She looks as clear

Shaks.: Tam. of the S. Act ii. Sc. 1.

As morning roses newly wash'd with dew.
316
She's beautiful; and therefore to be wooed:
She is a woman; therefore to be won.

317

Shaks.: 1 Henry VI. Act v. Sc. 3.

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
318

Shaks.: Rom. and Jul. Act i. Sc. 5.

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven,
Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not night.
319

Shaks.: Rom. and Jul. Act ii. Sc. 2.

This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever
Ran on the green sward; nothing she does, or seems,
But smacks of something greater than herself;
Too noble for this place.

320

Shaks.: Win. Tale. Act iv. Sc. 3.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety: other women cloy

The appetites they feed; but she makes hungry,
Where most she satisfies.

321

Shaks.: Ant. and Cleo. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good;

A shining gloss that vadeth suddenly;

A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud;
A brittle glass that's broken presently;
A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,
Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour.
322

Shaks.: Pass. Pilgrim. St. 13.

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade The eyes of men without an orator. 323

Shaks.: R. of Lucrece. St. 5.

Sits here like Beauty's child, whom nature gat
For men to see, and seeing wonder at.
324

Shaks.: Pericles. Act ii. Sc. 2.

As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground;
As broken glass no cement can redress;
So beauty, blemish'd once, 's forever lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost.
325

Shaks.: Pass. Pilgrim. St. 13.

Give me a look, give me a face,
That makes simplicity a grace;
Robes loosely flowing, hair as free!
Such sweet neglect more taketh me
Than all the adulteries of art,

That strike mine eyes, but not my heart.
326

Ben Jonson: Silent Woman. Act i. Sc. 1.

Eyes that could see her on this summer-day
Might find it hard to turn another way.
She had a pensive beauty; yet not sad;
Rather, like minor cadences that glad
The hearts of little birds amid spring boughs.
327

George Eliot: How Lisa Loved the King.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

328

Keats: Endymion. Bk. i. Line 1.

Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shown

In courts, at feasts, and high solemnities,
Where most may wonder at the workmanship.
It is for homely features to keep home;

They had their name thence; coarse complexions,
And cheeks of sorry grain, will serve to ply
The sampler, and to tease the huswife's wool.
What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that,
Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn?
There was another meaning in those gifts.
329

Milton: Comus. Line 745.

Beauty is Nature's coin, must not be hoarded,
But must be current, and the good thereof
Consists in mutual and partaken bliss,
Unsavory in th' enjoyment of itself:

If you let slip time, like a neglected rose,

It withers on the stock with languish'd head. 330

Milton: Comus. Line 739.

Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree
Laden with blooming gold had need the guard
Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye,

To save her blossoms and defend her fruit.
331

Milton: Comus. Line 393.

Beauty stands

In the admiration only of weak minds

Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,

At every sudden slighting quite abash'd.

332

Milton: Par. Regained. Bk. ii. Line 220

Beauty with a bloodless conquest finds

A welcome sovereignty in rudest minds.

333 Waller: Upon her Majesty's repairing to St. Paul Loveliest of lovely things are they, On earth that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour

Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.

334

Wm. Cullen Bryant: Scene on the Banks of Hudson.

Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,

The power of beauty I remember yet.

335

Dryden: Cym. and Iph. Line 1.

All things of beauty are not theirs alone
Who hold the fee; but unto him no less
Who can enjoy, than unto them who own,
Are sweetest uses given to possess.
For Heaven is bountiful; and suffers none
To make monopoly of aught that's fair.
336

J. G. Saxe: The Beautiful

Is she not more than painting can express, Or youthful poets fancy when they love? 337

Rowe: Fair Penitent. Act iii. Sc. 1.

'Tis not a set of features, or complexion, The tincture of a skin that I admire : Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, Fades in his eye, and palls upon the sense. 338

Addison: Cato. Act i. Sc. 4.

