PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 25 



Wholefome and plentiful nouriQiment rapidly 

 expanded the bodies of thefe young people, and a 

 mild education painted in their phyfionomies, the 

 purity and contentment of their fouls. Virginia 

 was only twelve years old ; already her perfon was 

 more than half formed ; a large quantity of beau- 

 tiful flaxen hair ornamented her head ; her blue 

 eyes and coral lips llione, with the mildefh lufcre, 

 on the bloom of her countenance : they always 

 fmiled in concert when fhe fpoke ; but when (he 

 was filent, their natural obliquity toward Heaven 

 gave them an expreffion of extreme fenfibility, and 

 even a iliglit tendency to melancholy As for Panl^ 

 you might already fee in him, the charader of a 

 man, poffeiimg all the graces of youth ; his figure 

 was tailer than that of Firginia, his complexion 

 darker, and his nofe more aquiline : his eyes, 

 which were black, would have poireiTed a certain 

 degiee of haughtinefs, if the long eye laflies which 

 furrounded them, and which refembled the fine 

 flrokes of a pencil, had not given them the greateit 

 fweetnefs. Though he was ahnoft continually in 

 motion, the moment his filler appeared, he be- 

 came tranquil, and feated himfelf befide herj their 

 meal frequently pafled without a word being ut- 

 tered : their filence, the fimplicity of their atti- 

 tudes, the beauty of their naked feet, would have 

 tempted you to believe, that you beheld an antique 

 groupe of white marble, reprcfenting the children 



of 



