anger than that they are the result of a reasonable conviction or condition of your own heart and intellect in no way can i admit that my conduct has been of a nature to give offence to you or to the holy see for i have only in all things sought to obey the teaching of our lord christ upon whose memory our faith is founded your desires me first to cease every with the only relatives left to me on earth � my brother in law and his daughter the daughter of my dead sister my niece you demand the of these bonds of nature because my niece has produced a work of art for which she alone is responsible i venture most humbly to submit to your that this can scarcely be called true christian justice to me � for whereas on the one side i cannot be made for the thoughts or the work of a separately responsible ax t hand i should the master christian not be from my influence if necessary on the future career of those related to me by blood as well as to me by duty and affection my niece has suffered more cruelly than most women and it is entirely owing to her refusal to speak that the memory of her late husband is not openly as that of a criminal instead of being as now merely under the shadow of suspicion for we know that he was her � all rome feels the truth � and yet being dead his name is left open to the benefit of a doubt because she who was so nearly slain by him she loved and is silent i submit to your that this forgiveness and silence true christianity on the part of the poor child who has fallen under your displeasure � and that as the christian creed goes your pity and consideration for her should somewhat soften the ban you have set against her on account of the work she has given to the world as a servant of holy church i deeply the subject of that work while fully admitting its merit as a great conception of art � but even on this point i would most humbly point out to your that genius is not always under the control of its possessor for being a fire of most searching and quality it does so command the soul and through the soul the brain and hand that it would appear as if the actual creator of a great work is the last to be considered in the scheme and that it has carried out by some force altogether beyond and above humanity therefore speaking with all humility and sorrow it may chance that s picture the coming of christ may contain a required lesson to us of the church as well as to certain sections of certain people and that as all genius comes from god it would be well to earnestly whether we do not p in these days need some hint or warning of the kind to recall us from ways of error ere we wander too far but having laid this matter before your i am nevertheless willing to to your desire and see my young niece and her father no more for truly there is very little chance of my so doing as my age and health will scarcely permit me to travel far from my again if indeed i ever return to it the same statement will apply with greater force to v the master christian formed with him whom you call � your is mistaken in thinking that i have assisted him in his work among the poor and desolate of london � though i would it had been possible for me to do so for i have seen such misery such such despair such self destruction in this great english city the admitted centre of civilization that i would give my whole life twice ay three times over again to be able to relieve it in ever so small a degree the priests of our church and of all churches are here � they preach but do very little in the way of practice and few like sacrifice their personal their daily life their sleep their very thoughts to help the suffering of their fellow men holy father the people whom works for never believed in a god at all till this man came among them yet there are religious here and teachers � sunday after sunday the message of the gospel is pronounced to ears and souls and yet all have remained in darkest in hopeless misery till their earnest patient tender brother the so called came to persuade them out of darkness into light and made the burdens of their living lighter to bear and will you not admit him as a christian surely he must be for as our lord himself declares not every man that shall say unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that the will of my father which is in heaven and of a certainty the will of the father is that the lost should be found the saved the despairing comforted � and all these things has done and is yet doing but i do not work with him � i am here to look on � and looking on toy regret my lost youth touching the miracle attributed to me at i have gone over this ground so often with your both by letter and personally while in rome that it seems but foolish to repeat the story of my complete innocence in the matter i prayed for the crippled child and laid my hands upon him in blessing from that day i never saw him � never have seen him again i can bear no witness to his recovery � your news came from persons at and not 