VOL. XXXIV. GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE. PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY, 1849. No. 1. THE BELLE OF THE OPERA." AN ESSAY UPON WOMAN'S ACCOMPLISHMENT, HER CHARACTER AND HER MISSION. BY JOSEPH R. CHANDLER. [SEE ENGRAVING.] It is not a small thing to be an engaged writer for | ephemeral subjects-must make the fashions of a magazine that has admittance into numerous fami- female dresses a leading and permanent matter of lies, and, by the costliness and adaptation of its deco-thought-must recommend amusements as matters rations, and the general proclivity of its contents, is of life-consideration, and erect the finer arts as an in no small degree the handbook of young females. image of universal worship." A good book, an octavo or quarto, upon sound morals or religious doctrines comes like a wholesome breeze, "stealing and giving odors"-but then, like that breeze, it is only occasional-a current rushing in but rarely, and seldom finding the right object within its healthful influence. But the magazine is the atmosphere in which the inmates dwell; they are constantly within its influence, and their general life, their mental sanative properties become imbued with its qualities: And this is the more important as the influence is commenced at home, and upon the female portion; so that it becomes constantly, permanently, and extensively operative upon, and through others. The writers for this magazine seem to have been impressed with this idea of these consequences, and hence the importance of their contributions; or the editor has been exceedingly careful in his winnow ing, to allow nothing to pass the sieve that might be productive of evil in the field which he is called to cultivate. The writer of this article is deeply impressed with the importance of his position, and the danger of an error. A magazine that is devoted to taste, the arts and the fashions, it would seem, from the opinions of some, must be in a great degree light, and in no degree instructive, save in the very subject of taste, fashion and the arts, to which it is ostensibly devoted, and according to the general acceptation of the words, taste and fashion, and the ordinary uses to which the arts are applied. "A magazine, then, of polite literature, of the arts and fashions, must be for the day-must treat of We say plainly that we differ from those who make this estimate of periodical literature. We cannot consent to such a degrading standard for the monthly press-we certainly will not submit ourselves or our pen to this shortening process of the Procrustean bed of literature-we will do what we can to keep "Graham's Magazine" from such debasement-we will do it for the long established character of the periodical, and for what we think it capable of-we will do it for our own credit-and, most of all, we will do it for the good of that large portion of society to which this magazine supplies the mental pabulum. When we furnish forth the table of those who look to our catering, we will take care that there shall be no poison in the ingredients, no "death in the pot." But in a secular magazine there must be light reading-all, or nearly all, the contents must be of a kind addressed to the fancy as well as the understanding-and consequently of a character to excite the censure, or at least forbid the approach, of the ascetic. Nay, it must greatly differ from the class of periodical literature devoted to, and sustained upon sectarian religious grounds. The task, the labor of the magazine editor is to sustain the high moral tone of his work, and yet have it the vehicle of fashion, taste and the arts-to take the pure, the good, and the beneficial, and give to them attractions for the young and gay-or, to take that which is attractive for the young and the gay, and make it the vehicle of high moral truth-of sober, solid reflection, the means of heart-improvement, and the promoter of home joys-to overlay the book with gold, and with sculptured cherubim, and all the magnificence of taste and ingenuity-but to be sure that within | forms of things so unknown,) and marked upon all are the prophet's rod-the shew-bread of the altarand the written law of truth. Our sense of the duty of a magazine writer of the present time, is rather hinted at than set forth in the above remarks. The subject is one that might command the pages of a volume, and if properly handled would be made eminently useful to writers and to readers. Our attention was awakened to the subject by an examination of the exquisitely executed picture of "THE BELLE OF THE OPERA," with which that accomplished artist, W. E. Tucker, has enriched the present number of this Magazine. We do not know that he who drew the figure had such a thought in his head as the improvement of magazine literature; and it is probable that Tucker when he exhausted the powers of engraving, or almost all its powers, to produce the figure, was impressed rather with the importance of his contribution to the artistic importance of periodicals, than to the high moral influence which he was aiding to promote. But true genius, wherever exercised, is suggestive-and the beautifully drawn figure is as promotive of useful reflection as the best composed essay. Hence the fine arts and literature are allied-allied in their elevating influence upon the possessors, and their power of meliorating and improving the minds of the uninitiated. Hence they go hand in hand in the path of usefulness-hence they are united in this Magazine. The Belle of the Opera! Will the reader turn back once more and look at the picture? How full of lifehow much of thought-how