3-034-612 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The "Fête de la Vierge", by Laurence Duncan, 1871. Engraving of a painting. 'There is something, we conceive, in the pretty scene of French social and domestic life...not altogether deserving of execration from the mouth of British Protestantism. And though we may doubt the beneficial effect upon a little girl's mind of dressing her up for a Church pageant, in which she will figure more conspicuously than becomes the sweet humility of childhood, we have nothing to say against the religious institution. The good parish priest..who has just called on the rustic household...to conduct the innocent young creature to perform her part, has doubtless taken great pains to instruct her also in the essentials of true Christianity. He has laboured to cultivate all pious and pure affections in her tender heart, and to train her in the practice of every duty, for she looks like a very good child, as well as a pretty one. She cannot be a naughty girl, we are sure...her father almost worships her, if it be not a sin...So let her go forth, the sweet maiden of seven soft years, and walk in the solemn religious procession of the day. Perhaps a day will come, amidst the temptations of dissipated Paris, when the sacred remembrance will save her from moral ruin'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.