So distinct and all-pervading, in this great work, is what we are
maintaining to be the central moral purpose of all the author's works,
that it can scarcely escape the notice of the most superficial reader.
Affirmatively and negatively, in Romola and Tito--the two forms of
illustration to some extent combined in Savonarola--the constant,
persistent, unfaltering utterance of the book is, that the only true
worth and greatness of humanity lies in its pursuit of the highest truth,
purity, and right, irrespective of every issue, and in exclusion of every
meaner aim; and that the true debasement and hopeless loss of humanity
lies in the path of self-pleasing. The form of this work, the time and
country in which the scene is laid, and the selection of one of the three
great actors in it, leads the author more definitely than in almost any
of those which preceded it to connect her moral lesson, not merely with
Christianity as a religious faith, but with that Church which, as called
by the name of Christ, howsoever fallen away from its "first love," is
still, in the very fact of its existence, a witness for Him.
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