Yes; it is certainly a great argument against singing that
there were once sirens.
DORA. Well, it may be all very fine and philosophical, but
shouldn't I just like to read you the end of the second volume of
"Modern Painters"!
L. My dear, do you think any teacher could be worth your listening
to, or anybody else's listening to, who had learned nothing, and
altered his mind in nothing, from seven and twenty to seven and
forty? But that second volume is very good for you as far as it
goes. It is a great advance, and a thoroughly straight and swift
one, to be led, as it is the main business of that second volume
to lead you, from Dutch cattle-pieces, and ruffian-pieces, to Fra
Angelico. And it is right for you also, as you grow older, to be
strengthened in the general sense and judgment which may enable
you to distinguish the weaknesses from the virtues of what you
love, else you might come to love both alike; or even the
weaknesses without the virtues. You might end by liking Overbeck
and Cornelius as well as Angelico. However, I have perhaps been
leaning a little too much to the merely practical side of things,
in to-night's talk; and you are always to remember, children, that
I do not deny, though I cannot affirm, the spiritual advantages
resulting, in certain cases, from enthusiastic religious reverie,
and from the other practices of saints and anchorites.
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