THE LOVER OF BEAUTY; OR WHICH WILL HE \^ED? 401 



cottage in a wood, strawberries and cream, sheep, pigeons, and bees, 

 with other pastoral items, glided, by degrees, most fascinatingly into the 

 Captain's discourse, while the swift canter of his horses was, peu-a-peuy 

 slackened into a gentle trot. But alas ! the Lady was anything but 

 enthusiastic in her love of pictures, or Idyls, and the intellectual 

 gratification enjoyed by the Captain fell below Zero. If he pointed her 

 attention to a superb cluster of trees, her Ladyship remarked that " they 

 would look well hung with variegated lamps ;" a glade such as fairies 

 might revel in by moonlight, or Stothard choose for a scene from the 

 Decameron, ** would answer the purpose of a quadrille, with Collinet's 

 band stationed behind the bushes." The ivied ruin should give way to 

 a Chinese pavilion or a Turkish chiosk ; a cornfield was interesting only 

 as aflEbrding the mystical flower with which the belles of Germany decide 

 upon the truth of their lovers ; but a windmill which Rembrandt would 

 have gloated on, was abominable, and a bird's-eye prospect, dark, 

 verdurous, and Ruysdael-like, was ** flat, melancholy, and tedious 1" 

 In vain 



" Fair lawns and cultur'd meads, and flocks and herds, 

 Grey cliffs, dark woods, and rolling silver streams ! 

 Hamlets and village spires, green fields, and mountains blue" — * 



in vain these glorious attractions wooed her admiration — all were ** stale 

 and unprofitable !" ** Helas !*' sighed the lover of the picturesque, 

 giving the rein to his horses, and increasing their speed, while half- 

 disposed to be silent, he, nevertheless, turned the theme upon " town :'* 

 the Lady grew eloquent in her babble, and the Captain sate mute, with 

 an air of infinite mortification upon his brow. In this mood they 

 arrived at the Abbey, and with very contradictory emotions did the 

 ** worshipper of beauty" hand his companion from the phaeton. * * * 

 In short a month stole by in the customary routine of a country 

 residence. The Lady Eleanor was alternately the idol of the Captain's 

 passionate adoration, and the challenger of his barely disguised con- 

 tempt J for the meshes interwoven by her beauty — her peerless beauty 

 and accomplishments, were, like the web of Penelope, ever unravelled 

 when the still night came and brought with it the hour of meditation. 

 It was in that precious and important hour that Henry found it was 

 impossible he could unite his affections to a woman whose mind was as 

 destitute of value, as her person was luxurious of charm. And what 

 were her accomplishments ? what availed their variety, their brilliancy, 

 their finish ? Rare as they were, they proved but as feathers in the 

 balance, when weighed against the intellectual resources of a cultivated 

 understanding. She rivalled a Malibran in voice, and had the finger of a 

 Moschelles for the piano ; Taglioni might be proud of her as a pupil in 

 the purer style of her art, while her carriage, her slightest look and 

 gesture, were of the same patrician character as her superbly modelled 

 features. " She has almost an India for a dowry, and is a girl that it is 

 witchery to look upon 1" ejaculated the Captain, " but the riches of 

 Croesus could not tempt me to think of her as a wife 1 Had she but 

 sense equal to her beauty, I would cut my way through a legion to fling 

 myself before her !" Who is there that can behold beauty without 

 adoring its divinity? The poet celebrates it in flowing verse; the 

 painter consecrates it upon canvass, and the sculptor immortahzes it in 



" Maria ; or the Father's Recollection," by William Carey. Vide " Qreen 

 Leaves in Autumn," second edition, printed at Philadelphia. 