self-possessed-how desirable for the possession of others--how conscious of charms-and yet how charmed with the tasteful objects represented. The Belle of the Opera! To be that--to be "the observed of all observers," in a house crowded with objects for observation, to be made preeminent by exceeding beauty is "no small thing." It must be costly—it must demand large contributions from other portions of the possesor of the proud object. If acres went to enrich the dress of the ancient nobility of England, something as desirable and as essential to the possessor, as those acres were to the British nobility, must have been sacrificed to perfect the attractions of the Belle of the Opera. Were they social duties? were they domestic affections? were they the means of womanly usefulness? of healthful and almost holy operation upon the minds of others? were they prospective or present? is present moderate but growing happiness sacrificed, or is the present enjoyment of distinction so great as to balance all of immediate loss, and to make the sacrifice that of future peace, future happiness, future domestic usefulness, future social consequence, all that makes mature womanhood delightful, all that makes age respectable and lovely? Such reflections and such pregnant queries arise in the mind, when we contemplate the representation of such loveliness, so displayed. (I might say such loveliness displayed, for the representation is loveliness itself.) And the moralist has taken just such a beauty, (if his mind ever "bodied forth" the the display "vanity and vexation of spirit”—the very display, and especially the place of the display, warranting the conclusion. We confess that we have looked at The Belle of the Opera until our mind has arrived at other conclusions. We think it fair to conclude that so lovely a face, and such a majestic form, are at least prima facia evidence of an elevated and beautiful mind, and that the enjoyment of opera music, nowhere to be enjoyed but at the opera, is by no means inconsistent with that elevation or that beauty. Music, that constitutes half our worship on earth, and all in heaven, shall that be regarded in itself as a sin or a means of degradation? "But the display of the person, the vanity of the dress, the folly of the personal exhibition, these are against the character and usefulness of the Belle-" How so? There is certainly no improper diminution of dress. The most that can be said is, that a beautiful woman, beautifully dressed, is sitting in the front seat of an opera-box, surrounded by hundreds of persons of both sexes, who have come with the same ostensible object, and who sit equally exposed. But it is the exceeding beauty of the person and the elegance of the dress that make her conspicuous; and it is that conspicuousness which constitutes the ground of censure. But fortunately The Belle of the Opera did not make herself beautiful. Those elegant proportions, those enticing charms, are the gift of Him who made human beings in his own image; and let it be confessed that half the elegance of the dress is attributable to the elegance of the form which it covers, and the exquisite beauty which it is not intended to conceal. Beauty is a gift-a gift of God-like all personal or mental endowments, dangerous, it is confessed-but, like all, to be used for personal gratification and the promotion of social advantage. If it is conceded to be a means of mental melioration to dwell among the beauties of artistic skill and lofty architectural efforts, then surely it must be still more advantageous to be reared within the influence of living charms; "to grow familiar day by day" with features and forms that constitute models for the representation of angels, and to pass onward through life with the sense of seeing constantly improved and gratified with objects of exquisite beauty exquisitely clothed. This is viewing The Belle of the Opera with an artist's eye. "But," the moralist will say, "the high office of woman is vacated by such a sacrifice to display, and such a devotion of time to amusement. That The Belle of the Opera can never be The Bonne of the Nursery, and therefore woman is out of her place when out of such an exercise of her faculties as shall minister directly to domestic advantage." We take issue with the moralist on this question of the direct application of female faculties; and we do this because we feel that the narrow bigotry of the unenlightened, which leads them to condemn the elegant enjoyments of life, and to ground their condemnation on the demand which is constant upon human beings, "to do good and to communicate," is founded on a want of a full appreciation of female powers, and a mistake as to what constitutes these, and their means of usefulness. There will be no space for a discussion of the measure of female duties, though it is intended to enter upon such a discussion hereafter; but we may say that however extensive or however limited they may be, their discharge will be more or less effectual and complete, as she is qualified by the elegance of education, the improvement of her mind, the cultivation and adaptation of her faculties, to impart to others the graces of life, and to fix them by constant example. Virtue is embraced for its charms-it is not admired for deformity or its negligence of mind; it has its attractions and its means of compensation, as much as has vice-but they are not always as obvious. The young must be made to trust in the results of a virtuous course; they must have their faith fixed by the graces of parental, of maternal precept | and example-and this good cannot be hoped for if the mother is