It seems the moral of his story, that human beings of Donatello's character, compounded especially for happiness, have no longer any business on earth, or elsewhere.

Life has grown so sadly serious, that such men must change their nature, or else perish, like the antediluvian creatures that required, as the condition of their existence, a more summer-like atmosphere than ours." "I will not accept your moral!" replied the hopeful and happy-natured Hilda.
"Then here is another; take your choice!" said the sculptor, remembering what Miriam had recently suggested, in reference to the same point.

"He perpetrated a great crime; and his remorse, gnawing into his soul, has awakened it; developing a thousand high capabilities, moral and intellectual, which we never should have dreamed of asking for, within the scanty compass of the Donatello whom we knew." "I know not whether this is so," said Hilda.

"But what then ?" "Here comes my perplexity," continued Kenyon.

"Sin has educated Donatello, and elevated him.