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 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 287 Knox throughout the spirit of an old Hebrew Pro- phet, such as may have been in Moses in the Desert at sight of the Burning Bush ; spirit almost alto- gether unique among modem men, and along with all this, in singular neighbourhood to it, a sympathy, a veiled tenderness of heart, veiled, but deep and of^ piercing vehemence, and withal even an inward gaiety of soul, alive to the ridicule that dwells in whatever is ridiculous, in fact a fine vein of humour, which is wanting in Dante. The interviews of Knox with the Queen are what one would most like to produce to readers ; but un- fortunately they are of a tone which, explain as we might, not one reader in a thousand could be made to sympathise with or do justice to in behalf of Knox. The treatment which that young beautiful and high Chief Personage in Scotland receives from the rigor- ous Knox, would to most modern men, seem irre- verent, cruel, almost barbarous. Here more than elsewhere Knox proves himself, — ^here more than anywhere bound to do it, — the Hebrew Prophet in complete perfection ; refuses to soften any expression