moral, and mental life. Variegated wings, of pinkish-purple touched with green, like the breasts of doves, and in perfect harmony with the complexion, spring from the shoulders upwards, and against them leans the divine head. The eye seems fixed on the centre of being, and the lips are gently parted, as if uttering strains of celestial melody.’
‘The head of Aspasia was instinct with the
voluptuousness of intellect. From the eyes, the cheek,
the divine lip, one might hive honey, Both the
Loves were exquisite: one, that zephyr sentiment
which visits all the roses of life; the other, the Amore
Greco, may be fitly described in these words of Landor:
“There is a gloom in deep love, as in deep water;
there is a silence in it which suspends the foot, and
the folded arms and the dejected head are the images
it reflects. No voice shakes its surface; the Muses
themselves approach it with a tardy and a timid step,
with a low and tremulous and melancholy song.”’
‘The Sibyl I understood. What grace in that
beautiful oval! what apprehensiveness in the eye! Such
is female Genius; it alone understands the God.
The Muses only sang the praises of Apollo; the Sibyls
interpreted his will. Nay, she to whom it was offered,
refused the divine union, and preferred remaining a
satellite to being absorbed into the sun. You read
in the eye of this one, and the observation is
confirmed by the low forehead, that the secret of her
inspiration lay in the passionate enthusiasm of her
nature, rather than in the ideal perfection of any
faculty.
