That most skilful of all sculptors, hopeless sorrow, had narrowed to a perfect oval the wan face, waxen in its cold purity; and traced about the exquisite mouth those sad, patient curves that attest suffering which sublimates, that belong alone to the beauty of holiness.
"At the Mercy of Tiberius"
August Evans Wilson
The action is violent, it is true, but the impression which the statue makes on him is not a violent one; for the greatness of the art sublimates the motive.
"The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne"
Frank Preston Stearns
Dickens is accused of exaggeration and he is often guilty of exaggeration; but here he does not exaggerate: he merely symbolises and sublimates like any other great artist.
"Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens"
G. K. Chesterton