incapable of attracting, if she has not the means of charming-if, indeed, she cannot show that what constitute the pleasures of life (pleasures which in excess become crimes) are, while properly enjoyed, wholesome and advantageous, and at the same time can show the line of demarcation between their uses and their abuses. She must know what are the true accomplishments of life-she must understand the influence of refinement and cultivation on the mind-and she must bring herself to apply all these. She must know the difference, too, between the uses and the abuses of cultivated talents, and she must learn to discriminate. She who would deny to the young the coltivation of talents, musical, literary or artistic, is like the beings who would pile up the snows of winter, that the accumulated heap might prevent the budding and the blossoming of spring; while she who would force the mind of her child to an unnatural development of merely ornamental faculties, is like one who would concentrate the rays of the sun through a burning-glass, in order to accelerate the growth of a delicate plant. What we mean to assert is the obvious fact, that the female, the mother, cannot discharge the high responsibilities of her sex, without many of those acquisitions which are condemned as worthless in themselves, and perhaps the condemnation is in some measure correct; that is, the acquisition separately considered may be rather injurious than beneficial. Music itself, if it be the only or the principal attainment of a woman, must be valuable only as a means of obtaining money or fame. So of dancing so of painting-so of poetry, that divine gift-each one of these, allowed to become predominant, loses its meliorating influence, and devotes the possessor to a solitary enjoyment, or, at most, assists her in acquiring notoriety and a living. It is our intention to laud the cultivation of tastes only as parts of the meliorating means of woman's character-the acquisition or rather the improvement of ingredients to fit her for that office of delicate influence for which God evidently designed her. Her personal beauty may be a part of the means of her wholesome domestic influence-her love of, and attainments in, music, her improvement in drawing, her literary gifts and acquirements all go, when all are mingled, to give to her consequence and usefulness in the nursery, and to make her beloved and beneficially influential in the domestic circle, and to add attraction to her charms in social life. There is no incompatibility between all these acquisitions with great personal beauty, between a sense of that beauty, indeed, and the entire fulfillment of all domestic and social duties, that are likely to be devolved on one thus highly endowed, thus qualified by extensive attainments. The Belle of the Opera is at a place of refined amusement, where the richest productions of musical science are properly delivered. She is dressed to suit her own means and the place which she occupies. There is as much propriety in the proper presentation of her charms, as in the appropriate delivery of the music. The place itself is one of enlarged social intercourse. Elegant attire is the requisite of the place, and is due from the female (who has it) to him who incurs the expense of the visitation, and receives the honor of her company. "But she is admired in her display; her dress, her form, the beauty of her face, attract marked attention. She is the object of general observation." And why not? Is it inconsistent with good taste to admire beauty? Is not the whole opera a place where the taste is to be improved and gratified? Is it music alone that is to be relished? When went forth the decree from morals or religion that beauty female beauty-should not be adorned? And to be adorned it must be seen. Let us not hear the platitudes about the worthlessness of beauty; it is not worthless-it is of high price-of exceeding worth of extensive usefulness; and, appropriately displayed, its influence is humanizing, tranquilizing, and every way beneficial. To personal charms The Belle of the Opera adds a cultivated taste for music-a taste which she indulges at the fountain-head of such enjoyments. But does she less, on that account, or rather on these accounts, (beauty and musical taste, namely,) fulfill her mission at home? Does the lesson of virtue which the accomplished mother gives to her young child, fall less impressively on the heart because the infant pupil, in looking upward, gazes into a face replete with all of earthly beauty? Is there not a certain coincidence between the looks of his beloved teacher and the excellence of her delightful instruction? or rather, does not her be uty tend to make these lessons delightful? And if the charm for the child is the morning or evening hymn, does not the sacred simplicity of the text drop with extraordinary unction on the ear, if conveyed in the rich melody of a cultivated voice. I might thus enumerate all the high attainments, and show how each becomes useful; but it is enough to have it understood, that the true, the great value of all these high gifts and extraordinary cultivation is derived from their influence, when combined, to form the character of the possessor. The Belle of the Opera is also The Belle of the Ball-room. The same variety of characteristics, without a necessity for the same attainment, marks each, and both are liable to be set down by a superficial observer, as destitute of any qualities, except those which distinguish them in the places of amusement. May not the Belle of the Opera, or the Belle of the Ball-room, be the guardian genius of the sick chamber, the