sentiment conceals the real man from our sight. And anyway, it is hardly
good manners to approach a saint closely and examine his halo to see
whether it be genuine or not. Halos are much more beautiful when seen
through the soft, mellow light of distance.

Giorgione's work was mostly in fresco, so but little of it has survived.
But of his canvases several surely have that tender, beseeching touch of
spirit which stamps the work as great art.

Whether Mrs. Jameson is right in her assumption that all canvases bearing
Giorgione's name are spurious which lack that look of pity, is a
question. I think that Mrs. Jameson is more kind than critical, although
my hope is that Renan is correct in his gratuitous statement, "At the
Last Great Day men will be judged by women, and the Almighty will merely
vise the verdict." If this be true, all who, like Giorgione, have died
for the love of woman will come off lightly.

But the fact is, no man is great all the time. Genius is an exceptional
mood even in a genius, and happy is the genius who, like Tennyson, builds
a high wall about his house, so he is seen but seldom, and destroys most
of his commonplace work.

Ruskin has printed more rubbish than literature--ten times over. I have
his complete works, and am sorry to say that, instead of confining myself
to "Sesame and Lilies," I have foolishly read all the dreary stuff,
including statistics, letters to Hobbs and Nobbs, with hot arguments as
to who fished the murex up, and long, scathing tirades against the old
legal shark who did him out of a hundred pounds. Surely, to be swindled
by a lawyer is not so unusual a thing that it is worth recording!