inelaborate, casual, secondary; the dialogue is simple and touching. The
agony of the fratricide and his remorse are better expressed by his own
lips than could be done by any skill of the historian.

In the deception which Abraham put upon the Egyptians, touching his
wife,--which it is no part of our present object to justify or to
condemn,--what a stroke of pathos, what a depth of conjugal sentiment,
is exhibited! "Thou art a fair woman to look upon, and the Egyptians,
when they see thee, will kill me and save thee alive. _Say, I pray thee,
thou art my sister; that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my
soul shall live because of thee_."

Viola appears very interesting and very innocent, when, in boy's
clothes, she wanders about in pursuit of a lover. Is not Sarah equally
interesting and equally innocent, when, under cover of an assumed name,
and that a sister's, she would preserve the love of one who has worthily
won it?

Will it be said that the dialogue of the Bible lacks the charm of
poetry?--that its action and sentiment, its love and its sorrow, are not
heightened by those efforts of the fancy which delight us in dramatic
authors?--that its simplicity is bald, and its naturalness rough?--that
its excessive familiarity repels taste and disturbs culture? If we may
trust Wordsworth, simplicity is not inconsistent with the pleasures of
the imagination. The style of the Bible is not redundant,--there is
little extravagance in it, and it has no trickery of words. Yet this
does not prevent its being deep in sentiment, brilliant with intrinsic
thought or powerful effect.

In the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," Valentine thus utters himself touching