faithful, devoted director of the nursery? I knew The Belle of the Opera, and she was as fond of the dance as of the song, and shared in both in the social circle, and enjoyed them in others in more public displays. Her buoyant spirits, her happy gayety of disposition, made her the marked object of admiration in all parties in which she shared-the first to propose that in which all could gracefully and appropriately join, and the last to propound a thought that could cast a gloom over the countenance of a single being around her. She seemed so much the spirit of the joyous assembly, that serious thought, deepth of feeling, or firm principles of good, were not suspected by those incapable of looking into the heart. The Belle of the Opera was deemed by such, one set apart for the enjoyment of the opera and the dance, and to be without life when without these means of life's pleasures; to have no sympathy with her kind, excepting through music and display, and to reckon none among her intimates but the light-hearted and the gay. Men may be thus exclusive, but women are not. Returning one night from opera or route, the Belle entered her parlor wearied with, but not tired of the pleasure in which she had shared, when suddenly a cry of distress was heard; it was caused by the appearance of a case of small-pox in a neighboring house. At once the Belle changed her dress, and was at the bed of the sufferer. "But, madam, have you had the small-pox ?" "But evidently not well. I will tarry and assist until she be removed, or some change take place." The change took place after a few days, and the Belle of the Opera carefully wrapped the body of the deceased in its grave-clothes, and having committed it to a coffin, she went to purify herself, give thanks for her preservation, and to enjoy again the fine arts which she so much admired. The pleasant laugh could at times, and did, give place to tears of sorrow or of sympathy; and the appearance of indifference would promptly yield, when thoughtlessly or wickedly some sentiment opposed to strict morality, would drop from the lip of a companion. Never did hours of gayety tend to moments of unkindness, or the full enjoyment of the abundance to which all were happy to contribute, obliterate a sentiment of gratitude toward those whose earlier kindness might have assisted to prepare for that enjoyment. Beneath the exterior of frequent devotion to admissible pleasure, there was a depth of feeling and a soundness of principle that sustained themselves in all circumstances, and exhibited themselves whereever their exercise was requisite, that were seen, indeed, influencing even in the midst of gayety, and throwing a charm around that freedom of conversation in which those of well-regulated minds may indulge. The virtues of The Belle of the Opera are not sudden, fitful, dependent upon excited feelings-they are constant, influencing, ruling. They appear in private conversations, they are manifest in delicate forbearance toward the errors of others, they exhibit themselves in unwavering attachment to known established principles, and a delicate tolerance of the views of friends; and they are set forth for admiration by the charms of those accomplishments which the world admires, and which that world supposes to be her principal attraction. And that world judges in this case as in most others; it has no interest in the object before it, and it is not concerned to look into the effect of its own judgment upon that object. Ten thousand who saw the late laughter-moving Jefferson upon the stage, supposed that he never moved without laughing himself, and making others laugh. They supposed that he must delight in and be the delight of social life; and as they had nothing to do with his life off the stage, they never cared to correct their judgment—they never knew that the most pleasant of all comedians was fond of solitude, loved the quiet silence of angling-and was a prey to melancholy. The inward man, the man to himself, the household man, the man of the fireside and social circle, is different from the man abroad, the man professionally, the man to others, and this not from hypocrisy, not from a difference of character throughout, but simply because the many who judge see only one phaze, and one, indeed, is all that is exhibited, all that is required to fill up the part in which the many know the man. But justly to judge, and fairly to decide, we must see the whole man, we must know how all his relations are sustained; we must see how he discharges the high, solemn duties of his life, and carries the influence of that discharge into minor relations. We must understand how much of himself, his better self, he gives to the amusements and light enjoyments of life, and how much he brings from them to influence his conduct elsewhere; or, if weak, how much of himself he leaves in scenes where artistic taste only is exercised; how much he sacrifices of himself to mere gratification-a burntoffering never to be recalled. And here we reach a point toward which we have attempted to steer; we mean the fullness of character, the entire inward person-the meeting-the combination-the fusion, indeed, of all those properties and qualities of the mind, by a well-directed education; the balancing of the varions propensities and gifts by the skillful hand of instruction, so that 5 no appetite, natural or acquired, shall have an undue | each other, or exercise mutual influences, and each is predominancy, or serve to constitute the distin- less of itself by the qualities which it derives from guishing characteristic of the possessor. the attraction of her personal charms, if