with any of such for so being; your correspondent introduced this side
view, I believe, irrelevantly--but with the picture alone.

The mission of art royal should, I hold, be understood to elevate,
to raise the public taste, to cultivate or correct a wrong line of
popular impression; that of pictures of the like of "Ecce Homo," being
to enlighten the current interest for whose delight moreover art,
from a social point of view, is justified in its mission, having a yet
higher motive, the kindling of rapture in the heart of the creative
artist.

Pictures since earlier times have been vehicles as well as ventilators
of popular belief. It is for this cause, and in instances where it is
proven, painful to touch or shake the constitutive elements of other
people's faith; an acute sense of this compunction on the whole
restraining the weight of my recent remarks. But, conjecturally
speaking, in a world wherein all things are so public, it must be
conceded that strong light should at stated times fuse the impinging
points of understanding, that truth and common sense may scrutinise
their sound bearings; moreover, also, that academic science may
arraign itself with dignity.

Your correspondent's remarks with reference to the colour of the
robe are, upon the whole, useful, purple and scarlet being synonymous
terms; preponderance of mention, rests though with the former.

Pictures cannot be considered too much as books; such truth, Art, by
the concurrence of testimony, has manifested in its destiny from time
immemorial, confirming afresh benefits on man. Open discussion will
not only add to, magnify, or deduct from their lustre, but cause their