The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-26 00:00:00

THE BEAUTY OF OLD AGE.

" I am one of th. so—and I believe my taste has been
shared with some of the finest painters the world has
ever po.laessed —who have the great :sf admiration fir the
beauty of old age.
" The beauty of old age is perhaps more rare than
that of any ether time of life—l mean fewer tvta'n to
the beauty which adorns t'le hoary head; but when it is
possessed, it iv the most noble or the most lovely, because
it is the most truly spiritual and most truly moral of all
beauty. Other beauty, though probably in a great
degree dependent upon, and certainly in a great degree
enhanced by moral qualities, is yet in many respects an
accident of firms ana colours; but the beauty of old age
is the resume of the He of the man. Upon that time-
worn countenance the passions and t'e faulty, the virtues
and the feelings, the tenderness, love, benevolence—or
envy, covetousness, selfishness, and rage, have written
their characters in ineffaceable lines; and beautiful it is
to see, as we often do see, faces actually plain to ugli-
ness in their youth, gradually expanding into beauty
under the influence of goodness, tease, and worth; the
eye brightening into a serene clearness; the lines of the
countenance assuming a heavenly refinement and repose;
the whole face glorified with a sweetness and loveliness
not of this world. As it is the reverse—and alas!
Ear more fiequently—when the lovely features that de-
light us in youth gradually lose their charm, as the in-
sipidity of vanity, the scowl of disappointment, the
dulness of vacuity, the sharp thin lines of vicious excite-
ment, or the grosser ones of sensual enjoyment, gtalu-
ally obscure what once was.
" My old lady belonged to the class I have first spoken
cf Whether she had been a beauty or not in her youth
1 never inquired, but she was indeed beautiful now. She
had been a large fair woman once, and of stature rather
above t,,e common size; but now her form aas bent
with age and with sorrow—for it was plain she had
known sorrow. What child
.of man, who possesses a
feeling heart, attains her age without much sorrow?
But whilst those traces of frail humanity were observ-
able in both her form and face, the same form and face
revealed how well that sorrow had been endured—how
well the fiery strife which leaves its scars upon life's
toil-;yarn soldier, had been fought. They told how calm
Lad been the courage—how noble the resignation—how
serene tie victory; what tenderness bad softened so
much strength—what anguish endured with so much
fortitude; how energy had been combined with compo-
sure—how much goodness, sympathy, and love Lad
dwelt there.

" Her hair was snow white; her ey© clear blue—that
frosty blue of old, age, to me so peculiarly beaufful;
her skin, so delicately fair, adorned the wrinkles of her
face. This, it may to said, is almost the only accidental
auty of colour which remains to old age, rind she pos-
sessed it. Her thin withered lips bore an air of inde-
tcribable swce ncss and kindness, relieved from insipi-
dity by that expression of acuteness—fan—malice—
which produces so combinei, in an aged face, some thing
of the same pleasurable effect as when seen in a clover

little child.
" She was dressed in black silk, with a white satin
quilted bonnet, and a white cloak. She was sitting upon
the raised turf, under a magnificent tree, with her ivory-
headed ebony staff lying beside her, surrounded by the
children."
Flavia's cousin and disappointed lover, Lord George
Tempest, is happily described, his proud imperious
temper redeemed by exceeding goodness of heart. At
the commencement of the tale the mother of Harry
and Caroline is living, a delicate affectionate woman,
whose influences in some degree, perhaps, moderates
her husband's faults.. After her death the vain and
showy Miss Eliza Emerson becomes Mrs. Wilming-
ton, and encouraged by her example and advice Mr.
Wilmington rapidly pursues the road to ruin. The
first portion of the history of ,‘ The Wilmingtons" is
chiefly occupied with the love story of Flavia and her
rival suitors, Lord George and Henry Wilmington.
Caroline is beloved by Albert Selwyn, a
youth of large • fortune and delicate health,
whose death forms an important incident in the
narrative. We must refer our readers to the pages
of " The Wilmingtons" to learn how Mr. Wilming-
ton's profuse expenditure and improvident specula-
tions made him gladly avail himself of a ddubtful
permission, on the part of en old friend in India
(Mr. Craiglethorpe, the uncle of Selwyn), to invest
that friend's money in some of his own schemes;
how the failure of those eckemes caused Mr. Wil-
mington actually to rejoice is the reported death of
one who had once been very dear to him; and how,
on the supposed dead man's appearance in England,
his individuality is stoutly denied by the unscrupu-
lous Mrs. Wilmington, who tells him that
Mr. Craiglethorpe is dad, and himself is
an impostor. We will briefly mention that a codicil
to Selwyn's will is forged be the wretched Wilming-
ton, of which crime Harry it accused, and is in con-
sequence condemned to dealt. Very skilfully has
the story been constructed, oo as to show, and in a
most natural and likely mamer, how gradually and
easily the man who once abandons himself to any
vice, however seemingly hurdles, will be led on Co
ruin in the widest significatbe of the term. For this
moral lesson which it teaches, a lesson greatly needed
in the present day, " The Wlmingtons" is worthy of
all commendation. The grxeful peculiarities of its
writer are visible throughort. The only weakness
we notice, in the work is a deficiency
in that passionate intensity se remarkable in " Mor-
daunt Hail." That story vas one to move the
hearts of all who read it, whereas "The Wilmingtons,"
sads
trabmvluleutaaenpthrdaetoce:broulringeteealcislinitleaouxat deeply interesting, it in some degree more
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rfterrsturivamebrl.
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tn, (whoseottovlba,
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butable
It
n between
safety, the
and timid
the
wretched fhsriaojetietohnurhnetsoel:ri, fearful of baying that safety with
the life:of his son, is very powerfully depicted. Still
grist,
a every 2 e e t r woulda t
senseo n .
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dl
in-
creased the
coa agl trheoau tergwe mayu safely comascnd The Wilmingtons" to
our readers as being, in
most beautiful and delightiul work.

ROTHERIIITHE.—The Lev. E. Blick, rector, and
the three curates, of St. Mary's, Rotherhithe, have re-
cently been prekented with a tetimonie.l and Bible each,
the subset iptions halving been ollected among the work-
ing classes of jarish, the: desiring to testify their
gratitude for the gn at kindwss Chown by the above
ministers during the dreadful irevalence of cholera.
The Marquis of Donegal lid an interview with Sir
George Grey yesterday at tit Iloroe•ofilee.