What Great Men Have Said About Women Part 10

She walked on with a light and free step, so little suggestive of the burden of life that it might easily be seen that she was young.

Her movements possessed that subtle grace which indicates the most delicate of all transitions--the soft intermingling, as it-were, of two twilights,--the pa.s.sage from the condition of a child to that of womanhood.--_Toilers of the Sea._

She had never been pretty, but her whole life, which had been but a succession of pious works, had eventually cast over her a species of whiteness and brightness, and in growing older she had acquired what may be called the beauty of goodness. What had been thinness in her youth had became in her maturity transparency, and through this transparency the angel could be seen.--_Les Miserables._

A ray of happiness was visible upon her face. Never had she appeared more beautiful. Her features were remarkable for prettiness rather than what is called beauty. Their fault, if fault it be, lay in a certain excess of grace.... The ideal virgin is the transfiguration of a face like this. Deruchette, touched by her sorrow and love, seemed to have caught that higher and more holy expression. It was the difference between the field daisy and the lily.--_Toilers of the Sea._

The glance of a woman resembles certain wheels which are apparently gentle but are formidable.... You come, you go, you dream, you speak, you laugh, and all in a minute you feel yourself caught, and it is all over with you. The wheel holds you, the glance has caught you.--_Les Miserables._

She had listened to nothing, but mothers hear certain things without listening.--_Ninety-Three._

She was really a respectable, firm, equitable, and just person, full of that charity which consists in giving, but not possessing to the same extent the charity which comprehends and pardons.--_Les Miserables._

She seemed a vision scarcely embodied; ... in her fairness, which amounted almost to serenity of her look; ... in the sacred innocence of her smile, she was almost an angel, and yet just a woman.--_By Order of the King._

The girl becomes a maiden, fresh and joyous as the lark. Noting her movements, we feel as if it were good of her not to fly away. The dear familiar companion moves at her own sweet will about the house; flits from branch to branch, or rather from room to room; goes to and fro; approaches and retires.... She asks a question and is answered; is asked something in return, and chirps a reply. It is delightful to chat with her when tired of serious talk; for this creature carries with her something of her skyey element. She is, as it were, a thread of gold interwoven with your sombre thoughts; you feel almost grateful to her for her kindness in not making herself invisible, when it would be so easy for her to be even impalpable; for the beautiful is a necessity of life. There is in the world no function more important than that of being charming.... To shed joy around, to radiate happiness, to cast light upon dark days, to be the golden thread of our destiny, and the very spirit of grace and harmony, is not this to render a service?--_Toilers of the Sea._

She scarcely knew, perhaps, the meaning of the word love, and yet not unwillingly ensnared those about her in the toils.--_Toilers of the Sea._

She stopped. She walked back a few paces, stopped again; she inclined her head, with those thoughtful eyes which look attentive yet see nothing.... Her lowered eyelids had that vague contraction which suggests a tear checked in its course, or a thought suppressed.... Her face, which might inspire adoration, seemed meditative, like portraits of the Virgin.--_Toilers of the Sea._

She broke the bread into two fragments, and gave them to the children, who ate with avidity. "She has kept none for herself,"

grumbled the sergeant. "Because she is not hungry," said a soldier.

"Because she is a mother," said the sergeant.--_Ninety-Three._

Extreme simplicity touches on extreme coquetry.... They did not speak, they did not bow, they did not know each other, but they met; and like the stars in the heavens, they lived by looking at each other. It was thus that she gradually became a woman, and was developed into a beautiful and loving woman, conscious of her beauty and ignorant of her love. She was a coquette into the bargain, through her innocence.--_Les Miserables._

Does not beauty confer a benefit upon us, even by the simple fact of being beautiful?--Here and there we meet with one who possesses that fairy-like power of enchanting all about her; sometimes she is ignorant herself of this magical influence, which is, however, for that reason only the more perfect. Her presence lights up the home; her approach is like cheerful warmth; she pa.s.ses by, and we are content; she stays awhile, and we are happy.--_Toilers of the Sea._

To behold her is to live; she is the Aurora with a human face. She has no need to do more than simply to be, she makes an Eden of the house; Paradise breathes from her: and she communicates this delight to all, without taking any greater trouble than that of existing beside them. Is it not a thing divine to have a smile which, none know how, has the power to lighten the weight of that enormous chain which all the living, in common, drag behind them?--_Toilers of the Sea._

On the day when a woman who pa.s.ses before you emits light as she walks you are lost, for you love. You have from that moment but one thing to do: think of her so intently that she will be compelled to think of you.--_Les Miserables._

The soul only needs to see a smile in a white crepe bonnet in order to enter the palace of dreams.--_Les Miserables._

She had upon her lips almost the light of a smile, with the fulness of tears in her eyes.... The reflection of an angel was in her look.--_Toilers of the Sea._

ROBERT BROWNING.

There is a vision in the heart of each Of justice, mercy, wisdom, tenderness To wrong and pain, and knowledge of its cure: And these embodied in a woman's form That best transmits them, pure as first received, From G.o.d above her, to mankind below.

_Colombe's Birthday._

This woman ...

... Being true, devoted, constant--she Found constancy, devotion, truth, the plain And easy commonplace of character.

_The Inn Alb.u.m._

... The good and tender heart, Its girl's trust and its woman's constancy, How pure yet pa.s.sionate, how calm yet kind, How grave yet joyous, how reserved yet free As light where friends are--how imbued with lore The world most prizes, yet the simplest.

Herself creates The want she means to satisfy.

_A Blot on the 'Scutcheon._

Truly, the woman's way High to lift heart up.

_Agamemnon._

And Michal's face Still wears that quiet and peculiar light Like the dim circlet floating 'round a pearl.

And yet her calm sweet countenance, Though saintly, was not sad; for she would sing Alone ... bird-like, Not dreaming you were near.--Her carols dropt In flakes through that old leafy bower.

_Paracelsus._

... Such a lady, cheeks so round and lips so red,-- On her neck the small face buoyant like a bell-flower on its bed.

_Lyric._

There's a woman like a dew-drop, she's so purer than the purest; And her n.o.ble heart's the n.o.blest, yes, and her sure faith's the surest; And her eyes are dark and humid, like the depth on depth of l.u.s.tre Hid i' the harebell, while her tresses, sunnier than the wild-grape cl.u.s.ter, Gush in golden-tinted plenty down her neck's rose-misted marble; Then her voice's music ... call it the well's bubbling, the bird's warble!

_A Blot on the 'Scutcheon._

How twinks thine eye, my Love, Blue as yon star-beam.

_Ferishtah's Fancies._

That flower-like love of hers; * * * * *

She was true--she only of them all!

True to her eyes, ... those glorious eyes.

With truth and purity go other gifts.

All gifts come cl.u.s.tering to that.

_The Return of the Druses._