The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1869-05-13

A Chapter ON Virtue without limo
GemCR.
BY VICTOR HUGo.
From Hugo's New Novel THE man that
I.auOhs y

more magnificent. She was very tall, too
tall. Her hair was of that shade which
one may call a reddish blonde. She was
plump, fresh, robust, blooming, with in
ordinate audacity and wit. She had eyes
that were only too easily understood
Lover she had none, and Of purity little
more. She walled herself around in her
pride. Men, pshaw : a god, at the least,
only was worthy of her, or a monster
Ii virtue consists in ruggedness, Josiane
was all possible virtue, without innocence.
She had had no adventures through dis
dain Of them but one would not have
offended her by supposing her to have
had them provided they should have been
strange and suitable to.a person like her
self. She cared little for reputation, and
very much for notOriety. TO seem facile
and 10 be unattainabie, here was the
GROWING excellence. Josiane felt herself
majestic and material. Hers was a cum
bersOme beauty. She invaded, rather
than charmed She trampIed upon
hearts. She was earthly. One would
have astonished her as much by showing
her soul in her bosom as by showing her
wings upon her back She discoursed
upon Locke. She had great polish Of
manners. She was suspected Of knowing
Arabic
To be flesh and to be woman are two
things. Where woman is vulnerable
on the side Of pity, for example, which
80 easily becomes love-Josiane was not
Vulnerable. Not that she was insensible.
The old comparison of flesh with marble
Is absolutely false The beauty of flesh
is IN being not marble, it is to palpitate.
to tremble, to blush, to bleed it is to
have frnness without hardness; IT Is to
be white without being cold it is TO have
its starts and it, weaknesses: if i 10 be
life, and marble in death. Flesh of q
certain degree of beauty has almost the
right Of nakedness; it covers itself with
dazzling luster as with vail; he who
might have seen ,Josiane naked would
only have seen this piece Of modelling
through dilating brilliancy of light. She
would willingly have shown herself-to
satyr or eunuch She had a mvtholoei-
cal cOmpOsure. To make of her nudity
corporeal punishment, to elude the
grasp OF Iantalus, would have amused
her. The King made her Duchess. and
Jupiter a Nereid. Double irradiation Of
which the strange splendor Of this crea- /
ture was made up. In admiring her, |
one felt himself becoming a pagan or a
lackey. Her origin was bastardy and the
ocean. She seemed to rise out of the |
foam. The first jet Of her destiny had /
threatened wreck, but in the middle Dor |
ton 1t was regal. She had in her some |
thing OF the wave, of chance, of nobili- |
ty, and Of the tempest. She was learned |
and well-read. Never passion had an |
preached her, and she had gone to the |
bottom of them all. She had distaste
for realizations, and liking for them at
the same time. If she had stabbed her !
self, it would have been, like Lucreta,
afterward. All manner of corruption, |
in fanciful state, was in this virgin. She /
was a possible Astarto in n real Diana |
She was, by the insolence of high birth, !
exasperating and unapproachable. Nev- /
ertheless she might have found it divert I
ing to get up for herself a fall. She /
dwelt, glory III nimbus, with passive |
willingness to come down, and perhaps |
with the curiosity to tumble out of it
She was little heavy for her cloud. Sin |
ming is pleasant. The free and easy
manner of prince gives the privilege of |
the trial, and a ducal person amuses her
self where a citizens wife comes to ruin. |
n.
beauty, by irony, and by brilIiancy, all |
most queen. She had had a moment of
enthusiasm for Louis de Boufiers, who |
broke horseshoe width his fingers. She
regretted that Hercules was dead. She
lived in an indefinable longing for an
ideal lascivious and supreme.
As to morality. Josiane made one think !
of the line in the Epistle to the Pisos-
Desinit IN piscen
The lovely form of a woman ends in a |
hydra.
1t was a noble bust, a splendid bosom.
tremendously heaved by a rovaI heart. \ |
bright, animated look, a countenance /
pure and naughty, and-who knows /
having the water, in the dim and confu- /
sed transparency, prolongation unduIa-
tory, abnormal, perhaps cruel and deform-
ed Virtue superb, ending in vice, amid
the depth of dreams.
With all this a prude.
1t was the fashion.
Remember Elizabeth.
Elizabeth Is type that has ruled in
England for three centuries, the sixteenth.
the seventeenth, and the eighteenth. -
Elizabeth is more than English, she is
Anglican. Hence, the profound respect
of the Episcopal Church for that queen
respect resented by the Catholic Church.
which mixed her up with little excom-
munication. In the mouth of Sixtus V
matchmaking Elizabeth, the maledic-
ton turns out a madrigal Tn qron GER
relic di principe ssa, said he. Mary Stuart.
less occupied with the church question
and more occupied with the woman cues
ton, was little respectful to her sister
Elizabeth, and wrote TO her, the queen TO
the queen, and the coquette to the prude:
our aversion to marriage proceeds
from your not wishing to lose the liberty
yourself of compelling people to make
love to you" Mary Stuart PLAYED with
a fan, and Elizabeth with the axe. I'm
equal match. Again the two were rivals
in literature. Mary Stuart made French
verses; Elizabeth translated Horace
Elizabeth, ugly, decreed herself beauti-
full, loved quatrians and acrostics. caus-
ed the keys Of towns to be presented to
her by Cupids, pinched her lips like the
Italians, and rolled her ewes like the
Spanards, had in her wardrobe three
thousand gowns and toilets, of which
some were costumes of Minerva and Am
phItrlte, esteemed the Irish for the breadth
OF their shoulders. covered her farthin-
gale with tinsel and spangles, dotted on
roses, swore, blasphemed, stamped with
her feet IN anger, struck with her fist her
maids OF honor, sent Dudley to the devil,
beat Chancellor Burleigh, Who wbimper-
ed, the old fool, spit upon Mathew, throt-
tied Hatton, boxed Essex on the ears
showed her thigh to Bassompierre, was a
virgin.
What she did for Bassompierre, the
Queen of Sheba dad done for Solomon.