Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-08-12

nKely TO be repetition of another
Venus, also the work of this artist.
mentioned Pliny.
| There; you will hear no more from
me about the origin of the Immortality
beautiful marble creature who en-
chants the world in the gallery at
Florence. That she is unapproachable
and divine-so far as sublunary things
can be-we all know. In the Greater
Hlpplas' Socrates Is made to saw. that
as beautiful vase is inferior to a beam
tlful horse, and as n beautiful horse is
not to be compared with a beautiful
virgin, in the same manner a beautiful
virgin is inferior in beauty to the i'm
mortal gods. For saws he, there
Is beauty lncorruptible, ever the
same. And it is remarkable that
Immediately afterwards he observes:
'Phldias is skilful in beauty If Phid-
las was so skilled, the claim of
Praxlteles must be as readily admitted.
The syllogism is complete. Perfect
beauty is divine; the Venus de- Medici
Is perfectly beautiful; therefore the
Venus de- Medici is divin-
ity. ls anything more required? Not
so, | avow, to convince me. but am
bound to own that the first time [ ever
went to Florence and gazed upon La
Venus de- Medici, l was accompanied
by lady who, being very cookbook
ing herself, L have always deemed n
competent judge of female comeliness
in statues and pictures at least: for
one can scarcely be jealous of marble
or canvas. What do you think was my
companions opinion of the statue
which enchants the world? She com
menced by stigmatising As affected
rubbish the simple act of reverence I
had performed in lifting my hat when
l entered the Tribune and stood be-
fore the Queen of Love Then she
went on thus: "a little, simpering,
stunted, narrow-chested thing, with
large hands, and a stoop, and who
doesn't know how to stand properly;
with head too small and waist too
large; and, in short, with nothing in
| her: that I can see, at least my COM
panion concluded, tossing her head,
and dismlssing the Venus de- Medici
with tiout of her parasol, for ever.
The criticism cut me to the heart. 1t
was crueller to me than even the stri-
dent remark of Mrs. Melancthon Il.
CommunIpsw Hipkins of Vermont, U.
). A, to nor husband, the well-known
| Colonel and Congressman, that "a gal
who'd shin around like that with narrer
n hoop-skirt on her was filter to be a
mermaid than a statue IN Christian
gallery; adding that none of her gals
should see such goings-on if she could
help it. ] met the three Miss Com
munipaw Hipkinses the next day in the
| Uffizij; and 1 am sure, by their gig
| Cling, that they had seen the Venus.
| companion Whose temper was apt to
be violent), / thencefOrth determined
to be silent as to the aesthetic qualities
of the statue which enchants tho world.
Life is so very short, that about the
very worst use to which you can turn
the brief span allotted to yon is to EN-
| ploy any portion of it in quarrelling.
| Other subjects of interest rose to the
surface; and for a length of time l
ceased even to think of the Venus de-
Medici. Judge of my astonishment
! and delight to hear one day that she was
married
Yes; married, pour de bon, as the
| French say, when they come back
from the church and the marie. For
| there are marriages and marriages in
France, and many OF the matrimonial
| "
am afraid, pour de bon. There were
| two whole columns of marriages the
other day in the Times; but it was not
IN that superabounding calendar that /
! Uncovered the announcement of my
| divinity's wedding. 1t was in a faded,
dog's-eared odd number of an Italian
periodical of the last century, called
the GiOrHate EHciciO pedicO; and the
| 70 cot Il ha
ing occurred at Florence during the
reign of Cosmo-I forgot how many
Grand Duke of Tuscany. That mag
nanimous sovereign himself designed
to be present at the Medicean nuptials,
and it was to an illustrious British
nobleman of immense wealth, the
| Right Honorable the Earl of d,
indeed, that the Venus was married. 1t
need scarcely be added that the in
| telligence suffused nv breast with a
sober rapture. Had l read that all the
stories about Nell Gwyn were fibs, and
that Mistress Eleanor was the demurest
of quakeresses and one of the original
foundresses of Sunday schools, or that
| Ninon de PEnclos used to teach de-
pertinent at the school of st. Cyr
and assisted the virtuous Fenelon in
| the composition of IeIeBlague, l
could not have been more gratihed.
| To think of the Venus deMedici b aving
been made an honest woman at last,
and after so many centuries of dis
paragement among the files dc Hlarbre
| of the demi-nlOndel 1t was too charm
ing. 1t was the most poetical OF poet
ical Justice What became of the scandal
mongers and the leasing makers now ?
| Where were the DlauUdiSeS t1ngueS
that whispered those deplorable calum-
MES about poor dear Aphrodite in con-
nection with her first husband-I ad-
NIT a prior alliance-old Mr.. Vulcan
plethorically rich iron-master OF Mer-
| thyr Tydvll, and Lieutenant Colonel
Mars of the Olympisn Guards? How
about that disgraceful piece of gossip to
the effect that young Cupidon of the
Foreign Office was her son, on ne SGUdt
de otteI papa? Who will venture to
DENY now that he was only her nephew,
| and that it was through pure charity
he being a destitute orphan that she
sent HIM to Eton, and made a man of
him? The young rogue behaved very
ungratefully in the end to his kind pa
| troness, and ran away with Miss
/ Sikey. But all these malignant ru-
mors, these tossings of good name
upon tongues, must fade into utter
nothingness in the face of the TACT
vouched for by the GjrOnGle Ehcycto-
Dedico of IL. that in the reign of
Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, La
Signora Aphrodite, Urania, ErycIna,
Calva, Etazia, Basilea, Myrtea-call
her what you will-YEsUs in fine, be-
came the Right Honorable the Countess
of O..
But her costume, 1 hear it urged
her costume; o. rather her want of any
costume at all. That, L can only say,
is no business of mine. Did not the
female correspondent of the Spectator
remind Mr.. Addison, somewhat tartly,
that petticoats were no affair of his? |
l...saEz 4hat ,rhan Klnn Gnnha atua