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their destruction was deemed an acceptable sacrifice to that Saviour who was born of their race, and whose Sermon on the Mount taught no lessons save those of peace and love. When Madame Roland went to execution, she turned towards the statue of that power, then adored with such false worship, and exclaimed, 'Oh, Liberty! what crimes are wrought in thy name!' The Christian might say the same of his faith; but different, indeed, is the religion which is of God and that which is of man!"
Rebecca is left to suffer from an unhappy attachment; but her nobleness of character forsakes her not. L. E. L. reminds us, in a concluding remark of touching beauty, that care for her father's old age, kindliness to the poor and the suffering, and the workings of a mind strong in endurance, would bring tranquillity, if not happiness, till the hand might be pressed to the subdued heart without crying "Peace, peace, where was no peace."
In the comment on the history of Marmion’s Constance, having referred to the low and degrading estimate of women by the classic writers of antiquity, L. E. L. observes: "But Christianity brought its own heaven to the things of earth: every passion was refined, and every affection exalted. Only under the purifying influence of that inward world to which it gave light could sentiment have had its birth; and sentiment is the tenth Muse and fourth Grace of modern poetry."
How much of discriminating judgment and deep thought are embodied in the following sentences! "In the description of Constance there is that strong perception of the actual, which is Scott's most marked characteristic. He paints her exactly what in all probability she would have been: he works out the severe lesson of retribution and degradation.**