In wit, as nature, what affects our hearts,
Is not th' exactness of peculiar parts;
"Tis not a lip or eye we beauty call,
But the joint force, and full result of all.
339

Pope: E. on Criticism. Pt. ii. Line 43

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be.
340
Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide :
If to her share some female errors fall,

Pope: E. on Criticism. Pt. ii. Line 53.

Look on her face, and you'll forget them all.

341

Pope: R. of the Lock. Canto ii. Line 15 Beauty's akin to Death. 342

Bailey: Festus. Sc. Millennial Earth

The beautiful are never desolate;

But some one alway loves them- God or man.
If man abandons, God himself takes them.

343

Bailey: Festus. Sc. Wood and Water

What's female beauty, but an air divine,
Through which the mind's all-gentle graces shine?
They, like the sun, irradiate all between;
The body charms, because the soul is seen.
Hence men are often captives of a face,
They know not why, of no peculiar grace:

Some forms, though bright, no mortal man can bear;
Some none resist, though not exceeding fair.

344

Young: Love of Fame. Satire vi. Line 141.

What is this thought or thing

Which I call beauty? is it thought or thing?
Is it a thought accepted for a thing?
Or both? or neither

-

a pretext?

a word?

Its meaning flutters in me like a flame
Under my own breath: my perceptions reel,
For evermore around it, and fall off,

As if it too were holy.

345 Mrs. Browning: Drama of Ex. Extrem. of Sword-Glare. The essence of all beauty, I call love. The attribute, the evidence, and end, The consummation to the inward sense, Of beauty apprehended from without,

I still call love.

346 Mrs. Browning: Drama of Ex. Extrem. of Sword-Glare. Beauty, like wit, to judges should be shown;

Both are most valued where they best are known.

347

Lyttelton: Soliloquy of a Beauty. Line 2.

If eyes were made for seeing,

Then Beauty is its own excuse for being.

Emerson: The Rhodora.

348 Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes, Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies. 349

Who can curiously behold

Byron: Beppo. St. 45.

The smoothness and the sheen of beauty's cheek,
Nor feel the heart can never all grow old?

Byron: Ch. Harold. Canto iii. St. 11.

350
Who hath not proved how feebly words essay
To fix one spark of beauty's heavenly ray?
Who doth not feel, until his failing sight
Faints into dimness with its own delight,
His changing cheek, his sinking heart confess
The might the majesty of loveliness?

--

351 Her overpowering presence made you feel It would not be idolatry to kneel.

Byron: Bride of Ab. Canto i. St. 6.

352

Byron: Don Juan. Canto iii. St 74

She was a form of life and light,

That, seen, became a part of sight;
And rose, where'er I turned mine eye,
The morning-star of memory.

353

Byron: Giaour. Line 1135

An eye's an eye, and whether black or blue

Is no great matter, so 'tis in request,
'Tis nonsense to dispute about a hue -
The kindest may be taken as a test.

The fair sex should be always fair; and no man,
Till thirty, should perceive there's a plain woman.
354

Byron: Don Juan. Canto xiii. St. 3.

Her glossy hair was cluster'd o'er a brow
Bright with intelligence, and fair and smooth;
Her eyebrow's shape was like the aerial bow,
Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth,
Mounting at times to a transparent glow,
As if her veins ran lightning.

355

Byron: Don Juan. Canto i. St. 61

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.
356

Byron: She Walks in Beauty

There was a soft and pensive grace,
A cast of thought upon her face,
That suited well the forehead high,
The eyelash dark, and downcast eye
The mild expression spoke a mind
In duty firm, composed, resigned.
357

Scott: Rokeby. Canto iv. St. 5.

There's beauty all around our paths, if but our watchful eyes Can trace it 'midst familiar things, and through their lowly

guise.

358

Without the smile from partial beauty won,

Mrs. Hemans: Our Daily Paths.

Campbell: Pl. of Hope. Pt. ii. Line 23

Oh, what were man? - a world without a sun!

359

The Universe is girdled with a chain,

And hung below the Throne

Where Thou dost sit, the Universe to bless,

Thou sovereign Smile of God, Eternal Loveliness.

360

R. H. Stoddard: Hymn to the Beautiful.