There is great lifelikeness and reality, as well as higher
qualities. The face of Jesus, being so high aloft and so small in the
distance, I could not well see; but I am impressed with the idea that it
looks too much like human flesh and blood to be in keeping with the
celestial aspect of the figure, or with the probabilities of the scene,
when the divinity and immortality of the Saviour beamed from within him
through the earthly features that ordinarily shaded him. As regards the
composition of the picture, I am not convinced of the propriety of its
being in two so distinctly separate parts,--the upper portion not
thinking of the lower, and the lower portion not being aware of the
higher. It symbolizes, however, the spiritual short-sightedness of
mankind that, amid the trouble and grief of the lower picture, not a
single individual, either of those who seek help or those who would
willingly afford it, lifts his eyes to that region, one glimpse of which
would set everything right. One or two of the disciples point upward,
but without really knowing what abundance of help is to be had there.
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