than Julius Cæsar, who conquered Rome merely to make it his own; or than Napoleon Bonaparte.

A long success in life, which often falls to men who are at the same time skilful and ambitious, generally destroys the simplicity and the hearty honesty of a man. He contemplates the difficulties he has overcome, and he regards himself as a hero; he believes his merit to be beyond that of any one else, and he seeks to reward himself as fully as he can. When he does give way to his ambition he generally ruins himself or the state.

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In private life this endeavour to be a "superior person" is all very well if kept within bounds. Cutting a dash," "astonishing the Browns," or "living for appearances," are all vulgar phrases, but they explain one very vulgar wishthat is, of getting on unfairly beyond others, and of appearing what we really are not. These attempts, begun in bad taste, and fostered by pride, generally end in lamentable failures. When they are failures the man or woman who has failed gets no pity. Simple worth and truth, and a decent respect for himself, will prevent any one from indulging in such silly vanity; and the man or woman who never tries to be what he or she is not, but just exactly what he or she is, will be clothed with a natural and earnest grandeur, and will be, after all, in reality, the "superior person."

CONCERNING BEAUTY.

E most of us desire to be beautiful; and so universal is the desire, that we doubt whether there

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would be even a glorious minority of one" if

the all-giving Jove could, as in the fables of Æsop or Phædrus, give man a choice of two things, beauty or goodness. After beauty, we desire wisdom; yet this is more the desire of man than of woman; for with the latter, even more than the former, beauty is power; and it is perhaps on account of the universal power which beauty gives that it is so largely coveted; for, however saint or ascetic may rail, there is no limit to the effect of beauty on the human mind, nor to the desire to possess, to be near to, to love it. You may see a heavy-browed, wise man, of great fame and learning, speak in a court of justice, and you may hear the impudent barristers browbeat and crossquestion him with an insinuating doubt and a questioning sneer; but let the next witness be called, and let her be a beautiful girl-worthless, perhaps, and stupid—and judge, jury, and counsel for and against, will speak with gentler voices and with admiring looks. Let Socrates come up to

plead before the Greeks, and people will not heed the rugged face and stunted form of the wise man ; but if Cressida trip forward, the sagest counsellors and greatest warriors will listen with a pleased respect, and do her reverence. It is the old, old story of the Judgment of Paris. Power and imperial government, wisdom and martial glory, are pitted against beauty, and beauty wins the day. We do not need any explanation of the ancient fable: we can all of us recognise its truth.

It should follow, if humanity were wise, that a quality so universally desired should be really worth having; yet, inasmuch as it more often brings misery than happiness, it is doubtful whether it be so. Now, whilst it brings not with it happiness, but rather misery, the most beautiful persons in the world having been, almost without exception, not only miserable themselves, but the cause of misery to others, does beauty, the conferrer of power, give wisdom? No; on the contrary, as the prettiest and gayest flowers are scentless, so the prettiest girls and the most handsome men are generally the most stupid of their sex. The reason is very plain : the universal accompaniment of beauty, even from its childhood, is power and success; and the pretty child (girl or boy) gets kissed and petted, toyed with, spoiled, and deferred to. It may be all very well for plain Miss Smith, that she is born to be a governess, to work hard, and to study, and to become accomplished; but it is presumed that beautiful Miss Jones, whose fine eyes and complexion cause everybody to look at her, will be sure to marry well. Her face, as the old song

says, is her fortune; and a very ample fortune many have found it to be.

When we come to look closely into the matter, we shall find there has been so much nonsense talked about beauty that it has really become hard to define what it is. The best definition is, that it is perfect harmony of feature; but we often see, more especially among the young, those who have hardly a single fine feature, but who are yet very beautiful. Of course the complexion must be good, and the eyes expressive, but beyond that we hardly need to go. Taken, as we have said, singly, eyes, nose, and mouth are faulty; but together they may have a charming effect, which we have only to look at to acknowledge. It is not, indeed, as Pope has it, when criticising poetry

"A lip or eye that we can beauty call,

But the joint force and full result of all."

Hence it is difficult to express why a face will please, control, and, even more, will charm and captivate us, and yet we all know that it will do so.

It is probably the undefinable quality of beauty that has led philosophical poets and poetical philosophers to believe that only the good are beautiful-a suggestion so far from being accepted that even Mr. Martin Tupper has expressed his opinion on it. "Fairness in the creature," says he, “shall often co-exist with excellence; yet hath many an angel shape been tenanted by fiends;" by which allegorical expression he means to repeat a truism which even a parrot could under

stand—namely, that very beautiful people are often very bad ones. But Spenser puts forward, in a very few words, that inner Platonism which we all believe, or have believed at one time of our lives :

Then comes his peculiar philosophy-not only his, but, as we have said, ours and all the world's :

"For of the soul the body form dothe take,

For soul is form, and doth the body make."

Which is, as our readers will see, very different from Mr. Tupper's assertion, but, transcendentally dealt with, much

more true.

Until we are actually convinced by sad experience that a very handsome man may be a rogue, and a very beautiful woman something worse, we are all Platonists. Shakspeare makes Othello so admire beauty in Desdemona that he questions and wonders that wickedness can for a moment dwell in so fair a form. Distinct from him in genius, in sex, in time, Hannah More, an eminently pious woman, believes that "beauty is goodness," and that, where it is not, "goodness heightens beauty;" and a learned but very prosy professor confesses that he has come to the conclusion, “that if man or woman wishes to realize the full power of personal