appreciation will be extended to the gift: which is to
strike not the dazzled eyes, the unanticipating nose, the ribs, the sides, and
stun us, twirl us, hoodwink, mystify, tickle and twitch, by dexterities of
lingual sparring and shuffling, but to strike roots in the mind, the Hesperides
of good things.
    We shall then set a price on the unusual combination. A witty woman is a
treasure; a witty Beauty is a power. Has she actual beauty, actual wit? - not
simply a tidal material beauty that passes current any pretty flippancy or
staggering pretentiousness? Grant the combination, she will appear a veritable
queen of her period, fit for homage; at least meriting a disposition to believe
the best of her, in the teeth of foul rumour; because the well of true wit is
truth itself, the gathering of the precious drops of right reason, wisdom's
lightning; and no soul possessing and dispensing it can justly be a target for
the world, however well armed the world confronting her. Our temporary world,
that Old Credulity and stone-hurling urchin in one, supposes it possible for a
woman to be mentally active up to the point of spiritual clarity and also
fleshly vile; a guide to life and a biter at the fruits of death; both open mind
and hypocrite. It has not yet been taught to appreciate a quality certifying to
sound citizenship as authoritatively as acres of land in fee simple, or coffers
of bonds, shares and stocks, and a more imperishable guarantee. The multitude of
evil reports which it takes for proof, are marshalled against her without
question of the nature of the victim, her temptress beauty being a sufficiently
presumptive delinquent. It does not pretend to know the whole, or naked body of
the facts; it knows enough for its fumy dubiousness; and excepting the
sentimental of men, a rocket-headed horde, ever at the heels of fair faces for
ignition, and up starring away at a hint of tearfulness; - excepting further by
chance a solid champion man, or some generous woman capable of faith in the
pelted solitary of her sex, our temporary world blows direct East on her
shivering person. The scandal is warrant for that; the circumstances of the
scandal emphasize the warrant. And how clever she is! Cleverness is an attribute
of the selecter missionary lieutenants of Satan. We pray to be defended from her
cleverness: she flashes bits of speech that catch men in their unguarded corner.
The wary stuff their ears, the stolid bid her best sayings rebound on her
reputation. Nevertheless the world, as Christian