Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1857-09-25
Eiterarp Selections.
INTERESTING TO LADIES.
PERSONAL BEAUTY-1rs RELATION 70
BY GENIo c. SCOTT.

PERSONAL BEAUTY-ITs RELATION TO
MORAL BEAUTY AND TO ART.
Immediately after the Creation, the
Father of all looked on his work and
saw that it was good. Since sthe Fall
his best children have fondly gazed on
the same, and pronounced it Beautiful
Despite the great calamity, the mark of
Gods finger is still upon US, and upon
the things around us for man, though
he went forth from the presence of his
Maker and Stunned his eye, was never
forsaken by Him,
Now, although Goodness and Beauty
renot synonymous terms, yet in this
essay we shall endeavor to show how in
fmately they are connected. The Pag-
ans represented Psyche, or the Soul, as
jelcately beautiful, with face that al
most seemed to speak, so eloquent was it
which, indeed, could be read, for it
ungized innocence, IoveIiness, and
A5ooks which we now persue merely
gn5olize the thoughts developed in the
souls of the writers, Not so Venus ::
fuller and more lusciously beautiful, she
created merely sensual desire, and in
saired the best Of her worshippers with
az almost inextinguishable yearning to
become, like her, Ioose-zoned and care
less of all higher aspirations. But when
Psyche was born, Cor, in other words,
,he Soul was lighted up pleasure-loying
as the Greeks were, they were not so de-
graded that the could not perceive the
greater worth Of their new acquisition,
and they left the shrine Of Venus, with
Ill it; fascinations, for that Of her inesti-
mable rival. That they returned the
better for their journey, who may deny,
seeing that the children of her worship
pers became the philosophers of Greece,
the humanizers Rome, and the art-teach-
ers Of the Universe?
Rome, too, embraced external beauty
ere she sought internal. She worshipped
Nenus before she became Christian but
she never forgot her Greek instruction.
Shohdorned her churches, and her sons
sought out the fairiest slaves to wait at
their tables; which love of the beauti-
ao brought Christianity to the Anglo
Saxon. Her merchants brought Anglo
British children for sale at Rome. and
there in the market-place Gregory ad-
mired them, pronouncing those remark
able words, Non Angi sed angeH7'-
mot Angles, but angels.) That they
must have been beautiful who can doubt,
when they called forth such an.exclama-
ton from a Father of the Church-from
one who dwelt in the old metropolis Of
the world, into which all the spoils of
every nation had once been emptied!
That when England became Chris
Jianized she did not decrease in beauty,
is sufficiently evident from many records
winch have come down to us. The
statues which remain of the ladies of the
thirteenth century in their graceful drap-
cries have almost always beautiful faces {;
and the Troubadours Of France. who
perpetually abuse the English, cannot
help calling their women the most fair
Of all earth's angels" Flaxman, too, a
man who prided himself on being classi-
cal, was constrained to praise these mo-
numents of English beauty. But Just
about Elizabeth's reign art in England
persisted for above two hundred years.
A few portrait painters alone remained,
because English beauty could not be
destroyed forever. And in Elizabeth's
reign, too, personal beauty eliminated
IN her great men and women, and with
the wane of art declined loveIines5 of
mind, body and soul.
But the love Of art has again risen in
England, and with it will her sons and
daughters return to the beauty of their
ancestors, for mind naoulds matter. 1t is
the brain Of the potter, and not the hand,
which fashions the beautiful vase; the
hand is the slave-limber Helot of the
graceful Psyche-and is often untrust-
worthy, not carrying out the artists con
ceptlons. It is the fiat Of God which
makes life what It is. Man is only the
Instrument, and be likewise is too often
lnaithfulto his trust.
That is the mind which moulds the
matter, we may easily convince ourselves
oy little ordinary reflection. We walk
mo the city, and there we see anxious
laces-what makes these but business
We meet the crowds leaving an execu-
"on, and in them we behold specimens
vi humanity which almost make US
Eeit9Trl1 NJ II r