Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/289

 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 279 It may surprise many a reader, if we designate John Knox as a ' Man of Genius J and truly it was not with what we call * Literature/ and its harmonies and symmetries, addressed to man's Imagination, that Xnox was ever for an hour concerned; but with practical truths alone, addressed to man's inmost Belief, with immutable Facts, accepted by him, if he is of loyal heart, as the daily voices of the Eternal, — even such in all degrees of them. It is, therefore, a still higher title than 'Man of Genius' that wiU belong to Knox ; that of a heaven-inspired seer and heroic leader of men. But by whatever name we call it, Knox's spiritual endowment is of the most distin- guished class ; intrinsically capable of whatever is noblest in literature and in far higher things. His Books, especially his Histonj of the Reformation, if well read, which unfortunately is not posssible for everyone, and has grave preliminary difficulties for even a Scottish reader, still more for an English one, testify in parts of them to the finest quaHties that belong to a human intellect ; still more evidently to those of the moral, emotional or sympathetic sort, or that concern the religious side of man's soul. It is