But the true worth of George Eliot's works rests, we think, on higher
grounds than any mere perfection of artistic finish; on this ground,
specially, that among all our fictionists she stands out as the deepest,
broadest, and most catholic illustrator of the true ethics of
Christianity; the most earnest and persistent expositor of the true
doctrine of the Cross, that we are born and should live to something
higher than the love of happiness; the most subtle and profound
commentator on the solemn words, "He that loveth his soul shall lose it:
he that hateth his soul shall keep it unto life eternal."
Footnotes:
{15} The translators of our English Bible, possibly perplexed by the
seeming paradox involved in these remarkable words, have taken an
unwarrantable freedom with the original, in rendering the Greek [Greek
text], invariably the synonym of the soul, the spiritual and undying
element in man, by "life"--the [Greek text] of all Greek literature so-
called, sacred and profane alike; the synonym of that life which is his
in common with the beast of the field and the tree of the forest.
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