Viewing page 8 of 17

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

see a more good & sweet & tender a child. He makes people as they were as they are their virtues their vices & the strongest characteristics of those he represents. Are not [[strikethrough]] those that know [[/strikethrough]] strong men knowing [[strike through]] virtue & vice [[/strikethrough]] better than weak men. Suppose he had made dough faced virgin's all his life. How much is Shakespeare not ahead of the poeter of the sunday school union. Mustnt he necessarily be a better man. Look at Gerome's head again It is like Shakespeares & Cervantes, just as large but a great deal more beautiful. You are superior to any girl I know of Fanny or never would have written you here what I have, or wanted you to think of Gerome as I do. If Billy Crowell knew him as I do [[strikethrough]] wh [[/strikethrough]] he would never have spoken against him & I wonder at it still. He has not seen enough of his pictures. 

I began to tell you about Dante. There are a great many portraits of Dante [[strikethrough]] soft & [[/strikethrough]] bad mostly from excessive softness. Happily they preserve us his queer features & there are casts too fortunately; but I dont know any [[strikethrough]] poor [[/strikethrough] thing that looked as if it might be the writer of the Comedy till Dore drew his frontispiece which did not look at all like any authentic portrait. But now Gerome has made us one. The queer

[[strikethrough]] Gerome [[/strikethrough]] Their tending cattle like in the days of Methusaleh & Solomon Its just this same. Their government perfect tyranny the contempt for life where all life is so luxurious. See the gate of the temple with its row of heads & the cruel soldier guarding it with his broad sharp bladed sword. Their religion a silent prayer to the unknown immense God. The sun is going down. The man of the desert stops his horse [[strikethrough]] gets [[/strikethrough] spreads out his little carpet sticks his spear up in the ground takes off his shoes, [[strikethrough]] fo [[/strikethrough] everything is silent there, he forgets [[tape covering words]] for the world & prays to his Allah, [[strikethrough]] the sin [[/strikethrough]] [[tape covering words]] no God but God & Mahomed is his prophet. How simple & grand [[strikethrough]] Think of [[/strikethrough]] How Christ like. Then think of the [[strikethrough]] misc [[strikethrough]] comtemptible catholic religion the three in one & one in '3' 3 = 1. 1 = 3 3X1 = 1 which they call mystery & if you don't believe it be damned to you & the virgin mother that afterwards married a man, look at it isnt it ridiculous & the virgin grandmother for [[strikethrough]] she [[/strikethrough]] his grandmother was made so recently by Pope Pius IX don't you remember the stone the solemn conclave the date in gold letters at the head quarters at Saint Peters. Its beyond all belief Either I am stark mad myself or the people are fools beside me. I won't believe I'm wrong. A healthy religious