Whether one will be satisfied with nothing but a scientific diagnosis in
psychology, or a less ponderous and infinitely more lyric presentation
of certain mental phenomena will do for him; whether the student of
history insist on strict chronology, or whether he prize at its true
value the meat and coloring of history; whether a reader prefer in
matters canonical the rigid presentation of dogma, or whether the tragic
fruits of theocracy offer a more attractive starting point for his
contemplation;--whichever the case might be, _The Executioner's Knife;
or, Joan of Arc_ will gratify his intellectual cravings on all the three
heads.