The human body often serves as a lie detector. It utterly rejects not only all unmeaning pomp, but all low cant phrases and loose, unconnected, slipshod allusions. It is to take not the first word that offers, but the best word in common use.
Sophisticated people profess to believe that virtue and beauty are unrelated.
They and their more naive friends, however, are doubly shocked when they hear that a vicious crime has been committed by an angelic-countenanced youth. Since it is easier to evaluate objectively something that is present in a known amount, many people in pursuit of justice tend to attach a numerical index to everything in order to judge its worth. The manners of that period were plain and fierce. Luxury was not known, nor was elegance. Many prominent people tell us that the days they spent struggling for success were the happiest in their lives.