Essays on Life 



with modern conscience, either intellectual or 

 ethical. 



I see, indeed, from an interesting article in 

 the Atlantic Monthly for September 1889, 

 entitled " The Black Madonna of Loreto," that 

 black Madonnas were so frequent in ancient 

 Christian art that " some of the early writers 

 of the Church felt obliged to account for it 

 by explaining that the Virgin was of a very 

 dark complexion, as might be proved by the 

 verse of Canticles which says, ' I am black, but 

 comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.' Others 

 maintained that she became black during her 

 sojourn in Egypt. . . . Priests, of to-day, say 

 that extreme age and exposure to the smoke 

 of countless altar-candles have caused that 

 change in complexion which the more naive 

 fathers of the Church attributed to the power 

 of an Egyptian sun " ; but the writer ruth- 

 lessly disposes of this supposition by pointing 

 out that in nearly all the instances of black 

 Madonnas it is the flesh alone that is entirely 

 black, the crimson of the lips, the white of 

 the eyes, and the draperies having preserved 



their original colour. The authoress of the 



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