sands. Observing the chest deserted by the waters, he commanded his servants to secure it with all speed, and convey it to his house: this done, he opened it, and discovered a beautiful girl, attired in royal apparel. (68) Her uncommon loveliness struck all the spectators with astonishment; for she was as a sun-beam of beauty, in which nature had created every thing pure and perfect; and failed in nothing but in denying her the attribute of immortality[1]. Her hair glittered like the snow, beneath which a brow of milky whiteness, smooth and unwrinkled as a plain, peacefully rested. Her eyes resembled the changeableness, not the prodigality[2], of two luminous
- ↑ "Quoniam verus erat pulchritudinis radius: in quo natura nihil viciosum constituit; nisi quod eam immortalem non formaverat." This is far beyond the common strain of a monkish imagination; and, in truth, the whole passage forms a brilliant description of female beauty. See Note 69.
- ↑ Prodigality (in the original, prodigus) seems to imply an impudent stare; an eye prodigal of its favors, as may be said of a star. The changeableness of the eye is a great beauty. Pope says of his Belinda,
"Her lovely looks a sprightly mind disclose,
Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those."Rape of the Lock.
