Bea] AND SYMBOLS. 2$ 



Subtleness and Fragility of Beauty. 



Forms and existence of beauty, how evanescent they are ! 

 How subtle, how fragile, yet what a fascination they possess ! 

 Behold them on a humble scale in the life of the Cydippe pileus, 

 which is fragile as its form. It plays about rapidly, for a time, 

 in its little world of water, then dies, and disappears as if it had 

 melted into nothing. Yet when alive, even if it be cut in 

 pieces or broken up by the force of the waves, as is often the 

 case, its ciliated bands still continue to perform their work, and 

 the iridescent light plays over the fragments as beautifully as 

 when the existence was entire. But beyond compare with 

 these forms of beauty, see yonder glowing sunset, and its 

 wondrous tints and lights in their vast supernal splendours ! 

 Oh, vision of beauty ! Alas ! as we gaze the tints are fading, and 

 the lights grow dim ; the celestial panorama is dissolving ; the 

 night-winds blow across the dismal sea, and a few darkening 

 clouds and faint streaks of amber light alone remain to tell of 

 the evanescence of beauty. D. 







Unostentatious Beauty. 



The name of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty, was first 

 given to the sea mouse on account of its marvellous loveliness. 

 The beauty of its hairs is almost inconceivable. They are as 

 magnificently coloured as the plumes that decorate the throat 

 of the humming-bird, and, unlike those feathers, change their 

 colour with every movement. Every colour of the rainbow is 

 reflected from these hairs ; and as each individual hair reflects 

 a different colour, it may be imagined that the appearance of 

 the animal is indeed beautiful. Why the creature should 

 be endowed with such a gorgeous dress is not easy to see, 

 because it lives where the light seldom penetrates, and where 

 its splendid clothing is all hidden. The chosen habita- 

 tion of the aphrodite is in the muddy bed of the sea, and as 

 if not satisfied with humbly hiding its beauties in the black 

 and foetid mud, it creeps beneath stones or shells, so as to be 

 completely hidden from the light. It is an illustration of a too 

 retiring unostentatious beauty, and is the reverse of the picture 



