not reach anything like the intensity of feeling of the original, is
still a very excellent painting, and will always help to excite in my
imagination, and I hope to convey to you, some faint image of the
exceeding beauty of this most beautiful of all paintings.'

Readers chiefly interested in the subsequent career of the missionary
would feel interrupted by the overflowing notes on painting,
sculpture and architecture which fill the correspondence, yet without
them, it is scarcely possible to realise the young man's intense
enthusiasm for the Beautiful, especially for spiritual beauty, and
thus how great was the sacrifice of going to regions where all these
delights were unknown and unattainable. He went on to Venice, where
he met a letter which gave a new course to his thoughts, for it
informed him that the deafness, which had long been growing on his
father had now become an obstacle to the performance of his duties as
a Judge, and announcing his intention of retiring.

In the fulness of his heart he wrote:--


'Venice, Hotel de la Villa: May 2, 1851.

'My dearest Father,--I have not been in Venice an hour yet, but
little did I expect to find such news waiting for me as is contained
in Jem's letter, and I can lose no time in answering it. It is
indeed a heavy trial for you, that, in addition to many years of
constant annoyance from your deafness, you should be obliged now, in
the full vigour of your mind, and with the advantage of your
experience, to give up a profession you so thoroughly delight in. I
don't deny that I have often contemplated the possibility of such a