Look at those thousand birds, and without our Father not one of them shall fall to the ground; and art thou not of more value than many sparrows -- thou for whom God sent His Son to die? . . . Ah! my friend, we must look out and around to see what God is like. It is when we persist in turning our eyes inward, and prying curiously over our own imperfections, that we learn to make a god after our own image, and fancy that our own hardness and darkness are the patterns of His light and love.

Hypatia, chap. xi.