ABSTRACT
God makes the family'. Perhaps it is just the contrary. God makes attractions, and the principle of the family is not to go by attractions. There may be one tyrant in the family, and the tyrant may go by attraction, but the others do not. In an amiable family, the common course of things is for every one to give up just enough to prevent such collision as would make it intolerable. God means us to do what we like, first learning to like the right. When the Greeks believed in their gods, there came forth an Apollo Belvidere, a Ludovisi Juno. Now we no longer believe in them, but we still imitate them. And there come forth Titian's Venuses and Canova's Perseus. When the Italians believed in the Virgin Mary, see what holy families Raphael and Guercino and Guido produced; and the same Titian, whose Venus is an earthly profligate, paints a virgin fit for the skies.
