I will not speak at all of those pictures,
because I could in no wise say what they were, or were like, and because
I would not have the reader come to them with any opinions of mine which
he might bring away with him in the belief that they were his own. Let
him not fail to go to the museum, however; he will be the poorer beyond
calculation if he does not; but he will be a beggar if he does not go to
the Hospital de la Caridad, where in the church he will find six
Murillos out-Murilloing any others excepting always the incomparable
"Vision of St. Anthony" in the cathedral. We did not think of those six
Murillos when we went to the hospital; we knew nothing of the peculiar
beauty and dignity of the church; but we came because we wished to see
what the repentance of a man could do for others after a youth spent in
wicked riot. The gentle, pensive little Mother who received us carefully
said at once that the hospital was not for the sick, but only for the
superannuated and the poor and friendless who came to pass a night or an
indefinite time in it, according to the pressure of their need; and
after showing us the rich little church, she led us through long, clean
corridors where old men lay in their white beds or sat beside them
eating their breakfasts, very savory-looking, out of ample white bowls.
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