Lord Byron has drawn an elegant poetic comparison of the allurements of the blue-winged butterfly of Kashmeer, to those of female beauty on the heart of man: As rising on its purple wing, The insect queen of eastern spring, The following portrait of a female is most pleasingly drawn: She was beautiful!—her face Was flush'd with an angelic grace; The spirit's fire, the crowning charm In whose unsullied leaf was wrought And beautiful in deed; with these She sought all living things to please. WIFFEN.' Moore's description of Henda, the daughter of an Arab, is beautiful: Light as the angel shapes that bless, More beautiful than light elsewhere! Addison, who had always the welfare of the fair sex at heart, gives the following description of an interesting female: "Behold that charming virgin; behold the beauty of her person, chastened by the innocence of her thoughts. Chastity, good-nature, and affability, are the graces that play in her countenance; she knows she is handsome, but she knows she is good. Conscious, beauty, adorned with conscious virtue! What a spirit is there in those eyes! What a bloom in that person! How is the whole woman expressed in her appearance! Her air has the beauty of motion, and her look the force of language." Damon's protestation of love to. Stella, by Montaigne, is pleasing: When I thee all o'r do view, I all o'r must love thee too, By that smooth forehead, where's, exprest The candour of thy peaceful breast- Or the maiden daffadillies By that ivorie porch, thy nose- Running in thy temples, and Those flowrie meadows 'twixt them stand- Anacreon says, that nature bestowed beauty on woman as more potent in conquest than the sword and the spear, and more effective in defence than the armour and the shield. This beauty, which the refined voluptuary celebrated as triumphant and resistless in the person of woman, may, without flattery, be ascribed to her mind. The affections of the female sex are far stronger and more ardent than our own; and, had it till then been disputable, the countless instances of their heroic conduct, during the French revolution, recorded on most unquestionable authority, have settled this fact for ever: no personal fatigue could overcome them, and no personal danger could for an instant deter them from seeking, in the foulest dungeons, the father or the child, the husband or the lover. Months after months were they known to secrete from revolutionary vengeance some object of their affection, when the discovery of his concealment would have been his inevitable and immediate death. Were a friend arrested, their ingenuity never relaxed a moment in contrivances for his escape: were he naked, they clothed him: were he sick, they visited him; and, when all efforts proved unavailing for his deliverance, often did they infuse into his sinking soul their own ability to meet death with fortitude, and even with cheerfulness. During infancy, they nourish us; during the periods of youth and manhood, they are the charm of our existence: in old age, they cherish and console us; and, on the bed of sickness, the exquisite delicacy of their attentions, the tiresome watchings which they will undergo without a murmur, the fretfulness which they will bear with complacency, and the good offices (however repulsive) which they are at all times ready to perform, demand from us more than every return of attachment, gratitude, kindness, and love, which it is in our power to make. This is that all-powerful beauty which nature gives to woman; this is that beauty which indeed turns the edge of the sword, and makes the spear fall pointless. The following description of a female is given by Brettell, in his Country Minister :— Sweet as the wild rose in its native vale, Scarce seem'd to touch the slightly-printed ground: With all those modest artless charms that wind Such is the mighty influence of beauty, that, Whatever warms the breast With noble purpose, what informs the heart The springs of passion! Her's each winning grace, His hoary head, and on his aged brow Of beauty, it may indeed be said, Her's is the boast unrivall'd, to enslave The great, the wise, the witty, and the brave. But every virtuous, chaste, and prudent character will endeavour to guard against the fascinating power of beauty's charms, lest it should gain such an empire over the heart as to produce that wild and insane passion demonstrated romantic love : Beauty was sent from heaven, The lovely minister of truth and good In this our world; for truth and good are one, Or where the seal of undeceitful good, To save your search from folly? Wanting these, And, with the glittering of an ideot's toy, Fond fancy mocks your vows! Chaste and pure Love sweetens every scene of human life: Yes, sweetest power! o'er every scene benign, Chase health's light blush, and dim the humid eye, STEWART. |