LXXXVIII.

But on his reverend brow DESSANTI bore
The impress of a large and generous mind.
Its high bald top the sign celestial wore

Of the strong love that knits man to his kind. (1)
Down to his shoulders hung his tresses hoar ;
And his large open blue eye sweetly shin'd
With the pure spirit, serious yet benign,
Taught by the Virgin's blessed son divine.

LXXXIX.

Most happily the mouth match'd with these features; For its unfaded fullness plainly told,

DESSANTI had not liv'd, as baser natures,

In sensual idleness, and now when old

Enjoy'd those gifts, (of all, that to his creatures

The ALL-GOOD hath given, the best,

before fine gold

Or smiles of kings,) sound health and conscience clean, That color like the rose life's dreariest scene.

XC.

Travel you might from one pole to the other,
From the sun's setting even to his rise,

(1) What phrenology has termed the Organ of Benevolence. Whether it be the sign of the presence of such an organ, or there be of the brain no such portion devoted to this particular sentiment, it is certain that usually in persons of a benevolent turn of mind, the middle of the highest part of the forehead is elevated and finely rounded.

Without perhaps once meeting such another
Nose as the one between DESSANTI's eyes;
Except in FLORENCE, ROME, or in the mother
Of ancient art, or near where VIRGIL lies;
Such noses being often cut in stone,
But rarely met of merely flesh and bone.

XCI.

The rare perfection of its outer line

(Which straight and even from the brow descended) Gave to the face a beauty quite divine,

And even a grandeur that superbly blended
With the magnificent brow, and with the fine
Large eyes and silver hair; a whole so splendid,
It wanted but the beard that suits a saint

To make look dim the best e'er done in paint.

XCII.

His height six feet, his fine form still unbent,
His motion firm, and dignify'd, and slow,
The majesty that with his sweet smile blent,
He look'd a king, or one who should be so ;
For not to kings has Nature always lent
Regality of make or mien I trow,

And one fine fellow, trimly set and jointed,
Is worth a dozen of the Lord's anointed.

ESTELLE..

XCIII.

Thou sweetest flower that ever grew

In the world's waste, man's desolate heart to cheer!

Ah, could I sing thy worth with rapture due,

That all good men the unflatter'd truth might hear!
For thou, sweet spirit, wert of the immortal few
Without whose loveliness this life were drear;
Since, with thy sex's virtues, in thee shone
Whate'er exalts and dignifies our own!

XCIV.

ESTELLE, who did in moral growth surpass
All of her sex that CARRYL yet had seen,
Was taller too in person than the mass
Of women, and in looks a very queen.
'T was strange indeed how very like she was
The SAVOYARD in majesty of mien;

By breeding or example taught, or both;
But more, I think, it was of native growth.

XCV.

Authority, the habit of command,

The meeting everywhere with veneration,
The conscience that no cradle in the land

Is loftier than our own, this pride of station
Gives to the mien an awe that few withstand. (1)
There is besides a grandeur education,

When large, and acting on a liberal nature,

Stamps ineffaceably on every feature.

(1) It is partly this circumstance, perhaps, which, in a less degree, gives the gentility of air that characterizes the women of the UNITED STATES above all others in the world. The freedom of the government, the want of acknowledged social distinctions, aid the

XCVI.

But there is yet a pride of mien, the dower
Of nature. Not confin'd to gentle birth,
It is not always found with rank or power,
But dignifies at times the sons of earth.
Then is the well-turn'd figure seen to tower,
And the high head looks godlike. But when worth
Of soul is added, and the grace of breeding,
You have a majesty of port exceeding

influence of the brilliant climate, and are fast producing such loveliness as will one day rival, if it do not even now, the boasted models of GREECE.* The women of the UNITED STATES are already universally allowed to be the prettiest in the world. They are more. Foreigners see but the surface of society, in the little time they are with us, and generally it is with the wealthier, more fashionable, and politer class they are familiar; but it is in the inferior and middle grades of life that the great superiority in feminine beauty of AMERICA Over all other countries is to be found. Distinguished by an exceeding gracefulness of person, by a rare perfection of feature, by fine and lustrous hair, dressed with peculiar taste, and by a step that almost rivals the gait of the women of SPAIN, the American grisette is born the lady; it is only her conversation and her manners that would tell you she is not so bred. The most beautiful face I have ever seen belonged to a market girl of PERUGIA in ITALY, the finest form was that of a servant-maid at PAU in FRANCE (the birthplace, by the by, of that connaisseur in women, the fourth and great HENRY); but for the greatest number of merely personal charms united, figure, feature, grace, expression, and in the greatest number of persons, commend me to the matchless maids of AMERICA.

It is remarkable that the female children born in AMERICA of Irish emigrants (who are almost invariably, in respect of features, person, mien, and carriage, grossly vulgar and ill favored, to an extent that to the native popula tion has something in it ludicrous and extravagant) grow up handsome, wellformed, and graceful, and conspicuous, frequently in no little degree, for that very air of which we speak above.

XCVII.

All that the ermin'd robe or crown of gold
Confers on monarchs or their titled train.
And such did CARRYL in ESTELLE behold:
A dignity of one not proud or vain,
(Though spirited, the maid was never bold,
And Reason more than Fancy sway'd her brain,)
But one whose soul, undimm'd by guilt or shame,
Made even more bright the vase where burn'd its flame.

XCVIII.

Straight as the nut-tree which our forests bear,
And rounded as its trunk her delicate waist,
Her form, in symmetry, might well compare
With any model of Hellenic taste.

Not that sweet figure, of expression rare,
Wrought by CANOVA, and in FORLI plac'd,
That sportive rests amid the dance's whirl, (1)
In gracefulness might match my orphan girl.

XCIX.

Her taper limbs, the shoulders' matchless fall,
The hollow back, and high expanded chest,

(1) That one of the three famous dancing girls which was made for MANZONI, who removed it to FORLI. The reader may see an elegant engraving of it, in the first volume of a work published in London in 1832, entitled Illustrations of Modern Sculpture.