1881.] Mr. R.H.  Hutton has expressed his conviction that this is one of the most skilfully painted of all the characters in fictitious literature.  He says, “A character essentially treacherous only because it is full of soft placid selfishness is one of the most difficult to paint;” but in sketching Tito’s career, “the same wonderful power is maintained throughout, of stamping on our imagination with the full force of a master hand a character which seems naturally too fluent for the artist’s purpose.  There is not a more masterly piece of painting in English romance than this figure of Tito.”

Romola represents the divided interests of one who was affected by both the renaissance and Christianity.  Brought up to know only what the renaissance had to teach, to delight in culture and to ignore religion, her contact with Savonarola opened a new world to her mind.  Her experience in life led her to seek some deeper moral anchorage than was afforded by the culture of her father and husband, yet she could not follow Savonarola into the region of mystical visions and other-worldliness.  Her life having broken loose from the ties of love through the faithlessness of Tito, and from the ties of tradition through the failure of culture to satisfy her heart, she drifts out into the world, to find, under the leadership of the great preacher, that life’s highest duty is renunciation.  His influence over the noblest souls of his time is indicated in Romola’s trust in him, and in her acceptance of him as a master and a guide.  When this guide failed, as all human guides must fail, she found peace in the service of others.  In living for humanity, her sorrows were turned into strength, and her renunciation became a religion.  It is Romola who represents George Eliot in this book, gives voice to her ideas, and who preaches the new gospel she would have the world learn.  If Romola has her limitations as a conception of womanly character, is too “passionless and didactic,” yet she does admirably represent the influence on a thoughtful woman of a contention between culture and religion, and how such a person may gradually attain to a self-poised life in loving service toward others.  She is not an ideal woman.  She was given a character which prevents her being quite attractive, because she was made to represent ideas and social tendencies.

The altruistic doctrine of renunciation, and of living for others, is more fully developed in Romola than in any other of George Eliot’s books except The Mill on the Floss.  That the truest satisfaction life can afford is to be found in work done for human good is conspicuously shown in the experiences of Romola.  She finds no peace as a follower of Savonarola, she finds no abiding content in philosophy; but toil for others among the sick, suffering and dying, brings heavenly joy and a great calm.  She had no special love for this work, her early education had even made it repulsive; but Savonarola had shown her that in this direction lay