less gorgeously others. The Belle of the Opera gave to her own fireside accompanied, still the more directly effective. The adventitious aid of ornaments, that was a sacrifice to public taste, was not required; and these charms gathered a circle which the exercise of mental accomplishments retained; and thus all within their influence derived the advantage which association with high gifts and large attainments necessarily impart, and the home was made gladsome by those charms which are attractive to their like, and compensating to their admirers. The Belle of the Opera, we have already said, brought to the place of amusements only the charms which God has bestowed and cultivated taste has well set off. She did not elect herself as The Belle of the Opera; she did not inaugurate herself as "the observed of all observers." Such results, though made probable by the charms of her person, and promoted by the opportunities afforded by the indulgence of a high order of talents, was, nevertheless, the work of the admiring many, who felt and acknowledged the charms of person thus displayed, and at once rendered to them the kind of homage which their excellence and position seemed to suggest. They, the multitude, judged in part, judged by what they saw, and what they imagined—and deified the woman with the appellation of "Belle of the Opera ;" it was all the attribute they had to bestow; they felt an influence that they did not comprehend; and not knowing of the charms concealed, that made effective what they saw, they gave to the visible and the ostensible, the regard which was only due to the concealed and the influencing, as the shepherds of old saw with admiration and delight the fiery part of the stars of the firmament in all their loveliness, and feeling an influence from the celestial display, adored the hosts of heaven for their beauty and their use, forgetful or ignorant of the power that made them seem beautiful-uninstructed in all the relations of those orbs by which their beauty and their usefulness are secured. We have taken the reader to one scene, in which The Belle of the Opera showed how little the accomplishment of person, and the cultivation of taste had disturbed the feelings of humanity; and yet we confess, that such an example standing alone, seems to be a contradiction, or a sort of accidental effort, rather the result of impulse, rather dependent upon caprice or individual affection, than to be regarded as illustrative of, or consistent with, the ruling characteristics. We are speaking now of a whole character-and a character cannot be judged of by one strong propensity on one hand, and one great but contradictory act on the other. display of that science at home, meliorated the manThe attainment of the science of music, and the whose taste was elevated, and whose talents were ners of the inmates, and invited to association those of a kind to sustain and appreciate high cultivation; and beyond the parlor these extended even to the nursery, or rather the nursery, by their exercise, was transferred to the parlor. That is what The Belle of the Opera understood by making all her accomplishments subservient to her duties as wife and mother. The mind of the child, by this constant intercourse with the gifted and the improved, became expanded, received character from the atmosphere in which it was placed, derived pleasure from the development which it witnessed, and had its habits formed to those graces which, in others, are only extraordinary results of extraordinary means, distinguishing the possessor only by one quality or attainment, making her The Belle of the Opera alone. and the accomplished, which infuses into their chaIt is this association of the young with the beautiful racter, and fixes there those meliorating influences that constitute the charm of life, ruling, modifying, illustrating their whole character, making it whole, harmonious, consistent. It must be understood that The Belle of the Opera the harp, she understood music as a science, and was was not a mere pianist, not a mere strummer upon therefore capable of conversing upon the subject as well as playing upon an instrument. This power of conversation, resting upon a deep knowledge of subIs the character of The Belle of the Opera com- is worthy of remark, that gossip, even among the jects, is the secret and charm of association; and it plete? Is the distance between the lustre and dis-elevated, soon wearies; and what is more remarkplay of the opera-box, and the devotion to the loath-able, it is wearisome and disgusting to children comsomeness of the small-pox chamber, all occupied with corresponding virtues, and similar graces mingling, shading, combining, perfecting? If the great offices of the woman's life, (we are speaking now of the Belle as a woman, looking at her higher vocation,) if all these offices are well discharged, if as mother, wife, as friend and neighbor, she stand unEminently did The Belle of the Opera comprehend impeachable; if she is as notable in all these rela-entertainment in her house was not a mere exercise that truth, and practice upon it; hence a musical tions as in the opera-box, still we want to inquire of vocal powers, or a fearful attack upon the pianowhat is the influence exercised upon all these rela-keys. Music was discussed and then performed; tions, by those qualities which made her The Belle of the Opera. How stand the opera-box and the nursery related? Because in the complete character of a woman are very few isolated qualities; they all bear upon 1* pelled to listen, while conversations or discussions The and music, too, was not alone the theme. |