way of considerable importance. 



1 Longmans & Co., 1890. 



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