Aurelian | Page 4

and immediately before them, and within the
wondrous sphere of their influences stands the table at which I write,
and where I pursue my inquiries in philosophy and religion. You smile
at my enthusiasm, Fausta, and wonder when I shall return to the calm
sobriety of my ancient faith. In this wonder there are a thousand
errors--but of these hereafter. I was to tell you of these sculptures. Of
the statue of Moses, I possess no historical account, and know not what
its claim may be to truth. I can only say, it is a figure truly grand, and
almost terrific. It is of a size larger than life, and expresses no sentiment
so perfectly as authority--the authority of a rigorous and austere
ruler--both in the attitude of the body and the features of the
countenance. The head is slightly raised and drawn back, as if listening,
awe-struck, to a communication from the God who commissioned him,
while his left hand supports a volume, and his right grasps a stylus,
with which, when the voice has ceased, to record the communicated
truth. Place in his hands the thunderbolt, and at his feet the eagle, and
the same form would serve for Jupiter the Thunderer, except only that
to the countenance of the Jewish prophet there has been imparted a rapt
and inspired look, wholly beyond any that even Phidias could have
fixed upon the face of Jove. He who wrought this head must have
believed in the sublimities of the religion whose chief minister he has
made so to speak them forth, in the countenance and in the form; and
yet who has ever heard of a Jew sculptor?
The statue of Christ is of a very different character; as different as the
Christian faith is from that of the Jewish, notwithstanding they are still
by many confounded. I cannot pretend to describe to you the holy
beauty that as it were constitutes this perfect work of art. If you ask
what authority tradition has invested it with, I can only say that I do not
know. All I can affirm with certainty, is this, that it once stood in the
palace of Alexander Severus, in company with the images of other
deified men and gods, whom he chiefly reverenced. When that

excellent prince had fallen under the blows of assassins, his successor
and murderer, Maximin, having little knowledge or taste for what was
found in the palace of Alexander, those treasures were sold, and the
statue of Christ came into the hands of a distinguished and wealthy
Christian of that day, who, perishing in the persecution of Decius, his
descendants became impoverished, and were compelled to part with
even this sacred relic of their former greatness. From them I purchased
it; and often are they to be seen, whenever for such an object they can
steal away from necessary cares, standing before it and renewing, as it
would seem, their vows of obedience, in the presence of the founder of
their faith. The room is free to their approach, whenever they are thus
impelled.
The expression of this statue, I have said, is wholly different from that
of the Hebrew. His is one of authority and of sternness; this of
gentleness and love. Christ is represented, like the Moses, in a sitting
posture, with a countenance, not like his raised to Heaven, but bent
with looks somewhat sad and yet full of benevolence, as if upon
persons standing before him. Fraternity, I think, is the idea you
associate with it most readily. I should never suppose him to be a judge
or censor, or arbitrary master, but rather an elder brother; elder in the
sense of wiser, holier, purer; whose look is not one of reproach that
others are not as himself, but of pity and desire; and whose hand would
rather be stretched forth to lift up the fallen than to smite the offender.
To complete this expression, and inspire the beholder with perfect
confidence, the left hand rests upon a little child, who stands with
familiar reverence at his knee, and looking up into his face seems to say,
'No evil can come to me here.'
Opposite this, and at the other extremity of the apartment, hangs a
picture of Christ, representing him in very exact accordance with the
traditional accounts of his features and form, a description of which
exists, and is held by most authentic, in a letter of Publius Lentulus, a
Roman of the same period. Between this and the statue there is a close
resemblance, or as close as we usually see between two heads of Cæsar,
or of Cicero. Marble, however, is the only material that suits the
character and office of Jesus of Nazareth. Color, and its minute effects,

seem in some sort